Commonwealth v. Moore (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-102-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 15-P-946 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. ANTWOIN MOORE. No. 15-P-946. Plymouth. February 16, 2017. – August 10, 2017. Present: Kafker, C.J., Wolohojian, & Sacks, JJ. Motor Vehicle, Homicide. Homicide. Malice. Practice, Criminal, Required finding, Argument by prosecutor, Instructions to jury, Assistance of counsel, Verdict. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on November 16, 2012. The cases were tried before Frank M. Gaziano, J., and a motion to reduce the verdict was considered by him. Elizabeth Doherty for the defendant. Laurie S. Yeshulas, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. SACKS, J. On October 12, 2012, at approximately 4:30 P.M., the defendant led police on a high-speed chase through the streets of Brockton, finally running a red light at a busy intersection and causing a seven-car collision resulting in the death of another driver, Marianne Kotsiopoulos. After a four-day trial, a jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree, involuntary manslaughter,[1] and numerous other crimes arising out of the collision.[2] He now appeals his murder conviction and the trial judge’s denial of his postconviction motion to reduce the verdict pursuant to Mass.R.Crim.P. 25(b)(2), as amended, 420 Mass. 1502 (1995). The defendant argues that (1) the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of third prong malice; (2) the Commonwealth’s closing argument was improper; (3) the judge erred in declining to instruct that manslaughter is a lesser included offense of murder; (4) counsel was ineffective in failing to request an “accident” instruction; and (5) the trial judge abused his discretion in declining to reduce the second degree murder verdict to a lesser offense. We affirm. The Commonwealth’s case. We recite the evidence and the reasonable inferences to be drawn from it in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth. See Commonwealth v. Latimore, 378 Mass. 671, 676-677 (1979). Detectives Donahue and Carpenter of the Brockton police department were conducting an investigation into narcotics activity in an unmarked sport utility vehicle (the SUV). They observed a Chevrolet TrailBlazer sport utility vehicle, operated by the defendant, roll through a stop sign. The detectives decided to stop the TrailBlazer; they passed it on the left, illuminated their emergency lights, and parked in front of it at a forty-five degree angle. Detective Donahue, who was driving the […]