Commonwealth v. Boyd (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-049-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11998 COMMONWEALTH vs. MICHAEL S. BOYD. Middlesex. January 11, 2016. – April 8, 2016. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ. Firearms. Practice, Criminal, Sentence, Nolle prosequi. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on October 28, 2008. The cases were tried before Sandra L. Hamlin, J., and a motion to correct sentence, filed on May 4, 2014, was heard by her. The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court. James M. Fox for the defendant. KerryAnne Kilcoyne, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Chauncey B. Wood & Timothy St. Lawrence, for Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, amicus curiae, submitted a brief. CORDY, J. The defendant, Michael Boyd, was convicted on counts of an indictment charging two sentencing enhancements, one as a second-time offender, see G. L. c. 269, § 10 (d), and one under the Massachusetts armed career criminal (ACC) statute,[1] see G. L. c. 269, § 10G (c), both premised on an underlying conviction of unlawful possession of a sawed-off shotgun, in violation of G. L. c. 269, § 10 (c). The Commonwealth moved for sentencing consistent with the fifteen- to twenty-year term of imprisonment required by the ACC statute, while the defendant recommended a lesser punishment, also within the range afforded by the ACC statute.[2] See G. L. c. 269, § 10G (c). The defendant was sentenced to a term of from fifteen to seventeen years in State prison on the ACC enhancement and was not sentenced on the second offender enhancement. The defendant appealed from the ACC conviction, arguing that the Commonwealth’s evidence was insufficient to support a sentence enhancement under that provision. In an unpublished memorandum and order pursuant to its rule 1:28, the Appeals Court agreed, reversing the conviction and remanding the case for resentencing. See Commonwealth v. Boyd, 85 Mass. App. Ct. 1106 (2014). The Appeals Court’s decision ostensibly left the defendant with convictions of unlawful possession of a sawed-off shotgun, which carries a sentencing range of from eighteen months to life, see G. L. c. 269, § 10 (a), (c); and the second offender enhancement conviction for the same offense, which carries a mandatory term of imprisonment in State prison of between five and seven years, see G. L. c. 269, § 10 (d). On remand, the case presented a unique circumstance: a statute that […]