Commonwealth v. Durand (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-160-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11221 COMMONWEALTH vs. ERIC J. DURAND. Bristol. May 6, 2016. – October 7, 2016. Present: Gants, C.J., Cordy, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ.[1] Homicide. Assault and Battery. Constitutional Law, Confrontation of witnesses, Admissions and confessions, Voluntariness of statement, Assistance of counsel, Double jeopardy. Evidence, Cross-examination, Admissions and confessions, Voluntariness of statement, Hearsay, Expert opinion. Witness, Cross-examination, Expert. Practice, Criminal, Capital case, Confrontation of witnesses, Motion to suppress, Admissions and confessions, Voluntariness of statement, Assistance of counsel, Mistrial, Hearsay, Argument by prosecutor, Conduct of prosecutor, Dismissal, Double jeopardy, Instructions to jury. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on December 11, 2003. After review by this court, 457 Mass. 574 (2010), the cases were tried before Robert J. Kane, J. Gary G. Pelletier (Timothy J. Bridl with him) for the defendant. Tara L. Blackman, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. HINES, J. The defendant was convicted by a jury in 2006 of murder in the first degree and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, in connection with the October, 2003, death of a four year old child. Because of errors in the defendant’s first trial, this court reversed those convictions and remanded the case to the Superior Court for a new trial. Commonwealth v. Durand, 457 Mass. 574, 601 (2010). On August 29, 2011, a jury again convicted the defendant of murder in the first degree by extreme atrocity or cruelty, and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon. The judge sentenced the defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the murder conviction to be served concurrently with a term of from two to four years in State prison on the assault and battery conviction. On appeal, the defendant asserts error in (1) the limitation of his right to cross-examine the medical examiner; (2) the denial of his motion to suppress statements; (3) the denial of the motion for a mistrial after the jury were exposed to inadmissible evidence; (4) the admission of hearsay testimony by one of the Commonwealth’s expert witnesses; (5) the denial of the motion for a mistrial related to improper statements made during closing arguments; (6) the denial of the motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds for prosecutorial misconduct; and (7) the denial of […]