Commonwealth v. Mitchell (and two companion cases) (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-010-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 12-P-719 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. MARKEESE MITCHELL (and two companion cases[1]). No. 12-P-719. Suffolk. September 10, 2015. – January 28, 2016. Present: Green, Rubin, & Hanlon, JJ. Homicide. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress, Admissions and confessions, Voluntariness of statement, Sentence, Severance, Confrontation of witnesses, Argument by prosecutor, Instructions to jury. Evidence, Voluntariness of statement, Statement of codefendant, Verbal completeness, Relevancy and materiality, Knife, Bias. Constitutional Law, Admissions and confessions, Voluntariness of statement, Sentence, Confrontation of witnesses. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on April 18, 2008. Pretrial motions to suppress evidence and to sever were heard by Charles J. Hely, J.; the cases were tried before Judith Fabricant, J., and a motion for a postconviction evidentiary hearing, filed on December 3, 2012, was heard by her. Richard L. Goldman for Terrance Pabon. Richard B. Klibaner for Pedro Ortiz. Jeanne M. Kempthorne for Markeese Mitchell. Amanda Teo, Assistant District Attorney (Mark A. Hallal, Assistant District Attorney, with her) for the Commonwealth. HANLON, J. After a jury trial, the defendants, Markeese Mitchell, Terrance Pabon, and Pedro Ortiz were convicted of murder in the second degree in connection with the stabbing death of Terrance Jacobs. Paul Goode also was indicted, tried with the defendants, and convicted of murder in the second degree. Goode’s direct appeal originally was consolidated with the others; however, by motion and pursuant to an order of this court, Goode’s appeal was severed. Goode’s statement to the police was admitted at trial and is the predicate for one of thedefendants’ common claims of error, under Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 135-137 (1968). Pabon and Mitchell claim error in the denial of their respective motions to suppress their statements to the police. They also contend that, because they were between the ages of fourteen and seventeen when the crime occurred, they ought to have been afforded individualized sentencing, in light of Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012), and Diatchenko v. District Attorney for the Suffolk Dist., 466 Mass. 655 (2013). In addition, some or all of the defendants claim error in the admission of Pabon’s statement to the police; certain evidentiary rulings at trial; certain remarks made by the prosecutor in closing argument; the denial of their request for a jury instruction on withdrawal from […]