Commonwealth v. Curry (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-113-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-63 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. TRAVIS CURRY. No. 14-P-63. Suffolk. March 6, 2015. – August 14, 2015. Present: Grainger, Meade, & Fecteau, JJ. Controlled Substances. Constitutional Law, Conduct of government agents, Fair trial. Due Process of Law, Fair trial. Practice, Criminal, Conduct of government agents, Loss of evidence by prosecution, Instructions to jury. Fair Trial. Evidence, Certificate of drug analysis, Scientific test, Chain of custody. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on April 20, 2011. The cases were tried before Patrick F. Brady, J. Jacob B. Stone for the defendant. Vincent J. DeMore, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. GRAINGER, J. The defendant appeals from his convictions of unlawful distribution of heroin in violation of G. L. c. 94C, § 32, and possession with the intent to distribute heroin in violation of G. L. c. 94C, § 32A.[1] He asserts that misconduct at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute forensic drug laboratory (Hinton drug lab) deprived him of his due process right to a fair trial and requests that we reverse his convictions and dismiss the indictments with prejudice. We affirm. Background. We recite the facts as the jury could have found them. On February 9, 2011, Boston police arrested the defendant after an undercover officer purchased two bags of heroin for sixty dollars from the defendant at his home. The defendant was arrested in shorts, a T-shirt, and sandals. A search of his person uncovered an additional bag of heroin. At the time of the defendant’s arrest, officers asked the defendant’s mother to bring him additional clothing. The mother complied, bringing the defendant a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, which the defendant later identified as belonging to him. Before allowing the defendant to wear the clothes, officers searched the pockets for any potential weapons. The search of his pants revealed an additional fifteen bags of heroin, nine bags of “crack” cocaine, a knife, and six dollars. The defendant denied any knowledge of the drugs found in his pants. All of the drug evidence was marked, turned over to the evidence officer, and transmitted to the Hinton drug lab. The substances were tested in April, 2011, by Annie Dookhan,[2] serving as the primary chemist, and thereafter by a secondary chemist, identified as heroin and cocaine, and returned to the Boston police pending […]