Commonwealth v. Ormond O., a juvenile (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-120-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 16-P-840 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. ORMOND O., a juvenile. No. 16-P-840. Norfolk. February 7, 2017. – September 18, 2017. Present: Green, Meade, & Agnes, JJ. Delinquent Child. Controlled Substances. Joint Enterprise. Evidence, Constructive possession. Search and Seizure, Motor vehicle, Plain view. Practice, Criminal, Juvenile delinquency proceeding, Presumptions and burden of proof. Complaint received and sworn to in the Norfolk County Division of the Juvenile Court Department on April 6, 2015. The case was tried before Mary M. McCallum, J. Frank H. Spillane for the juvenile. Varsha Kukafka, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. MEADE, J. After a jury trial in the Juvenile Court, the juvenile was found delinquent by reason of possession of cocaine, in violation of G. L. c. 94C, § 34.[1] The judge imposed a sentence of six months of probation. On appeal, the juvenile claims there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction. We affirm. Background.[2] On April 4, 2015, Quincy police Detective Dennis Keenan was patrolling the “South Quincy/Penn Hill” area of Quincy in plain clothes and in an unmarked cruiser. Detective Keenan, a seven-year drug control unit veteran who had been involved in more than one thousand drug cases, had made arrests in that area. Around 5:45 P.M., Keenan witnessed Tyler Mauritson exit a blue Infiniti motor vehicle, registered to a Brockton woman, that was parked in front of 35 Nicholl Street, which is Mauritson’s home. Keenan, who was familiar with Mauritson, watched as Mauritson entered his residence. The Infiniti drove away and turned left onto Franklin Street, traveling into Braintree. The detective followed the car as it went left onto Hayward Street and then right onto Quincy Avenue, traveling south. While Keenan followed the Infiniti, he contacted Detective Michael Duran and requested that he speak to Mauritson and provide Keenan with an update. The Infiniti turned onto the Arborway, which is a residential way that ends at the Fore River with side streets that lead back to Quincy Avenue. Once the vehicle was on the Arborway, it began to slow down before it turned into a driveway located ten to fifteen houses down the street. The car then backed up, turned around, and traveled back on the same route it had just driven. While this was occurring, Keenan “tucked” his unmarked cruiser onto […]