Com. v. Jones

• Decision Date: 29 April 2003
• Citation: 439 Mass. 249,786 N.E.2d 1197
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. Paul JONES.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

786 N.E.2d 1197

439 Mass. 249

COMMONWEALTH v. Paul JONES.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex.

Argued February 7, 2003.

Decided April 29, 2003.

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Nancy A. Dolberg, Boston, for the defendant.

Marguerite T. Grant, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.

Present: MARSHALL, C.J., IRELAND, SPINA, COWIN, & SOSMAN, JJ.

IRELAND, J.

A jury convicted the defendant, Paul Jones, of murder in the first degree by reason of deliberate premeditation. The defendant filed a timely notice of appeal. His motion for a new trial, filed in this court and remanded to the Superior Court, was denied. His appeal from that ruling has been consolidated with his direct appeal. The defendant challenges the denial of his motion to suppress his statements to the police; the admission of certain hearsay statements¹; the failure to instruct the jury on joint venture; the cumulative effect of the alleged errors; and the denial of his motion for a new trial. The defendant also requests that the court use its extraordinary power under G.L. c. 278, § 33E, to reduce the verdict. After considering these arguments and reviewing the entire record pursuant to § 33E, we find no reason to grant a new trial or to reduce the degree of guilt. Accordingly, we affirm the conviction and denial of a motion for new trial.

I. Facts.

We recite the facts in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, reserving certain portions for discussion in connection with the issues raised. In order adequately to summarize the Commonwealth's evidence of premeditation, we must go into great detail with respect to certain aspects of the facts. On February 7, 1996, the body of the sixteen year old victim was found in a wooded area in Ashby, protruding from a trash bag with a bicycle chain around her neck. The victim's body was frozen to the ground. The ankles and wrists were bound with duct tape, and the hands were bound to the body. The victim's neck had an abrasion stained with black grease, in a pattern consistent with the bicycle chain. There was no grease on the victim's hands. The medical examiner opined that the cause of death was strangulation by ligature, and that the bicycle chain could have been the murder weapon.

The victim's rectum contained sperm cells mixed with her blood, consistent with the victim's having anal intercourse before her death. The sperm cells were consistent with the defendant's DNA, but due to the mixture with the blood, the laboratory was unable to calculate the statistical probability of the DNA match. The police discovered fourteen fingerprints from the inside layers of the duct tape, thirteen of which matched the defendant's. The police were unable to identify the remaining print.

The victim's older sister, Heather Santerre, had been dating the defendant for about five years. Santerre, who was approximately eighteen years old at the time of the murder, lived with the defendant (who was approximately nineteen years old at the time of the murder), his mother, and his three younger siblings, in the family's three-bedroom home in Groton. Although Santerre and the victim did not live together for most of their lives, they had maintained a close relationship. In the summer of 1995, the victim moved into the defendant's family's home with Santerre. Afterward her relationship with Santerre deteriorated, and the sisters argued frequently.

In late December, 1995, Greg Michaud also moved into the defendant's family's house, and shared the defendant's bedroom with the defendant and Santerre. Michaud's girl friend, Patricia McKinnon, was a long-time friend of Santerre and frequently spent the night, sleeping in the same bedroom as the defendant, Santerre, and Michaud.

The Commonwealth's primary witness at trial was McKinnon, who testified to the following. Santerre and McKinnon believed that the victim was sexually involved with their respective boy friends. In an effort to substantiate their suspicions, Santerre and McKinnon looked through the victim's personal belongings in search of her diary. Santerre read aloud a portion of the diary that indicated that the victim "was in love with [the defendant], that they were going to be together and [Santerre] would be out of the way, and they'd be happy." Santerre read similar sentiments in a letter written by the victim to the defendant.

On Friday, January 26, 1996, Santerre, the defendant, and McKinnon went for a drive. The conversation in the car turned to planning the victim's death² and looking for places to dispose of the body. They looked at several places, but did not find any "good spots." On the way back to McKinnon's house in Ashby, Santerre turned down a dirt road, and the defendant requested that Santerre stop the car. The defendant identified a place at the side of the road that he said was a "good spot" because there was a tree, the base of which was not visible from where he was standing. Santerre asked McKinnon to help with the murder by luring Michaud away from the house. McKinnon refused. McKinnon asked if the defendant and Santerre were serious about their plan to kill the victim and they responded that "they weren't; that it was [Santerre's] sister, and they couldn't do it."

