Commonwealth v. Vaughn (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-078-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 SJC-08400 COMMONWEALTH vs. JEFFREY VAUGHN. Suffolk. January 9, 2015. – May 12, 2015. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, & Duffly, JJ. Homicide. Practice, Criminal, Affidavit, Disclosure of evidence, Conduct of prosecutor, Assistance of counsel, Failure to object, Jury and jurors, Capital case. Evidence, Exculpatory, Disclosure of evidence, Testimony before grand jury, Police report, Impeachment of credibility, Hearsay. Jury and Jurors. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on March 19, 1998. The cases were tried before James D. McDaniel, Jr., J., and a supplemental motion for a new trial, filed on December 17, 2009, was heard by Thomas E. Connolly, J. Eileen D. Agnes for the defendant. Teresa K. Anderson, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. SPINA, J. In June of 1999, a Superior Court jury convicted the defendant, Jeffrey Vaughn, of murder in the first degree for the shooting of Robert Mason in a schoolyard in the Dorchester section of Boston on the night of November 29, 1997.[1] The defendant now brings this direct appeal as well as an appeal of the denial of his motion for a new trial. Represented by new counsel on appeal, he claims the judge considering his motion for a new trial improperly denied it without an evidentiary hearing, that the Commonwealth failed to disclose exculpatory evidence timely, that the prosecutor knowingly solicited false testimony, and that his trial counsel was ineffective. The defendant also requests that we exercise our power pursuant to G. L. c. 278, § 33E, to order a new trial or direct the entry of a verdict of a lesser degree of guilt. We affirm the conviction and the order denying the defendant’s motion for a new trial, and decline to exercise our power under G. L. c. 278, § 33E. 1. Facts and background. We recite the facts the jury could have found, reserving further details for discussion of the specific issues raised. On the morning of November 30, 1997, police responded to a report of a dead body in a schoolyard in the Dorchester section of Boston. There, they found the victim, later identified as Robert Mason. The victim had been shot five times, twice in the head and once in the chest and each arm, by a .40 caliber firearm. Later that day, John Hyppolite, the victim’s close friend, was arrested […]