Com. v. Hubbard

• Decision Date: 06 October 1976
• Citation: 355 N.E.2d 469,371 Mass. 160
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. Robert L. HUBBARD.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 469

355 N.E.2d 469

371 Mass. 160

COMMONWEALTH

v. Robert L. HUBBARD.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

Argued Dec. 5, 1975.

Decided Oct. 6, 1976.

David A. Sonenshein, Boston, for defendant.

Thomas F. Reilly, Special Asst. Dist. Atty. (Kathleen M. Curry, Asst. Dist. Atty., with him), for the Commonwealth.

Before HENNESSEY, C.J., and QUIRICO, KAPLAN and WILKINS, JJ.

QUIRICO, Justice.

The defendant was indicted for murder in the first degree of one George R. Alexander. On June 18, 1969, he pleaded guilty to so much of the indictment as charged the crime of murder in the second degree and was sentenced to life imprisonment therefor. On October 8, 1974, he filed a motion to vacate the sentence and plea, ¹ which motion, after a hearing thereon, was denied on March 27, 1975. The case is before us on the defendant's appeal under G.L. c. 278, §§ 33A--33G, assigning as alleged errors the denial of the motion and the exclusion of certain evidence at the hearing thereon. We hold that there was no error.

A brief statement of background information may be helpful. On April 15, 1969, the defendant was driving his car on a street in Boston with Robert Ranahan as his passenger. As will be described later in this opinion, both had been drinking heavily over a prolonged period of time. When the car in front of the defendant's stopped in traffic, the front end of his car 'tapped' the rear end of other car. The two drivers got out and had a conversation while standing between the two cars. The defendant returned to his car, took something from it, presumably a knife, and returned to the other man who was Alexander. He was seen to swing at Alexander who dropped to the road and was later found to have suffered cuts and stab wounds from which he died. The defendant returned to his car, told Ranahan, 'I killed him,' and drove away with Ranahan as his passenger, without making himself known. Someone at the scene took the defendant's car registration number and gave it to the police who arrested the defendant and Ranahan the next morning, April 16, 1969.

The grand jury returned an indictment against the defendant on April 18, 1969, charging him with the murder in the first degree of Alexander. On April 23, 1969, a judge of the Superior Court appointed Mr. William H. Coogan, a lawyer of considerable experience in the trial of criminal cases, as counsel for the defendant. Mr. Coogan filed numerous pre-trial motions for discovery and for authorization to expend public funds to employ experts and to enable him to prepare for the defense of the case, he hired an investigator to assist in the preparation of the case, and he conferred at length and on numerous occasions with the defendant.

On April 23, 1969, the defendant was committed to the Bridgewater State Hospital for observation for a period not to exceed thirty-five days. On May 21, 1969, the acting medical director of the hospital sent a report to the court reviewing the defendant's history and examination and concluding as follows: 'He has been in good contact with reality during his observation and shows no signs of overt psychosis. He knows the nature of his charges and the possible consequences if convicted, and appears competent to assist his attorney in his own defense. Therefore, his return to court as competent to stand trial is recommended. Diagnosis: Sociopathic Personality, Antisocial Type, with Chronic Alcoholism and Drug Addiction.'

