Com. v. Geraway

Citation245 N.E.2d 423,355 Mass. 433
PartiesCOMMONWEALTH v. William GERAWAY.
Decision Date07 March 1969
CourtUnited States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

Monroe L. Inker, Newton (Paul M. Sullivan, Boston, with him) for defendant.

Richard W. Barry, Asst. Dist. Atty., for the Commonwealth.

Before WILKINS, C.J., and SPALDING, WHITTEMORE, CUTTER, KIRK, and REARDON, JJ.

CUTTER, Justice.

Geraway, on September 29, 1967, was charged by indictment with the murder of David Martin Sidlauskas on April 24, 1966, in Quincy not far from the Long Island Hospital. At the trial (February 7--20, 1968) he was found guilty of murder in the first degree. The jury recommended that the death penalty be not imposed. Geraway appealed. G.L. c. 278, §§ 33A--33G.

Only a few assignments of error have been argued. It is desirable, however, as background for consideration of even these assignments (and in connection with the performance of the duty imposed on us in a capital case by G.L. c. 278, § 33E, as amended through St.1962, c. 453), to state briefly the principal circumstances of the homicide which, on the evidence, the jury would have been warranted in finding. 1

On Sunday morning, April 24, 1966, Sidlauskas's body was found lying on a road on Moon Island near a gatehouse. He had been hit by two forty-five calibre pistol bullets, one of which caused his death. The body was found about 6:45 A.M. Blood was observed inside the gatehouse and on the road. Post mortem examination showed the Sidlauskas had been drinking heavily in the hours preceding his death.

Geraway was not the first person tried for Sidlauskas's murder. The record reveals little about the earlier trial of one Ronald Jackman who was acquitted. It is stipulated that Jackman stated to police officers that he left Sidlauskas about 11 P.M. on April 23; that Jackman's wife testified at the earlier trial that Jackman was at home by midnight on the twenty-third and was still there when she awoke the next morning. At Gerway's trial, the evidence indicated that the fatal shot was fired from a forty-five calibre pistol, sold to Jackman by Richard Selter. The disassembled pieces of this gun were found near the place where the body was discovered. Jackman had claimed earlier that the gun had been stolen from him the week before the murder.

Against Geraway there was introduced substantial evidence of admissions by him of his responsibility for the death of Sidlauskas. This, and other significant evidence of his activities in and after March, 1966, are summarized below.

Geraway, prior to April, 1966, had been confined in the Correctional Institution at Walpole. On April 23 Carol Kennedy, who had been married to Geraway and later divorced, went with him to a gasoline station in Chestnut Hill and there rented a yellow Ford Falcon with a black interior. Geraway left her at her house.

The next morning, April 24, Miss Ruth Raycraft, a supervisor of nurses at Long Island Hospital, while driving to her work about 6:30 A.M. passed only one automobile between Squantum and the place where Sidlauskas's body was found. This was a 'yellow small car * * * a compact-type car.' It contained two persons. At the trial she identified the driver as Geraway. Nearer the hospital she saw a 'body * * * in the road.' She 'slowed down, looked at the body and speeded ahead to get help from the guards' at Long Island Hospital.

John Lashus, then employed as a security policeman at Long Island Hospital, at 6:15 A.M. went to Fields Corner. On his return trip, he passed a small yellow automobile, which was 'more than half * * * on * * * (his) side of the road.' It contained two people. At the trial, he identified Geraway as the driver of the yellow automobile. About two minutes after passing that vehicle, he also saw Sidlauskass's body lying in the road and reported it.

Several witnesses testified to reports of the murder made to them by Geraway. Certain aspects of their testimony are set forth below.

Patricia Dunn lived in an apartment in Dorchester with William Dennett. She first met Geraway with Dennett not long before April 248 1966. That day about 7:30 A.M. Geraway, wearing a sweater belonging to Dennett, came to her house. Geraway said to her, 'I think I just killed a man,' and asked to use the telephone. He also 'asked for the radio' and 'listened to the next news broadcast.' Then 'he mumbled to himself, 'They found him. " At the trial she recognized a piece, cut from a photograph of Geraway taken in March, 1966, as being a picture of the sweater worn by Geraway that morning.

