Articles Posted in Murder

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SPECIAL SATURDAY EDITION

This has been a bad stretch for the Boston area in terms of homicides. Police believe they have solved the 43rd murder this year as compared to 38 killings last year at this time. The pizza delivery killing was the fifth murder in Boston in the last week.

By way of update on the pizza delivery murder,Boston police have arrested three people in connection with the slaying of 58-year-old Richel N., (hereinafter, the “Deceased”), the Domino’s pizza delivery man who was stabbed to death while making a delivery in Hyde Park early Thursday morning. According to authorities, he was lured to a vacant house, where two men and a woman allegedly robbed and stabbed him.

After the Deceased was stabbed, the three allegedly drove off in his Subaru Legacy, which was recovered Thursday at church parking lot on River Street. Police sources said investigators found “a lot of evidence” in the vehicle and detectives worked around the clock to make the arrests.

Two days ago, the news featured another piece of evidence which may well have helped in the investigation. Maria C., a Hyde Park woman, (hereinafter, the “Witness”) indicated that she feared that she unknowingly aided the Deceased’s killers. She indicated that at around the time the call to Dominoes was apparently made, she lent her cell phone to a woman. While the Witness states that she did not hear who the woman spoke with, she fears that the call was to the Deceased’s shop.
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This daily criminal law blog has been short-ciruited today due to internet failure. However, it will reappear tomorrow (yes, even though it is Saturday) with the planned discussion of murder investigations, witnesses and pizza delivery.

Oh, yes. And do we mean by “truth” in the criminal justice system?

Until then…beware of Hurricaine Earle!

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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”), the Commonwealth’s highest court , situated in Boston, has rejected a motion by Calvin C., convicted in the 2005 Bourneside murders,(hereinafter, the “Defendant”) to stay his appeal so that he could seek a new trial based on evidence he said showed he was framed.

The Defendant is currently serving four consecutive life terms for killing four men in Dorchester.

The claim, as represented by the Defendant’s lawyer before the SJC, is that the Suffolk district attorney’s office had for over a year withheld information that potentially cast doubt on his guilt. This is known as “exculpatory evidence” which the prosecution is to deliver to the defense immediately upon discovering it.

On August 13th, prosecutors apparently provided the Defendant’s a February 2009 affidavit from an inmate asserting that another gentleman, who pleaded guilty to acting as an accessory to the murders, confessed that he was the real killer. Said gentleman was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

On Friday, the Supreme Judicial Court denied the Defendant’s motion for the stay on his appeal without offering an explanation or calling for a hearing. The Defendant had previously appealed the 2008 conviction, arguing that the trial judge in the case wrongly dismissed the one juror who believed the Defendant was not guilty of the murders. The Court of Appeals is still considering that appeal Continue reading

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The Death Penalty has long been a controversial issue. Nowhere is that more true than in good ol’ Massachusetts. You see, the Commonwealth, like most states, has two criminal justice systems running through it – state and federal. The crime of murder, which often carries capital punishment sentences, is usually handled in state court. In state court, there is no death penalty. However, in federal court, there is.

Depending on the circumstances, however, some murders are handled in federal court. Gary S. (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) got his murder and carjacking convictions in federal court.

The sentence? Ah, well, there is the rub.

The Defendant, originally of Abington, was convicted for his violent felonies seven years ago. The events apparently took place back in 2001. Now, seven years after a federal jury recommended the Defendant be sentenced to death for the crimes committed during a weeklong series of killings in two states, lawyers for the Defendant plan to argue in court today that he should get a new trial.
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The Massachusetts criminal defense team for Gary Lee Sampson is scheduled to appear in court on Monday to argue that their client should get a new trial. Sampson, who a federal judge sentenced to death in 2003 for the murder of three people, contends that his constitutional rights were violated because his trial lawyers at the time were ineffective.

Sampson’s new defense team is accusing his old one of failing to fully depict to the jury the entire extent of Sampson’s traumatic brain injuries and mental illness. They believe that the evidence might have caused the jury to recommend a less harsh sentence for Sampson. If executed, Sampson would be the first person in 63 years to be put to death for a Massachusetts crime.

Sampson fatally stabbed 69-year-old Philip McCloskey 24 times on July 24, 2001 after the latter had picked up the hitchhiker in Weymouth. Sampson also carjacked the victim’s car. A few days later, Sampson fatally stabbed 19-year-old Jonathan Rizzo, a driver who picked him up in Plymouth. It would be just another three days before Sampson would strangle 58-year-old Robert Whitney.

Sampson later pleaded guilty to all three murders. A federal jury in Boston made the recommendation that he put to death and US Chief District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf ordered that Sampson be executed in New Hampshire, which has a state capital murder law. Massachusetts does not have a state death penalty.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Sampson’s death sentence. Later, the US Supreme Court decided not to hear his appeal. Now, prosecutors for the US Attorney’s office say that they intend to fight Sampson’s motion.

