Commonwealth v. Oberle (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-037-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC-12149 COMMONWEALTH vs. WILLIAM OBERLE. Norfolk. December 8, 2016. – February 28, 2017. Present: Gants, C.J., Botsford, Lenk, Hines, Gaziano, Lowy, & Budd, JJ. Assault and Battery. Kidnapping. Jury and Jurors. Practice, Criminal, Jury and jurors, Challenge to jurors. Evidence, Prior misconduct. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on September 17, 2014. The cases were tried before Raymond J. Brassard, J. The Supreme Judicial Court granted an application for direct appellate review. Merritt Schnipper for the defendant. Michael McGee, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. BOTSFORD, J. The defendant, William Oberle, appeals from three assault and battery convictions, G. L. c. 265, § 13A (a), and a kidnapping conviction, G. L. c. 265, § 26, arising out of an incident of domestic violence. The defendant argues that the trial judge erred in denying his peremptory challenge of a female juror and in admitting prior bad act evidence. We reject both arguments and affirm the judgments of conviction of assault and battery. The defendant also argues that there was insufficient evidence to support his kidnapping conviction. We are unpersuaded, and affirm that conviction. Background. a. Facts. Because the defendant challenges, in part, the sufficiency of the trial evidence, we summarize it in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth. Commonwealth v. Latimore, 378 Mass. 611, 676-677 (1979). The defendant and the victim began a romantic relationship in the summer of 2013. The defendant made the victim feel uncomfortable and insecure, and prevented her from looking at or speaking with others in public. In February, 2014, the victim went to a hospital emergency room with bruising to her ears, face, neck, and arm after the defendant had beaten and strangled her. As he wrapped his hands around her neck during that incident, the defendant told the victim he was going to kill her. The couple soon reconciled and moved together to the home of the defendant’s daughter in Dedham. They occupied a bedroom in the basement of the house, which had a private back door and a shared exit through the first-floor kitchen.[1] Although their relationship briefly stabilized following the move, the defendant’s physical abuse of the victim resumed, and the defendant struck the victim’s face on multiple occasions. The victim struggled with alcohol […]