Commonwealth v. Dancy (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-168-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 15-P-1139 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. DAMONTE DANCY. No. 15-P-1139. Suffolk. October 21, 2016. – November 29, 2016. Present: Cypher, Kinder, & Lemire, JJ. Firearms. Complaint received and sworn to in the Dorchester Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department on September 5, 2012. After transfer to the Central Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department, the case was tried before Michael J. Coyne, J. Mehmet Baysan for the defendant. Priscilla A. Guerrero (Helle Sachse, Assistant District Attorney, with her) for the Commonwealth. Lemire, J. Following a jury trial in the Boston Municipal Court, the defendant, Damonte Dancy, was convicted of possession of a loaded firearm without a license, G. L. c. 269, § 10(n). On appeal, the defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, the denial of his motion to suppress photographs seized from his cellular telephone, and certain evidentiary rulings at trial. He also claims that his conviction was unlawful because he was acquitted of possession of a firearm without a license under G. L. c. 269, § 10(a), the predicate offense for conviction under G. L. c. 269, § 10(n).[1] Because we agree that the conviction was unlawful, we reverse without reaching the defendant’s other claims of error. Background. We summarize the facts the jury could have found. On the morning of August 25, 2012, the defendant was among a large group of people attending a festival in Dorchester. An unknown passerby stopped a Boston police officer, stated that “a man had a gun,” and pointed to a small group of black males, which included the defendant, walking down the street away from the parade. Officers then began to follow and surveil that group. At one point, when the defendant was near a parked vehicle, one of the officers, who was on the opposite side of the street, observed the defendant, who was walking at a fast pace, “[s]low[] down a little bit” next to the vehicle, and heard a noise that, based on his experience, was consistent with a gun hitting the pavement. The two other males from the group were about ten to fifteen feet away from the defendant at that time. After stopping the group to ask questions, the police canvassed the immediate area. A loaded firearm was recovered from beneath the parked vehicle, and the defendant was arrested. The […]