Commonwealth v. Khan (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-146-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-1216 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. MOHAMMED T. KHAN.[1] No. 16-P-1216. Middlesex. September 19, 2017. – November 28, 2017. Present: Vuono, Blake, & Singh, JJ. Larceny. Practice, Criminal, Required finding, Instructions to jury, Assistance of counsel. Evidence, Joint venturer, Fingerprints. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on May 21, 2014. The cases were tried before Diane M. Kottmyer, J. David H. Erickson for the defendant. Nicole Nixon, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. BLAKE, J. Following a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant, Mohammed T. Khan, was convicted of seven counts of larceny over $ 250 from a person older than the age of sixty, and was adjudged by the trial judge to be a common and notorious thief.[2] The defendant appeals claiming that the judge erred in (1) denying his motions for required findings of not guilty, (2) instructing the jury on joint venture liability rather than accessory after the fact, and (3) admitting fingerprint evidence. He also claims that his trial attorney was ineffective. We affirm. Background. In the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, Commonwealth v. Latimore, 378 Mass. 671, 676-677 (1979), the jury could have found the following facts. The scam. In February, 2014, each of the four victims received telephone calls from individuals who claimed that the victim’s grandchild was in jail and needed money for bail. The caller directed the victims to send cash via FedEx packages to addresses in Lowell, Massachusetts. All of the calls originated from a Canadian area code and none of the callers had a foreign accent. Victim Johnson.[3] On February 12, 2014, Johnson, an eighty-six year old man living in Utah, received a telephone call from a person identifying himself as Johnson’s grandson, Corbin, claiming that he was in jail and needed help. Shortly thereafter, Johnson received another telephone call from a person identifying himself as Mr. Watson. Watson claimed that Corbin had been in a motor vehicle accident and that, during a search, police found drugs in the vehicle. Johnson was directed to send $ 7,500 dollars in cash for Corbin’s bail. Watson indicated he would arrange for pick-up of the cash and delivery through FedEx. Johnson then received a telephone call from “the shipping department” and was provided with […]