Commonwealth v. Torres (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-092-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 14-P-442 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. JULIO TORRES. No. 14-P-442. August 5, 2015. Sex Offender. Evidence, Sex offender, Criminal records. Practice, Civil, Instructions to jury. Following a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant, Julio Torres, was found to be a sexually dangerous person. See G. L. c. 123A, § 1.[1] The defendant appeals, claiming error in certain evidentiary rulings and jury instructions. We affirm. 1. Prior criminal history. In 1997, the defendant was charged with assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and indecent assault and battery following an incident wherein he assaulted a sixteen year old female victim. The defendant was twenty-five years old at the time. When the victim refused his advances,[2] he held a knife to her stomach, pushed her back, straddled her, and began to choke her. During this assault, the defendant touched the victim’s buttocks and legs. As part of a plea agreement, the defendant pleaded guilty to assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, and the Commonwealth dismissed the indecent assault and battery charge. The defendant received a suspended sentence, a two-year term of probation, and was ordered to “[p]articipate in [a] Mass. Rehab. evaluation” and related treatment. The defendant subsequently engaged in further criminal sexual behavior, leading to additional convictions. In 2000, he pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and one count of indecent assault and battery. In 2009, he was convicted of annoying and accosting a person of the opposite sex.[3] 2. Evidentiary issues. a. Admission of 1997 conviction. The defendant argues that it was error to deny his motion in limine to preclude the Commonwealth’s witnesses from referring to evidence related to the 1997 conviction of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon because it is not a sexual offense. We disagree. See G. L. c. 123A, § 14(c).[4] The position taken by the defendant was rejected by this court in Commonwealth v. Starkus, 69 Mass. App. Ct. 326, 332 (2007) (police reports relating to defendant’s conviction of assault and battery admissible pursuant to G. L. c. 123A, § 14[c], where incident involved rape of a fourteen year old girl). That the defendant in Starkus pleaded guilty to assault and battery, a lesser included offense of rape of a child, and the defendant in this case pleaded guilty to a separate charge of assault and […]