Geraway's former brother-in-law, Edward Kennedy, on one Sunday morning in April, 1966, saw Geraway at his mother's house talking to Kennedy's sisters, Michelle LeClair and Carol Kennedy. Geraway told him that 'he whacked a guy last night,' because he 'aggravated me.' Carol Kennedy testified that Geraway on that Sunday morning '(s)aid to turn on the radio, he killed a guy.' When she asked 'why he killed a guy,' he 'said he thought it was Billy Dennett's wife's boyfriend.' Geraway appeared nervous. The next day he asked her to call the gasoline station where they had rented the automobile, 'so he could keep the car another day.' She would not do it, but her sister Michelle did.

On April 28, 1966, Geraway again came to her house and remained a week. He 'didn't want to leave * * * because somebody might be able to identify him' and 'because * * * a couple of nurses that saw him coming down from Moon Island (near the scene of the homicide) might see him.' Just before he left, he 'said he was going to take off for a while,' because things 'were too warm around here.' He then had long hair. When she next saw him in the middle of May, he 'had a flat top.' 2

William Dennett, at the time of trial confined at Dedham jail on transfer from the Marquette (Michigan) prison, gave his occupation as 'check passer.' He first met Geraway at Walpole State Prison. Dennett saw Geraway every day in the pertinent period in April, 1966, at the partment where Dennett was living with Patricia Dunn. When, on the morning of April 24, Dennett returned, Geraway was 'talking on the phone.' Geraway reported to Dennett that he thought he 'had just killed a guy * * * (at) Moon Island,' and that he did not know whether two nurses could identify him. The gun, he said, was a forty-five calibre pistol which 'Eddie borrowed * * * off a guy * * * named Jackman.' Dennett advised him to get rid of the yellow Ford and to keep his mouth shut. Geraway said that he had been at Walter's After-Hours Club in Roxbury and 'had a fight with the guy * * * (who) pulled a knife.' He took the man to Moon Island on the pretext that 'there was some money dumped there.' When they got there, 'they had a couple of beers,' and entered a building. There Geraway blinded the victim with tear gas, and shot him. Later Dennett talked about the shooting with Geraway and his ex-wife at the latter's apartment. On a still later occasion, Dennett advised Geraway to burn the yellow automobile and assisted one Kelley to do it.

In May, Dennett and Geraway drove to Michigan. There they both were arrested. Geraway was released on bail. Raymond V. DeFalco, who had known Dennett casually for some time, drove Geraway to Boston. En route, Geraway gave DeFalco an account of killing Sidlauskas.

The testimony summarized above was given by a number of witnesses. Dennett was shown to have been confined at Walpole. Some, including Dennett, either strongly disliked Geraway or had reason to do so. Some had testified in the earlier trial of Jackman or at one or more grand jury investigations, or upon interrogation by police investigators. The testimony of some witnesses varied to a certain extent from that of others and from one examination to another. The trial was nearly two years after the homicide, so that the testimony was subject to the risks of imperfect memory. Nevertheless, the evidence was consistent in a general way. 3 If believed, the testimony relating to the yellow automobile and to Geraway's behavior and admissions thoroughly warranted the jury's verdict, wholly apart from the identification testimony of Ruth Raycraft and John Lashus to which Geraway's principal assignment of error is directed.

1. Geraway contends that the testimony of Miss Raycraft and John Lashus identifying Geraway was improperly admitted under principles discussed in United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 229--238, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149, Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263, 269--274, 87 S.Ct. 1951, 18 L.Ed.2d 1178, and Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 383--384, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247, 4 because of the pre-trial interrogation of these witnesses with the assistance of photographs. We think nothing in these cases precludes the use of the identification testimony.

The transcript of Miss Raycraft's testimony strongly suggests that she was a precise, conscientious witness. The vehicle which she saw on the road into Long Island Hospital was not going fast. She slowed somewhat because she 'thought * * * (an occupant) was a person * * * (she) knew and * * * looked at the person driving * * * who turned and smiled at' her. She identified a picture of the yellow automobile. Under cross-examination she conceded that each vehicle was moving and that she had only a few seconds to observe the driver of the other automobile. She observed no scars on the driver's forehead. 5 After April 24, 1966, she did not see Geraway until the afternoon before her testimony, when she had seen him in a corridor in the court house. He had smiled as he walked past her. Seeing that smile made her positive of her identification.

In the winter of 1967, she and another nurse were shown by Lieutenant Ingenere of the Boston police a number of pictures (she thought about eight to ten) of young men about the same age. She was not told that a suspect was in one of the pictures. She finally selected three pictures,...

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