Commonwealth v. Carney (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-125-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11092 COMMONWEALTH vs. AARON CARNEY. Bristol. May 5, 2015. – July 20, 2015. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ. Homicide. Evidence, Photograph, Relevancy and materiality, Firearm. Practice, Criminal, Capital case, Argument by prosecutor. Indictment found and returned in the Superior Court Department on December 11, 2009. The case was tried before Robert J. Kane, J. Alan Jay Black for the defendant. Tara L. Blackman, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. SPINA, J. The defendant was convicted of deliberately premeditated murder. On appeal he asserts error in the admission in evidence of (1) an autopsy photograph, and (2) a BB rifle together with ammunition that were unrelated to the killing. He also argues that the prosecutor’s closing argument was improper. We affirm the conviction and decline the defendant’s request for relief under G. L. c. 278, § 33E. 1. Background. The jury could have found the following facts. We reserve other details for discussion of particular issues. The defendant and Kenneth Fontaine became friends at sometime around 2005. Kenneth lived with his mother, Elizabeth Fontaine, the victim. Elizabeth was a registered nurse. She had significant issues with her health, including obesity. Kenneth assisted his mother with some of her needs. Kenneth and his mother purchased a single-family house in Attleboro during 2007. Because of her health and limited mobility, Elizabeth converted the first-floor living room into her bedroom. They took in boarders to help with their finances. The defendant was one such boarder. His rent was $ 400 per month. Kenneth and the boarders had bedrooms on the second and third floors. There also was a bedroom on the third floor that the boarders used for storage. Kenneth did not use that room. During 2008, some of Elizabeth’s medication began to disappear. Kenneth and Elizabeth believed it was taken by one of the other boarders, so they evicted him. Kenneth also discovered that an old shotgun he had kept in his closet was missing. He assumed it had been stolen by the same boarder who he thought had taken his mother’s medication. Kenneth had discussed these losses with the defendant, but he did not suspect the defendant of taking them. At one point, the defendant’s employment situation changed and he fell behind […]