Commonwealth v. Scott (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-166-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11097 COMMONWEALTH vs. KENSTON SCOTT. Plymouth. March 2, 2015. – September 24, 2015. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ. Homicide. Felony-Murder Rule. Armed Home Invasion. Practice, Criminal, Capital case, Postconviction relief, Interlocutory appeal, Double jeopardy. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on March 30, 2007. The cases were tried before Richard J. Chin, J., and a motion for postconviction relief, filed on June 5, 2012, was heard by him. Chauncey B. Wood for the defendant. Mary E. Lee, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. DUFFLY, J. The only issue that is properly before us in this interlocutory appeal, as we shall explain below, is whether the evidence at the defendant’s trial was sufficient to warrant a finding of guilty of murder in the first degree based on a theory of felony‑murder, with armed home invasion as the predicate felony. Specifically, the question is whether the Commonwealth presented evidence that would warrant a finding that the defendant committed two separate assaults, one to support a conviction of armed home invasion and a separate and distinct assault that constituted the homicide. In the absence of proof of two independent assaults, the evidence would not support a conviction of felony‑murder based on an armed home invasion. We hold that the Commonwealth presented sufficient evidence to warrant a finding of two assaults. Procedural history. The defendant was tried and convicted in the Superior Court, in 2010, on charges (one count each) of murder in the first degree, armed home invasion, and unlicensed carrying of a firearm.[1] The murder conviction was based on a theory of felony-murder, with armed home invasion as the predicate felony.[2] The defendant was sentenced to the mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder, and a concurrent term of from four and one-half to five years for the firearm offense. The armed home invasion indictment was dismissed as duplicative.[3] The defendant’s appeal from his convictions was entered directly in this court in November, 2011, in accordance with G. L. c. 278, § 33E. In June, 2012, while his appeal was pending, he filed in this court a “motion for postconviction relief” that we remanded to the Superior Court for consideration. His motion was focused entirely on the murder conviction and […]