Commonwealth v. Dagraca-Teixeira (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-045-15)

NOTICE:  All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11754   COMMONWEALTH  vs.  JASON DAGRACA-TEIXEIRA (and a companion case[1]). March 16, 2015       Firearms.  Controlled Substances.  Evidence, Firearm, Constructive possession, Inference.  Search and Seizure, Warrant.       The defendants, Jason Dagraca-Teixeira (Jason) and Adilson Teixeira (Adilson), were convicted of possession of heroin, G. L. c. 94C, § 34;[2] unlawful possession of a firearm, G. L. c. 269, § 10 (h); and unlawful possession of ammunition, G. L. c. 269, § 10 (h) (1).  On appeal, the defendants argued, among other things, that the evidence supporting their convictions was insufficient.  A panel of the Appeals Court affirmed the convictions.  Commonwealth v. Dagraca-Teixeira, 85 Mass. App. Ct. 1126 (2014).  We granted the defendants’ applications for further appellate review, limited to the issue of the sufficiency of the evidence.  See Commonwealth v. Dagraca-Teixeira, 469 Mass. 1110 (2014).   We hold that there was sufficient evidence supporting the convictions of possession of heroin, but that the Commonwealth did not present sufficient evidence to establish possession of the firearms and ammunition beyond a reasonable doubt.  We therefore affirm in part and reverse in part.   We review the essential evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth.  At approximately 11 P.M. on an evening in November, 2011, six Taunton police officers executed a search warrant for a second-floor apartment on Wales Street in Taunton.  They entered through an open door and found eight to ten people inside, including Adilson.  The officers secured the apartment and its occupants.  One of the officers searched Adilson and found $ 340 in cash in his pocket.  While the officers were present, Jason arrived with an unidentified woman.  An officer searched him and found $ 375 in cash and a key.   The search of the apartment included three bedrooms located off a short interior hallway.  Jason’s key fit the lock of one of the bedrooms.  In that bedroom, an officer found a small bag containing a substance believed to be heroin, along with Jason’s baptismal certificate, a cellular telephone, and scales.  During the search of a second bedroom, another officer found two small bags of what appeared to be the same substance found in the first bedroom, along with twenty-nine dollars in cash, on a table with Adilson’s birth certificate and other documents.  A woman’s jacket was hanging on the door to the bedroom closet.  Inside a zippered pocket, in the jacket, officers found […]

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