Commonwealth v. Ray (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-019-14)

NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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‑10535   COMMONWEALTH  vs.  CHARON RAY. Suffolk.     October 11, 2013.  ‑  February 12, 2014. Present:  Ireland, C.J., Cordy, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ.   Homicide.  Practice, Criminal, Public trial, Waiver, Assistance of counsel, Continuance, Motion to suppress, Voluntariness of statement, Hearsay, Conduct of juror, Sentence.  Constitutional Law, Public trial, Waiver of constitutional rights, Assistance of counsel, Voluntariness of statement, Sentence, Cruel and unusual punishment, Parole, Capital case.  Due Process of Law, Assistance of counsel, Sentence, Parole.  Waiver.  Intimidation of Witness.  Evidence, Voluntariness of statement, Hearsay, Impeachment of credibility.  Witness, Intimidation, Impeachment.  Jury and Jurors.       Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on September 29, 2005.   A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Patrick J. Riley, J.; the cases were tried before Janet L. Sanders, J., and a motion for a new trial, filed on July 26, 2010, was heard by her.     Robert F. Shaw, Jr., for the defendant. Helle Sachese, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.         CORDY, J.  On the evening of June 10, 2004, two teenage boys were shot from behind on Hazelwood Street in the Roxbury section of Boston following ongoing animosity between two groups of local teenagers.  One was injured, and the other, Dakeem Galloway (Dakeem), fourteen years of age, died from a gunshot wound to the head.  The defendant, Charon Ray, who was sixteen years of age at the time of the shooting, was subsequently indicted for the murder.  In June, 2007, after a jury trial, he was found guilty of deliberately premeditated murder in the first degree.[1]  He appealed from the convictions, as well as from the denial of his third motion for a new trial, which asserted that his right to a public trial was violated by a full closure of the court room during jury selection and a partial closure during trial, and that he was denied effective assistance of counsel due to trial counsel’s inadequate preparation and failure to investigate and procure the testimony of a potential eyewitness.  On appeal, the defendant also asserts that the judge erred in denying his request for a continuance and his motion to suppress statements he made to the police, impermissibly limited his cross-examination of a Commonwealth witness, and wrongly permitted a sleeping juror to participate in deliberations in violation of his […]

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