Commonwealth v. Thomas (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-058-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 13-P-666 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. RICKY THOMAS. No. 13-P-666. Hampden. March 11, 2016. – May 26, 2016. Present: Meade, Sullivan, & Massing, JJ. Rape. Rape-Shield Statute. Evidence, Prior conviction, Impeachment of credibility. Witness, Impeachment. Practice, Criminal, Impeachment by prior conviction, New trial. Indictment found and returned in the Superior Court Department on March 23, 2010. The case was heard by Tina S. Page, J., and a motion for a new trial, filed on September 29, 2014, was considered by her. Joseph M. Kenneally for the defendant. Deborah D. Ahlstrom, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. MEADE, J. After a jury-waived trial, the defendant was convicted of aggravated rape, and the judge found him not guilty of kidnapping and assault with intent to rape. On appeal, he claims that the judge erred when she excluded evidence of the victim’s prior convictions; his conviction for aggravated rape was improper because there was no aggravating circumstance; and the judge abused her discretion when she denied his motion for a new trial without holding an evidentiary hearing. We affirm. 1. Background. The judge was entitled to find the following facts. Before the incident at issue, a friend had introduced the victim to the defendant, whom she knew as “Steve,” and the victim agreed to go with him to “hang out, party, chill, [and] smoke” “crack” cocaine. Their plans for that evening did not materialize. Several weeks later, the two again met on the street. The defendant asked the victim if she wanted to pick up where they left off, and also if she minded going to his house in Holyoke. The victim agreed and “jumped in [the defendant’s] car.” The two travelled to an apartment complex “that had two levels, one lower one, and one up a little hill and top level apartments.” The victim had never been there before, but she identified a photograph of a “top left window” as “the window of [the defendant’s] room.” On cross-examination, the victim made it clear that she went to the defendant’s apartment voluntarily “to party,” that is, “smoke, get high and chill.” The two entered the apartment, and the defendant directed the victim down a long, dark hallway to a room at the end of the hall on the left. The defendant went into a bathroom on […]