Commonwealth v. Wall (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-160-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-09850 COMMONWEALTH vs. GREGORY A. WALL. Norfolk. May 9, 2014. – September 11, 2014. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Gants, Duffly, JJ.[1] Homicide. Intoxication. Malice. Evidence, Intoxication, Telephone conversation, Relevancy and materiality, Inflammatory evidence, State of mind, Impeachment of credibility, Medical record. Witness, Impeachment. Practice, Criminal, Capital case, State of mind, Assistance of counsel, Instructions to jury, Objections to jury instructions. Constitutional Law, Public trial. Indictment found and returned in the Superior Court Department on May 30, 2002. The case was tried before Judith Fabricant, J.; a motion for a new trial, filed on November 16, 2009, was heard by her; and a second motion for a new trial, filed on January 11, 2013, was considered by her. Matthew A. Kamholtz for the defendant. Tracey A. Cusick, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. CORDY, J. Just before midnight on May 3, 2002, police responded to 16 Sumner Street in Quincy after a neighbor telephoned to report that she had just witnessed the defendant, Gregory A. Wall, moving a trash barrel with a human leg protruding from it across their shared backyard. On arrival, the officers observed a trail of red droplets leading to the defendant’s back door. Through a window in the door, one of the officers observed the legs of someone standing next to a plastic bag containing two human feet. On entering the apartment, the officers discovered a horrific scene. A woman’s body had been dismembered. The defendant was found moments later in his bedroom closet, his clothes and hands stained with the victim’s blood. He would give several explanations to police, generally claiming that, after the victim came to his apartment, he passed out due to his consumption of alcohol and prescription medication (Ativan) and woke up to find the victim dead. He was taken to the Quincy Medical Center for observation, where doctors determined that his blood alcohol content (BAC) was 0.21 per cent. The defendant was charged with murder in the first degree, and the Commonwealth proceeded on theories of premeditation, extreme atrocity or cruelty, and felony-murder.[2] Defense counsel, relying on evidence of the defendant’s intoxication and statements the defendant made to police, alleged that a third party — most likely the victim’s boy friend — entered the house and killed the […]