Commonwealth v. Hanright (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-161-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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‑11404 COMMONWEALTH vs. SCOTT HANRIGHT. Middlesex. May 6, 2013. ‑ August 28, 2013. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Joint Enterprise. Homicide. Felony‑Murder Rule. Intent. Robbery. Assault and Battery. Assault and Battery by Means of a Dangerous Weapon. Assault and Battery on Certain Public Officers and Employees. Firearms. Practice, Criminal, Capital case, Dismissal, Instructions to jury. Probable Cause. Evidence, Joint venturer, Intent. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on March 31, 2011. A motion to dismiss was considered by Thomas P. Billings, J. The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court. Casey E. Silvia, Assistant District Attorney (Marian T. Ryan, District Attorney, with her) for the Commonwealth. John P. Osler, Committee for Public Counsel Services, for the defendant. SPINA, J. A grand jury returned twenty-two indictments against the defendant, Scott Hanright, including indictments charging murder in the first degree and various counts of masked armed robbery. The charges arose out of a robbery, perpetrated by Domenic Cinelli, of a jewelry counter at a department store in Woburn on December 26, 2010, and from other offenses Cinelli committed while attempting escape, including shooting a police officer to death. The Commonwealth is proceeding against the defendant as a joint venturer and coconspirator. In relevant part, the defendant moved to dismiss indictments relating to Cinelli’s offenses committed outside the department store as Cinelli tried to flee the scene of the armed robbery on the ground that the charges were not supported by sufficient evidence. See Commonwealth v. McCarthy, 385 Mass. 160, 163 (1982). These charges include: (1) assault and battery with a deadly weapon against a person over sixty years or older against Officer John Maguire, G. L. c. 265, § 15A; (2) assault and battery on a public employee against Maguire, G. L. c. 265, § 13D; (3) assault by means of a dangerous weapon against Officer Glenn Grammar, G. L. c. 265, § 15B; (4) assault by means of a dangerous weapon against Douglas Matney, G. L. c. 265, § 15B; and (5) discharge of a firearm within 500 feet of a building, G. L. c. 269, § 12E. In addition, the defendant moved to dismiss so much of the indictment alleging the murder of Maguire as included any theory of murder other than felony-murder. The […]