Com. v. Hung Tan Vo

• Decision Date: 18 May 1998
• Citation: 427 Mass. 464,693 N.E.2d 1374
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. HUNG TAN VO.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 1374

693 N.E.2d 1374

427 Mass. 464

COMMONWEALTH v. HUNG TAN VO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Middlesex.

Argued March 3, 1998.

Decided May 18, 1998.

Dana A. Curhan (Ralph F. Champa, Jr., Cambridge, with him), Boston, for defendant.

Rosemary Daly, Assistant District Attorney, for Commonwealth.

The defendant, pro se, submitted a brief.

Before WILKINS, C.J., and ABRAMS, LYNCH, GREANEY and MARSHALL, JJ.

LYNCH, Justice.

A jury convicted the defendant of murder in the first degree by reason of deliberate premeditation. On appeal, the defendant argues that (1) his motion for a new trial should have been allowed because he had become incompetent during the course of trial, and (2) defense counsel's failure to raise the question of the defendant's incompetence during trial constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. In a pro se brief the defendant argues that the judge's initial charge and supplemental instructions on malice and his supplemental instruction on deliberate premeditation ¹ created a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice, and defense counsel's failure to object to the instructions deprived him of effective assistance of counsel. In both briefs the defendant requests that we exercise our power under G.L. c. 278, § 33E, to reduce his murder conviction or to order a new trial.

Facts. The evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth would permit the jury to find the following. Commonwealth v. Sarourt Nom, 426 Mass. 152, 153, 686 N.E.2d 1017 (1997). On the morning of February 19, 1991, the defendant, a twenty-one year old man of Vietnamese descent, ² shot and killed the victim by firing two shots into his head. About five days before the murder the defendant's female companion, the prosecution's primary witness, informed the defendant that the victim had raped her on several different occasions. The defendant and his female companion had been living together up until the murder. She considered the defendant to be "jealous" throughout the relationship. On one occasion about two months before the murder, she and the defendant had an argument because the defendant did not want her to work and was "afraid that someone else was going to like [her] and that [she] was going to go [out] with that person." She refused to quit her job and told the defendant she would move out of the apartment they shared. While his companion was packing her belongings, the defendant threatened to cut off his finger if she did not stop. The defendant left the room and cut off half of his fifth finger. ³

Five days before the murder on February 14, 1991, the defendant asked his companion whether anyone had been "bothering" her at school. After the defendant told her that he believed he had contracted a sexually transmitted disease from her, she told the defendant that the victim had raped her on separate occasions during 1989. The defendant wanted her to notify the police about the rapes, but she refused. ⁴

On February 18, 1991, the defendant and his companion drove to the victim's house. The defendant brought with him a gun and a roll of duct tape. The defendant told her that he wanted to kill the victim. The victim was not home; they returned to their apartment. The next morning, they drove to the victim's house again, but after learning he was not home, they drove to the victim's workplace. The defendant parked his automobile and placed the gun under the hood. After leaving a message for the victim to come outside, the defendant retrieved the gun from the vehicle.

The victim eventually came outside to the parking lot. The defendant's companion moved the vehicle closer to the entrance of the building. The defendant asked the victim to get into his automobile, but the victim refused. As the defendant and the victim were conversing, the defendant attempted to walk away and the victim grabbed his arm. The defendant then shot the victim in the head.

After the shooting, the defendant and his companion returned to their apartment. The defendant called the Somerville police. When the police arrived at his apartment, the defendant cooperated and confessed to having killed the victim. ⁵

1. Motion for a new trial. In his motion for a new trial the defendant claims he became incompetent to stand trial after his companion testified. The defendant did not bring his alleged midtrial incompetency to the attention of the judge during the trial. ⁶

The defendant asserts that, after his companion took the stand, he lost the ability to attend to the events of the trial, to consult with his attorney, or to participate in his defense. Furthermore, he contends that his incapacity caused him to lose the opportunity to resolve his case on more favorable terms by agreeing to plead guilty to manslaughter. At the motion hearing, trial counsel for the defendant testified that, as a result of the defendant's incompetency, he had been unable to communicate with the defendant, and therefore, was unable to present an adequate defense.

