Commonwealth v. Weaver (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-104-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-10932 COMMONWEALTH vs. KENTEL MYRONE WEAVER. Suffolk. January 12, 2016. – July 20, 2016. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Homicide. Firearms. Constitutional Law, Admissions and confessions, Voluntariness of statement, Waiver of constitutional rights by juvenile, Assistance of counsel, Public trial. Evidence, Admissions and confessions, Voluntariness of statement. Practice, Criminal, Capital case, Admissions and confessions, Voluntariness of statement, Waiver, Assistance of counsel, Public trial, Motion to suppress, New trial. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on December 5, 2003. A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Geraldine S. Hines, J.; the cases were tried before Stephen E. Neel, J.; and a motion for a new trial, filed on June 1, 2011, was heard by Geraldine S. Hines, J., and Jeffrey A. Locke, J. Ruth Greenberg for the defendant. John P. Zanini, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. CORDY, J. On the evening of August 10, 2003, fifteen year old Germaine Rucker was shot and killed. The defendant, who was sixteen at the time of the shooting, subsequently admitted to committing the murder after prolonged questioning by the police and by his mother. Prior to trial, the defendant filed a motion to suppress his statements to the police. That motion was denied following an evidentiary hearing. In 2006, a jury convicted the defendant of murder in the first degree on the theory of deliberate premeditation. He was also convicted of the unlicensed possession of a firearm. In 2011, the defendant filed a motion for a new trial under Mass. R. Crim. P. 30, as appearing in 435 Mass. 1501 (2001), claiming that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel in two respects: first, that counsel failed to adequately investigate the defendant’s claim that his statements to police were coerced because counsel did not consult with a mental health expert or present expert testimony about the voluntariness of those statements; second, that counsel failed to object to the closure of the court room during jury empanelment in violation of the defendant’s right to a public trial under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The motion was bifurcated, and different judges considered, and ultimately rejected, the claims. The denial of the motion was consolidated with the defendant’s […]