Commonwealth v. Widener (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-079-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 15-P-1743 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. JAMES L. WIDENER. No. 15-P-1743. Plymouth. April 13, 2017. – June 15, 2017. Present: Kafker, C.J., Grainger, & Kinder, JJ. Firearms. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress, Required finding, Witness, Sentence. Evidence, Immunized witness, Prior conviction. Witness, Immunity. Assault and Battery by Means of a Dangerous Weapon. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on March 25, 2011. A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Raymond P. Veary, Jr., J., and the cases were tried before Angel Kelley Brown, J. Timothy St. Lawrence for the defendant. Stacey L. Gauthier, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. KINDER, J. Following a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm, G. L. c. 269, § 10(a); unlawful possession of ammunition, G. L. c. 269, § 10(h); unlawful possession of a large capacity feeding device, G. L. c. 269, § 10(m); and unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, G. L. c. 269, § 10(n).[1] The indictments further alleged that the defendant previously had been convicted of three violent crimes or serious drug offenses subjecting him to enhanced sentencing pursuant to the armed career criminal act (ACCA), G. L. c. 269, § 10G(c). At a later jury-waived trial on the sentencing enhancement charges, the trial judge found the defendant guilty of the subsequent offender allegations related to his convictions of unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition based on three predicate offenses. Consequently, pursuant to the ACCA, he was sentenced to a consolidated mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of not less than fifteen years and not more than fifteen years and one day. On appeal, the defendant claims (1) his motion to suppress the firearm and the ammunition should have been allowed, (2) the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions, and (3) the evidence was insufficient to prove that he had three prior qualifying convictions under the ACCA. The motion to suppress properly was denied, and we conclude that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the underlying convictions. However, we vacate the sentence imposed pursuant to the ACCA and remand for resentencing for the reasons that follow. Background. 1. Motion to suppress. In the fall of 2010, members of a law enforcement task force identified the defendant as a suspect in a series of commercial property […]