Commonwealth v. Lyons (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-062-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 14-P-1660 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. MARIE E. LYONS. No. 14-P-1660. Plymouth. December 9, 2015. – June 6, 2016. Present: Green, Vuono, & Meade, JJ. Deoxyribonucleic Acid. Practice, Criminal, Postconviction relief, Discovery. Evidence, Chain of custody, Scientific test, Relevancy and materiality. Indictment found and returned in the Superior Court Department on November 5, 2001. A postconviction motion for access to untested evidence, filed on September 10, 2012, was heard by Linda E. Giles, J., and a motion for reconsideration, filed on August 18, 2014, was considered by her. Sara J. van Vliet (Nicholas J. Ramacher with her) for the defendant. Gail M. McKenna, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. VUONO, J. The defendant, Marie E. Lyons, is serving a life sentence for the murder in the second degree of Gerard Charron.[1] She appeals from the denial of her postconviction motion, brought pursuant to G. L. c. 278A, § 3 (§ 3 motion), in which she sought access to biological evidence for the purpose of conducting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing. The key evidence consists of two strands of hair, one found in each of the victim’s hands when his body was discovered. The primary issue raised is whether Lyons is entitled to discovery regarding the current location and condition of the evidence and documentation of the chain of custody of the hair. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that Lyons’s request for discovery should have been allowed and, therefore, we vacate the order denying the § 3 motion and remand the matter to the Superior Court for additional proceedings. Background. 1. Facts. The jury that convicted Lyons in 2004 could have found the following facts. Lyons and Charron had been dating for about four months before Charron was killed. The couple were homeless and camping in a public park in Brockton on September 12, 2001, when, shortly before 1:00 A.M., the police received four 911 calls. One of the callers, who lived nearby, testified at trial that at the time he heard loud voices coming from the park; the loudest voice, that of a woman, said, “Oh, my God, what have I done.” An emergency medical technician arrived at the scene shortly thereafter and found the body of the victim on a blanket, completely covered except for the top of his head. The cause of […]