Commonwealth v. Ellis (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-144-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11993 COMMONWEALTH vs. SEAN K. ELLIS. Suffolk. May 5, 2016. – September 9, 2016. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Botsford, Duffly, & Hines, JJ.[1] Practice, Criminal, New trial, Disclosure of evidence. Evidence, Exculpatory. Estoppel. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on October 27, 1993. Following review by this court, 432 Mass. 746 (2000), a motion for a new trial, filed on March 13, 2013, was heard by Carol S. Ball, J. A request for leave to appeal was allowed by Spina, J., in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk. Paul B. Linn, Assistant District Attorney (Edmond J. Zabin, Assistant District Attorney, with him) for the Commonwealth. Rosemary Curran Scapicchio (Jillise McDonough with her) for the defendant. GANTS, C.J. On September 14, 1995, a Superior Court jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree and armed robbery in the killing of Boston police Detective John Mulligan. In 2000, we affirmed the defendant’s convictions and the denial of his motion for a new trial. Commonwealth v. Ellis, 432 Mass. 746, 765 (2000). In 2013, the defendant filed a second motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence regarding the victim’s participation in crimes of police corruption with several Boston police detectives who investigated his murder, and information provided to the police regarding possible third-party culprits. A Superior Court judge allowed the new trial motion, concluding that the newly discovered evidence cast real doubt on the justice of his convictions. We conclude that the judge did not abuse her discretion in ordering a new trial. Background. 1. Evidence at trial. The convictions at issue in this case arose from the defendant’s third trial. At the first trial, the jury found the defendant guilty of the illegal possession of two firearms without a license, but were unable to render verdicts on the murder and armed robbery indictments, and a mistrial was declared as to those indictments. The jury in the second trial were also unable to render verdicts on the murder and armed robbery indictments, resulting again in a mistrial. We recount the evidence presented at the defendant’s third trial. The victim had been a Boston police detective for seventeen years before his death. In the early […]