Commonwealth v. Chukwuezi (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-155-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 SJC-11579 COMMONWEALTH vs. XZENIYEJU CHUKWUEZI. Suffolk. February 12, 2016. – September 29, 2016. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Botsford, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ.[1] Homicide. Firearms. Evidence, Computer simulation, Prior consistent statement, Alibi. Alibi. Constitutional Law, Sentence. Practice, Criminal, Instructions to jury, Argument by prosecutor, Sentence, Capital case. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on July 1, 2009. The cases were tried before Linda E. Giles, J. Stephen Paul Maidman for the defendant. Zachary Hillman, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. LENK, J. The defendant was convicted by a Superior Court jury of murder in the first degree on a theory of deliberate premeditation, and of unlawful possession of a firearm, in connection with the 2009 shooting death of Soheil Turner, a fifteen year old boy. The defendant was eighteen years old at the time of the shooting. On appeal, the defendant argues that the trial judge abused her discretion in excluding from evidence a computer-generated simulation that was intended to assist the jury in determining the shooter’s height. He also asserts error in several other respects, described in greater detail below, and seeks relief under G. L. c. 278, § 33E. Having reviewed the entire record, we affirm the convictions and discern no reason to exercise our authority to grant extraordinary relief. Background and procedural posture. We recite the facts the jury could have found, reserving certain details for later discussion. At approximately 7:20 A.M. on May 7, 2009, Turner was shot in the back of the head and in the right shoulder while waiting for a school bus in the Roxbury section of Boston. He died later that day as a result of the shooting. Police recovered two shell casings from the scene of the shooting that appeared to have been fired from a semiautomatic firearm. Several video surveillance cameras recorded the shooting and the surrounding circumstances.[2] Shortly after 7 A.M. on the morning of the shooting, the shooter, an African-American male carrying a yellow umbrella, walked north on Adams Street from the direction of Forest Street, and stopped at the northeast corner of Dudley Street and Adams Street. The shooter was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, and a loose fitting T-shirt and pants. A few minutes later, a young woman, later identified as […]