Commonwealth v. Mazariego (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-045-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 SJC-11719 COMMONWEALTH vs. EDWIN MAZARIEGO. Worcester. January 12, 2016. – March 31, 2016. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Homicide. Felony-Murder Rule. Rape. Constitutional Law, Voluntariness of statement, Waiver of constitutional rights. Evidence, Voluntariness of statement, Inflammatory evidence, Prior misconduct. Practice, Criminal, Capital case, Motion to suppress, Voluntariness of statement, Argument by prosecutor, Postconviction relief, Duplicative convictions. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on June 14, 2010. A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by James R. Lemire, J., and the cases were tried before David Ricciardone, J. Kathleen M. McCarthy for the defendant. Susan M. Oftring, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. SPINA, J. The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree on a theory of felony-murder, based on the predicate felony of aggravated rape. He also was convicted of aggravated rape, and he was sentenced to concurrent terms of life in prison. On appeal, the defendant asserts error in (1) the denial of his motion for a required finding of not guilty; (2) the denial of his separate motions to suppress two statements he made to police; (3) the admission in evidence of emotional testimony from the victim’s daughter; (4) the admission of evidence of the defendant’s prior bad acts; (5) improper closing argument by the prosecutor; and (6) the denial of his postconviction motion to reduce the verdicts to rape and felony-murder in the second degree. We affirm the convictions of murder in the first degree and order dismissal of the aggravated rape conviction as duplicative. We decline to exercise our power under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, to reduce the degree of guilt or order a new trial. 1. Background. The jury could have found the following facts. We reserve other details for discussion of particular issues. Walter Martinez lived with his father, Rafael Martinez, on Benefit Street in Worcester in August, 2006. Rafael owned the house. He rented one room to Julio Mancias, Walter’s cousin, and another room to the defendant, Mancias’s friend. On August 18, 2006, at about 10:20 P.M., Walter saw Mancias and the defendant talking to the victim in the hallway of their home. At about 11 P.M., Rafael was driving home and saw Mancias with two other people, one […]