Commonwealth v. Brewer (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-128-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 SJC-11819 COMMONWEALTH vs. ANDRE R. BREWER. Plymouth. April 6, 2015. – July 24, 2015. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ. Homicide. Firearms. Witness, Immunity, Self-incrimination. Constitutional Law, Privileges and immunities, Self-incrimination, Fair trial. Due Process of Law, Fair trial. Fair Trial. Practice, Criminal, Immunity from prosecution, Fair trial, Argument by prosecutor. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on June 3, 2011. The cases were tried before Richard J. Chin, J. The Supreme Judicial Court granted an application for direct appellate review. Leslie W. O’Brien for the defendant. Robert C. Thompson, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Anthony C. Biagioli, of the District of Columbia, & Kirsten V. Mayer & Chauncey B. Wood, for Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, amicus curiae, submitted a brief. HINES, J. Based on a shooting that occurred after a party ended in Brockton in 2007, a jury, in March, 2014, convicted the defendant of murder in the second degree, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition. Represented by new counsel on appeal, the defendant argues (1) that the denial of immunity to two defense witnesses violated his right to a fair trial and due process of law, as well as his right to present a complete defense; and (2) error in the prosecutor’s closing argument. We affirm the defendant’s convictions. Background. We recite the facts the jury could have found based on the Commonwealth’s case, see Commonwealth v. Latimore, 378 Mass. 671, 676-677 (1979), reserving certain details for our discussion of the specific issues raised. The victim, Jose Gurley, who was seventeen years of age, was shot sometime around 3 A.M. on July 21, 2007, on a street outside a vacant home in Brockton where he had just attended a party.[1] He did not appear to be the intended victim of the shooting. Rather, when gunshots erupted, the victim was speaking with one of the young men, Tyson Muzzy, with whom he had gone to the party. The victim, Muzzy, Dina Willis, Markeen Starks, and Jamar Martin earlier had traveled to the party together from Martin’s home. Before that, the victim had visited with his good friend Kashin Nembhard and David Stewart. Over […]