Commonwealth v. Gulla (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-053-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 SJC-11361 COMMONWEALTH vs. ROBERT GULLA. Middlesex. January 10, 2017. – April 5, 2017. Present: Gants, C.J., Botsford, Lenk, Hines, & Budd, JJ.[1] Homicide. Constitutional Law, Assistance of counsel, Fair trial. Practice, Criminal, Assistance of counsel, Argument by counsel, Instructions to jury, Capital case. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on March 4, 2010. The cases were tried before Thomas P. Billings, J., and a motion for a new trial, filed on October 29, 2014, was heard by him. Stephen Paul Maidman for the defendant. Jamie Michael Charles, Assistant District Attorney (Casey E. Silvia, Assistant District Attorney, also present) for the Commonwealth. BUDD, J. The defendant, Robert Gulla, was convicted of murder in the first degree of the victim on the theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty.[2] In this appeal,[3] the defendant asserts that he was denied effective assistance of counsel and a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense, as well as denied a fair trial based on the judge’s failure to give certain jury instructions. The defendant also seeks relief under G. L. c. 278, § 33E. After full consideration of the record and the defendant’s arguments, we affirm the defendant’s convictions and the denial of his motion for a new trial, and decline to grant extraordinary relief pursuant to G. L. c. 278, § 33E. Background. We summarize the evidence that the jury could have found, reserving certain details for discussion of specific issues. On January 23, 2010, the defendant beat, strangled, stabbed, and shot the victim, killing her. The victim’s homicide was the culmination of a short but violent relationship between the two. The defendant met the victim, who was attending a State university, in early September of 2009 at a college party; the defendant was not a student there. Soon thereafter they began a dating relationship. On September 25, 2009, an altercation between the victim and the defendant in her dormitory led campus police to escort the defendant off campus and issue a no-trespass order. Approximately one and one-half weeks later, the victim lodged a complaint with police after the two had an argument and the defendant pushed her out of his truck and drove away, leaving her stranded on the side of the road. They […]