Commonwealth v. Williams (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-051-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 14-P-1111 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. ANTONIO WILLIAMS. No. 14-P-1111. Plymouth. November 17, 2015. – May 12, 2016. Present: Cypher, Trainor, & Rubin, JJ. Practice, Criminal, Plea, Sentence. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on July 26, 2010, and April 22, 2011. Motions to withdraw guilty pleas, filed on June 3, 2013, and January 30, 2014, were heard by Paul A. Chernoff, J., Special Judicial Magistrate, and an order affirming the proposed order of the Special Judicial Magistrate was entered by Frank M. Gaziano, J. Jason Howard for the defendant. Laurie Yeshulas, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. CYPHER, J. The defendant, Antonio Williams, appeals from the denial of his motions to withdraw his guilty pleas pursuant to Mass.R.Crim.P. 30(b), as appearing in 435 Mass. 1501 (2001). The offenses were set forth in two sets of indictments that charged unrelated gun and drug crimes. The defendant argues that because the guilty pleas were based, in part, on drug tests performed by Annie Dookhan at the Hinton State Laboratory Institute (Hinton laboratory), the subsequent discovery of Dookhan’s pervasive wrongdoing requires the reversal of the convictions.[1] The first set of indictments (the gun case) arose after the police responded to a report of domestic violence at the home of the defendant’s girl friend on April 14, 2010. Upon their arrival, the police were informed by the girl friend that the defendant had threatened her. While there, police also saw loose ammunition and a loaded firearm, both of which the defendant admitted were his. The defendant was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm (G. L. c. 269, § 10[a]); unlawful possession of a loaded firearm (G. L. c. 269, § 10[n]); unlawful possession of ammunition without an FID card (G. L. c. 269, § 10[h]); and threat to commit a crime (G. L. c. 275, § 2). The first indictment, charging unlawful possession of a firearm, also alleged that the defendant previously had been convicted of three predicate offenses, namely, armed masked robbery as a juvenile, possession with intent to distribute marijuana and “crack” cocaine on June 21, 2006 (No. 0615CR4295) (the 2006 drug charges), and possession with intent to distribute a class B substance on July 29, 2007 (No. 0715CR005623) (the 2007 drug charges),[2] thus subjecting him to enhanced sentencing […]