Commonwealth v. Zhan Tang Huang (and 14 companion cases) (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-010-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 13-P-1299 Appeals Court 13-P-1301 COMMONWEALTH vs. ZHAN TANG HUANG[1] (and fourteen companion cases[2]). Nos. 13-P-1299 & 13-P-1301. Norfolk. May 8, 2014. – February 11, 2015. Present: Rubin, Wolohojian, & Maldonado, JJ. Homicide. Wanton or Reckless Conduct. Fire. Constitutional Law, Search and seizure. Search and Seizure, Exigent circumstances. Practice, Criminal, Severance, Motion to suppress, Admissions and confessions. Joint Enterprise. Evidence, Joint venturer, Photograph. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on August 19, 2009. Pretrial motions to suppress evidence were heard by Wendie I. Gershengorn, J.; a motion to sever was heard by Kenneth J. Fishman, J., and the cases were tried before him. Amy M. Belger for Zhan Tang Huang. Patrick H. Reddington (Kevin J. Reddington with him) for Andy Zhan Ting Huang. Varsha Kukafka, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. WOLOHOJIAN, J. Terri Knight and her husband, Oudah Frawi, together with their sons Ali (one year old) and Hassan (two months old), lived in a one-bedroom basement apartment within a multi-unit residential building at 100 Robertson Street in Quincy. The family slept together in the bedroom. The apartment did not comply with numerous codes, including those requiring that there be a second exit from the bedroom, that windows be large enough to allow a person to escape through them, and that there be operational smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. As a result, when an accidental fire broke out in the living room in the predawn hours of March 25, 2009, while the family was asleep, no smoke alarms signaled the danger. By the time Frawi awoke and (carrying Ali in his car seat) attempted to escape through the living room, the several-hundred-degree fire was too intense for him to reach the only exit. He retreated to the bedroom where he and both his sons died from burns and smoke inhalation. Knight was severely injured by the time firefighters rescued her from the bedroom, but she survived. 100 Robertson Street is a four-unit residential building in which two additional “illegal” units had been added: one in the basement and one in the attic. The building was bought at auction in August, 2007, as an investment by defendant Andy Zhan Ting Huang (Andy) and his sister-in-law, Jinny Ma, who is married to Andy’s brother, Zhan Tang Huang […]