Trial of the case started on June 16, 1969. In the Commonwealth's case, the prosecutor first introduced the death certificate in which the medical examiner certified that the cause and manner of Alexander's death was: 'Stab wound of the neck and abdomen, homicide.' He next introduced four large photographs, twelve by twenty-four inches in size, taken by a police photographer and showing the victim's body and the wounds thereon. The medical examiner then described the autopsy performed by him and the wounds which he found on the victim's body, including one which he said was a 'cut (which) goes into the heart, cutting clear through the heart, just about through the heart into the muscle wall over on this side.' He used one of the photographs of the victim's body to illustrate his testimony. The next, and last, witness was Ranahan. He testified that he was with the defendant most of the time from Saturday, April 12, 1969, until Tuesday, April 15, 1969, including the time of the incident which resulted in the death of Alexander, and continuing until the next morning when both were arrested. He described their movements on those days, and in particular their seemingly continuous drinking of beer, wine, and other alcoholic beverages up to, and then again after, the fatal encounter. On the afternoon of April 15, 1969, they decided to go fishing in Boston harbor, and on the way they stopped at a bait shop where the defendant purchased some bait and a fish knife. After doing some fishing, during which time they drank some wine, they drove away, with the defendant driving, and at Neponset Circle in Corchester they became involved in the slight accident already described above. Ranahan described in detail the defendant's action and conduct at the scene of that accident. After leaving the scene of the accident the defendant was bleeding from the thumb, so they stopped at a drug store where Ranahan purchased some band-aids which he used to stop the bleeding. They went to an apartment in Jamaica Plain where other persons were present. There was discussion about a kinfe and what the defendant had done. When someone asked him what he had done, he said, 'I shanked him.' During this conversation Ranahan saw a knife which he identified when it was shown to him at the trial. He also identified it as 'a fair representation of the knife' bought at the bait shop. The defendant and Ranahan were then informed of a police radio broadcast stating that they were wanted by the police for homicide. They both left the apartment, went to several places in an unsuccessful effort to borrow money with which to leave the area, then returned to the apartment where they were arrested later.

At the conclusion of Ranahan's testimony the trial judge was informed that the defendant desired to plead guilty to so much of the indictment as charged him with murder in the second degree. This was followed by the defendant's being sworn and then questioned in part by the judge and in part by the defendant's counsel. The thrust of the questioning was to determine whether the defendant understood the nature and elements of the crimes of murder in the first degree and murder in the second degree and the penalty for each, whether he had committed the crime, whether his offer to plead guilty was influenced by any promises or threats made to him, and generally whether his offer to plead was his voluntary act. The judge gave him an opportunity to present any facts he wished on the issue being considered. On questioning by his counsel the defendant testified about his prolonged and heavy drinking of alcoholic beverages prior to April 15, 1969, and about his use of drugs, specifically LSD, about April 10 and 11, 1969.

The answers by the defendant to questions by the judge and counsel indicated that he knew that on April 15, 1969, he had purchased a fishing knife and had killed Alexander, that he knew the nature and elements of the crimes of murder in the first degree and murder in the second degree, and the penalties therefor, that he was offering to plead guilty 'willingly and freely and voluntarily' after having consulted with his counsel, and that no one had made any promises or threats to him to induce him to plead. The judge then accepted the plea of guilty of murder in the second degree, informed the jury of that fact, and ordered that the defendant be imprisoned for life. G.L. c. 265, § 2. In his statement dismissing the jury the judge stressed the fact that because of the defendant's prolonged and heavy drinking up to the time he committed the crime it was unlikely that they would have found him capable of the premeditation required to convict for murder in the first degree. All proceedings on the plea of guilty and the sentencing of the defendant occurred on June 18, 1969.

The next development in this case occurred on April 14, 1970, when the defendant filed a motion to retract his plea of guilty, and that motion was itself amended by a motion allowed on December 10, 1971. The motion and its amended version were the subject of a number of hearings, dealing principally with the assignment or withdrawal of counsel for the defendant, extending to January 19, 1972, without any action having been taken on the merits of the motion to retract the plea.

There was no further action in the case until October 8, 1974, when the defendant filed the motion to vacate his sentence and plea which is involved in the present appeal. By his motion the defendant sought relief on two principal grounds, both dependent on a claim that he was suffering from a 'blackout' at the time of the alleged crime and that from the time of his arrest and continuing at the time of argument before this court, he 'has had absolutely no memory of the crime charged.' On that basis the defendant contends in his motion, and now before this court, that (a) he was not competent to stand trial or to plead guilty, and (b) he lost an opportunity to advance a defense that at the time of the crime he lacked the 'mental capacity to commit the crime charged' because he was under the influence of the drug LSD which had been administered to him involuntarily, and that he was not aware of it at the time he entered his plea of guilty.

At the evidentiary hearing held on the motion on March 14, 1975, before a judge other than the trial judge, ² the defendant was represented by a lawyer from the Massachusetts Defenders Committee who had filed the motion for him. Through his new counsel the defendant...