Prosecutors seek to dismiss Gary Lee Sampson’s appeal, Boston Herald, August 29, 2010
Lawyers for convicted killer in carjacking murder spree seek new trial, The Boston Globe, August 29, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Sampson Timeline, The Patriot Ledger, High Beam Research, July 24, 2002
Read the 1st Circuit Opinion for this Case, Justia Continue reading

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The state Supreme Judicial Court will likely issue a ruling in the next few weeks on Christopher McCowen’s appeal to have his Massachusetts murder and rape convictions in the slaying of fashion writer Christa Worthington overturned. McCowen’s criminal defense team is arguing that it was wrong to allow the a substitute pathologist to testify about findings in an autopsy that another doctor had performed and they are now citing a recent SJC ruling that overturned the murder conviction of Eric J. Durand for the fatal beating of Brendon Camara, his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son, on similar grounds.

McCowen was convicted in 2006 for Worthington’s Truro, Massachusetts rape and murder. The 46-year-old Vassar-educated writer and Truro resident was found stabbed to death in her home in January 2002. Her 2 ½ year old daughter was with her, unharmed but hugging her mom’s body and smeared in blood.

In 2005, Police charged McCowen, who was the trash collector for Worthington’s residence, with the slaying. Even though McCowen agreed to let police test his DNA soon after the murder, it would be two years before the authorities would collect his DNA and another year before it was matched to the crime.

A little over a year after McCowen’s 2006 conviction for Massachusetts murder and rape, Barnstable Superior Court Judge Gary A. Nickerson held a public hearing during which time he interviewed jury members about allegations of racial bias. McCowen is black. The allegations formed the basis for McCowen’s criminal defense lawyer’s request for a new trial, but the judge would go on to turn down the motion. McCowen’s Massachusetts criminal defense attorneys have challenged this ruling.

Cape and Islands prosecutor Julia K. Holler, who represented the state in McCowen’s appeal, says that while it was wrong for a pathologist other than the one that conducted the autopsy to testify in McCowen’s criminal case, because McCowen’s criminal defense lawyer did not object to a criminal trial the state’s highest court has to limit its review to whether the testimony created a “substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice.” This is a higher legal standard than what was applied to Durand’s appeal and one which Holler claims that McCowen’s conviction case does not meet.

SJC ruling hovers over 2002 Cape slaying case, Boston.com, August 28, 2010
Conviction reversed in Mass. boy’s beating death, Boston Herald, August 20, 2010
SJC hears Christopher McCowen appeal, Cape Cod Online, May 7, 2010
Related Web Resources:
The General Laws of Massachusetts

Murder on the Cape: A tale of love and death, Boston.com, January 20, 2002 Continue reading

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Now, given my sardonic view on things, it would not surprise you to check out this once-again daily blog one day to find me describing a scene wherein somebody was speeding down the road and, having run down an innocent pedestrian, got out of his car and started pulling on the semi-flattened gentleman, begging him to get up.

Perhaps, I might even compare the driver in such a situation to a child who, after having committed some damage, asks for a “Do-over”.

Of course, you would expect that, by the time the blog was over, you would have heard about the driver being arrested for a myriad of charges, not to mention some kind of vehicular homicide.

Well, guess what?

Such an occurrence actually happened last week…with one twist.

The driver was a police officer.
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The news to which we have referred a couple of times this week has remained in the news all week. Namely, Phillip Markoff, the alleged Craigslist Killer, apparently took his own life at the Nashua Street Jail in Boston. His attorney has expressed surprise and sadness and the local D.A. has proclaimed it to be consciousness of guilt.

Typical, right?

Well, there is an existing irony. When Markoff was arrested for his alleged crimes, our law enforcement leaders and politicians (both in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to name a few) seemed to proclaim the killing to be the fault of Craigslist and the professionals involved in the occupation of prostitution.

It was almost as if Mr. Markoff was secondary in the whole robbery and murder events.

Well, now that he has apparently committed suicide, people seem to, once again, be laying the blame for his actions on someone else.

This time, it is the fault of Nashua Street Jail.
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Homicide can occur during the most unlikely of events. As a Boston criminal defense attorney, not to mention a Brooklyn prosecutor, I have seen my fill of events in which people acted in ways that they admittedly should not have and were left with totally unexpected results.

Deadly results.

Here is a tragic example from this past weekend.

Hector G. of South Boston (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) was in Lansdowne Pub on Lansdowne Street near Fenway Park. At the same time, Mike D., 23 from New York (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) was up from the Big Apple and visiting with some old college friends.

According to investigating officers, the Defendant became angry with a member of the Deceased’s group because of a brief “run in”.

And so it was that the Defendant did something stupid. He threw a beer mug at the Deceased’s table.
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Leave it to the good folks of Salem, MA, to find an original, if macabre, way out of a legal problem! Unfortunately, such bright ideas , when tried in the criminal justice system in lieu of just getting a good attorney, do not tend to meet with ultimate success.

Let’s take the case of Michael R., 42, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). He was originally simply wanted on charges for the white collar crimes of forgery and counterfeiting . Now, he stands also accused of faking his own death to get out of his pending criminal woes.

According to law enforcement, his approach to Lady Justice included going to Salem District Court with what he represented to be a death certificate in his own name. Representing himself to be his brother ( hereinafter, “Brother”), the Defendant said that he ( the Defendant) had actually died the week before. A clerk put the certificate in the Defendant’s file, and the pending case against him was dismissed.

Unfortunately for the Defendant, he had also been on probation for other offenses, including drunk driving. When the probation officer learned of the dismissal and untimely death, he became somewhat intrigued given that he had just spoken with the Defendant alittle earlier and he seemed fine, not to mention alive.
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