The decision to allow a motion for a new trial lies within the sound discretion of the trial judge. Commonwealth v. Figueroa, 422 Mass. 72, 77, 661 N.E.2d 65 (1996). The motion judge's decision is afforded special deference if that judge was also the trial judge. Id., citing Commonwealth v. Dascalakis, 246 Mass. 12, 32-33, 140 N.E. 470 (1923). The judge's disposition of the new trial motion will not be reversed unless it is manifestly unjust, or unless the trial was infected with prejudicial constitutional error. Commonwealth v. Russin, 420 Mass. 309, 318, 649 N.E.2d 750 (1995). The judge did not abuse his discretion in denying the defendant's motion for a new trial, and the trial was not infected with prejudicial error.

At the hearing on the motion, the judge heard the testimony of Dr. Wesley E. Profit; Dr. Martin Kelly, an expert retained by the Commonwealth; defense counsel; the defendant's mother, father, and brother; and the prosecutor. The judge, who had been the presiding judge at trial, had the added benefit of his own observations of the defendant during trial.

The judge concluded that the defendant had been competent to stand trial after his companion's testimony. ⁷ The judge acknowledged that there was evidence that the defendant "became distraught and depressed" after his companion informed him that she had voluntarily engaged in sexual relations with the victim. He further noted that the defendant's depression had been "exacerbated by [his companion's] termination of her communications and visits" during trial. ⁸ The judge found, however, that these events had occurred in August, 1991, several months before the testimony of the defendant's companion on March 4, 1992. From August, 1991, to March 4, 1992, the judge found the defendant had been competent to stand trial, noting that there was "no suggestion from any source that [the defendant] was unable to consult with counsel and to prepare his defense during this period."

The judge's finding that the defendant was competent after his companion testified is supported by the evidence. Commonwealth v. Russin, supra at 317, 649 N.E.2d 750, citing Commonwealth v. Vailes, 360 Mass. 522, 524, 275 N.E.2d 893 (1971). The judge took notice of the defendant's demeanor at trial and that "[t]here were no emotional outbursts, manifestations, or signs that [the defendant] did not understand the nature and object of the proceedings against him." Commonwealth v. Russin, supra. The judge also noted that the defendant's own testimony, which came five days after his companion had testified, was complete, coherent, and consistent with his prior statements to Dr. Profit months earlier. The trial transcript contains instances where the defendant addressed the prosecutor and defense counsel in a coherent and logical manner. The judge also found that the defendant was responsive to questions. ⁹ Commonwealth v. DeMinico, 408 Mass. 230, 236, 557 N.E.2d 744 (1990). ¹⁰ The judge did not abuse his discretion in finding the defendant competent after the testimony of his companion and that he had "sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and ... a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him." Commonwealth v. DeMinico, supra, quoting Commonwealth v. Vailes, supra. The fact that Dr. Profit determined over fifteen months later that the defendant became incompetent during the course of the trial did not compel such a conclusion. See Commonwealth v. DeMinico, supra at 234-235, 557 N.E.2d 744 (defendant competent despite testimony that he experienced a psychotic episode during trial); Commonwealth v. Kostka, 370 Mass. 516, 522, 350 N.E.2d 444 (1976) (defendant competent despite testimony to the contrary).

2. Ineffective assistance of counsel. The defendant's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel was not presented to the judge at the hearing on the defendant's motion for a new trial. However, where the defendant has been convicted of murder in the first degree, we review the defendant's claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, raised in his direct appeal, under the standard of review required by G.L. c. 278, § 33E, a standard that is more favorable to a defendant than is the constitutional standard for determining ineffective assistance of counsel. Commonwealth v. Mello, 420 Mass. 375, 393, 649 N.E.2d 1106 (1995), citing Commonwealth v. Plant, 417 Mass. 704, 715, 634 N.E.2d 896 (1994). Under that standard, we need not exclusively focus on the adequacy of trial counsel's performance, but rather examine "whether there was an error ... (by defense counsel, the prosecutor, or the judge) and, if there was, whether that error was likely to have influenced the jury's conclusion." ¹¹ Commonwealth v. Mello, 420 Mass. 375, 393, 649 N.E.2d 1106 (1995), quoting Commonwealth v. Wright, 411 Mass. 678, 682, 584 N.E.2d 621 (1992).

Because the judge's...