On the morning of Sunday, January 28, 1996, the defendant called McKinnon and said, "Today is the day. We're going to do it." Later that day, Santerre and Michaud picked up McKinnon and on the way back to the defendant's house, Santerre stopped the car five times, and made a telephone call at each stop. After Santerre drove into the defendant's driveway she sounded the horn. Santerre got out of the car, and exchanged words with the defendant who was at a window on the second floor. The defendant "shook his head `yes,'" and Santerre returned to the car. Santerre, McKinnon and Michaud drove to a grocery store, returned to the house approximately ten minutes later, and Santerre honked the horn again. The defendant came to the window, "shook his head `yes,'" and Santerre went into the house. Santerre returned to the car approximately five minutes later, and told McKinnon to take a drive with Michaud. McKinnon and Michaud came back approximately one hour later, and found the defendant, Santerre, and the defendant's mother unpacking groceries in the kitchen. McKinnon went upstairs to the defendant's bedroom to get a sweatshirt, and she noticed a piece of pipe on the floor. The defendant entered the bedroom and said, "She's dead."

The defendant told McKinnon that he had killed the victim. He said that he lured her into his room by saying that "they were going to have sex." The defendant said that he taped her arms to her legs, blindfolded and gagged her, and put a bicycle chain around the victim's neck. The defendant said that he pulled on the chain, and asked if the victim trusted him. The defendant said that he pulled the chain to get her to stop breathing. Every time that he loosened the chain the victim would gasp for a breath. The defendant's hands began to hurt, so he picked up the piece of pipe and used it to pull the chain. He pulled until she stopped breathing. The defendant and Santerre were going to carry the victim down to the garage, but the victim "had gotten a heartbeat back on the way down." The defendant said that he pulled the chain tightly around the victim's neck, and snapped it. The defendant and Santerre then put the victim in a garbage bag, and put her body into a garbage can in the garage. The defendant showed McKinnon red marks on his hand from the chain. McKinnon returned to the kitchen, and shortly thereafter, Santerre said that the victim was "finally dead and out of her life,"and she "started dancing around."

The defendant and Santerre concocted a story to explain the victim's disappearance. They said that the victim argued with them and ran out of the house. On several occasions the defendant and Santerre went "to look for" the victim. The defendant told McKinnon not to say anything to anybody, and that if she did, the defendant would "get [her], too." During the rest of the week McKinnon talked to the defendant a few times, and he reminded her not to say anything.

On February 5, 1996, McKinnon went with her mother to the Groton police station. McKinnon told police that she heard the defendant say "something about [the victim] and where she was." Two days later, McKinnon went to the police station again, and told police that the defendant had killed the victim. Based on the information provided by McKinnon, the police found the victim's body.

The Commonwealth also introduced evidence that Gerald Intonti was an inmate at the Cambridge jail where the defendant was being held for trial. Intonti testified that the defendant admitted to him that he murdered the victim. The defendant told Intonti that he brought the victim up to his bedroom, that he used the duct tape "under the premise of having sex games," that he put a chain around her neck, and used a piece of pipe to twist the chain.

At trial, the defense did not argue that the defendant did not kill the victim. Rather, defense counsel argued that the killing was not premeditated, and that the defendant acted in the heat of passion, under sudden provocation, and therefore was guilty of something less than murder in the first degree. The defendant's theory was that Santerre and McKinnon were the ones who plotted to kill the victim,³ and that the defendant did not want to carry out their plan. The defense strategy was to discredit McKinnon and Intonti's credibility and to show that Santerre was dominant in her relationship with the defendant.

II. Discussion.

A. Motion to suppress statements to police. The defendant claims that the judge erred in refusing to suppress statements that he made to the police because his waiver of the Miranda warnings was invalid; the confession was not voluntary; and the police continued to interrogate the defendant aft...