Com. v. Knight

• Decision Date: 27 September 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-P-324,93-P-324
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. Keith KNIGHT.
• Court: Appeals Court of Massachusetts

Page 240

637 N.E.2d 240

37 Mass.App.Ct. 92

COMMONWEALTH v. Keith KNIGHT.

No. 93-P-324.

Appeals Court of Massachusetts Suffolk.

Argued May 6, 1994.

Decided July 28, 1994.

Further Appellate Review Denied Sept. 27, 1994.

Eric Brandt, Committee for Public Counsel Services, for defendant.

Edmond J. Zabin, Asst. Dist. Atty., for Com.

Before PERRETTA, FINE and GILLERMAN, JJ.

FINE, Justice.

The body of Marie DuBuissant was recovered from behind a false fireplace in the apartment she shared with the defendant in the Dorchester section of Boston. The defendant was charged with murder. After a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant was convicted of so much of the indictment as charged manslaughter. On appeal, the defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and the instructions on manslaughter. We affirm.

We describe the Commonwealth's case. ¹ When the Boston police found DuBuissant's body on Friday, November 23, 1992, it was wrapped in a bedspread, covered by a sheet, surrounded by mattress material, and stuffed tightly headfirst into a cramped space. It was undisputed that the defendant was present at the time of death, sometime between 8 P.M. on the Monday before Thanksgiving in 1992 and 4:00 the next morning. No other adults were present, but the victim's six year old daughter, Jessica, presumably was home sleeping. DuBuissant was last seen alive by a close friend, Doris Fields, on Monday at about 3 P.M. when, as usual, they met their children at school and walked home. DuBuissant and Fields had planned to have Thanksgiving dinner together. About 8 or 8:30 Monday evening, DuBuissant called Fields to find out what time she planned to arrive for Thanksgiving dinner and to discuss the menu. They spoke for about thirty minutes. About 10:45 P.M., DuBuissant's upstairs neighbor, Margaret Brown, came home from work. She heard loud music coming from DuBuissant's apartment. After falling asleep, Brown was awakened at 2 A.M. by a loud crash. She described it as "sounding like something heavy fell." She went downstairs, knocked on DuBuissant's door and asked her not to be so loud. No one answered, and she heard nothing inside. After knocking again and receiving no response, she went back upstairs. The following morning, approximately 9 A.M., Brown saw the defendant leave DuBuissant's apartment to take out a small bag of trash.

The defendant had known DuBuissant for at least two years and lived with her in the Dorchester apartment. There was no evidence of any romantic relationship between the two; they were described as friends. The defendant had a girlfriend, Michelle Roddy, who testified further about the events that occurred in the early morning hours on Tuesday. The defendant called Roddy about 4:00 Tuesday morning and told her to come to the apartment. When Roddy arrived about 5 A.M., the defendant, who appeared nervous and odd, told her "something had happened." He also said, "an accident happened." Although Roddy had no trouble understanding the defendant when he telephoned at 4 A.M., at 5 A.M. he was visibly intoxicated and had difficulty standing. He was leaning over for support. As Roddy began to walk toward the bathroom, she asked where DuBuissant was, and the defendant responded that "they were arguing and that there had been an accident ... [a]nd that she had fallen and hit her head." The defendant told her not to go any further toward the bathroom, but Roddy, who had already reached the bathroom, looked inside and saw DuBuissant's naked body in the bathtub. Again, Roddy inquired as to what had happened, and the defendant responded that "it was an accident" and that "he thought he might have killed her." The defendant repeated that he and the victim had been arguing and "they were fighting and that he might have killed her." The defendant then asked Roddy what they were going to do; she responded that she did not know. Apparently due to intoxication, he fell in the hall, and Roddy helped him up and to the bed in the victim's bedroom where he went to sleep. Roddy slept beside him.

Later that morning, Jessica entered the bedroom and said it was time for her to go to school. After taking Jessica to school, Roddy returned to the apartment. When she returned, the defendant was getting dressed and had left the bedroom. He was again asking her what to do, and she said she did not know. He told her to go home and come back at noon "so he could think." When she returned later that day, the defendant seemed nervous and said he needed Roddy to get some trash bags, to help clean up. She tried to get trash bags from a neighbor but was unsuccessful and returned. The defendant told Roddy to stay in the living room. When she got up to go into the hall, she saw the defendant pull the body, in a sheet, into Jessica's room. Several minutes later he came out of the room and again told Roddy to go home and return later. She returned about 1 P.M. and spent the night with the defendant.

On Wednesday morning, the defendant went out to retrieve DuBuissant's mail. After he opened the mail, the defendant gave DuBuissant's $223 welfare check to Roddy and asked her to cash it because he "needed the money." The defendant took Roddy's identification card and, using an iron, placed Roddy's picture on DuBuissant's identification card. Roddy was arrested at a nearby grocery store for trying to cash the victim's welfare check. She did not see the defendant again until Friday.

DuBuissant's whereabouts had become a mystery to her friends and neighbors. On Tuesday morning, the victim's landlord asked the defendant where DuBuissant was, and the defendant answered that she was with her boyfriend. The same day, the defendant told the landlord's son that DuBuissant had left him home with her daughter. Later that day, Fields asked the defendant if he knew where DuBuissant was, and the defendant told her that DuBuissant left the house at 11 P.M. Monday, with a man, drinking.

On Tuesday morning, when Fields took her son to school, she saw Jessica in the cold November weather without a coat and in a short-sleeved dress. About noon, the defendant went to Fields's home and asked her to pick Jessica up from school because he had something to do. After picking Jessica up around 3 P.M., Fields called DuBuissant's apartment to see if she was there yet. The defendant answered the phone. About fifteen minutes later, Fields took Jessica to the apartment. That afternoon, Fields called DuBuissant's apartment every hour to see if she had returned. Each time, the defendant answered. Fields finally called the police. About 8 P.M. Tuesday, Boston police were dispatched to the victim's apartment in response to a report of Jessica being left alone. When one of the officers entered the apartment, he noticed a strange odor, but he did not think much of it at the time. The officers brought Jessica to Fields's home where she stayed until Friday.

From Tuesday until Friday, Fields phoned DuBuissant's apartment about twenty times; each time, the defendant answered. Fields went to the apartment twice, and each time the defendant was there. On Friday, Fields tried to get additional clothes for Jessica. The defendant was at his grandmother's house a block away. Fields's request of the defendant for clothes for Jessica or for a key to the apartment was refused. Fields then found DuBuissant's landlord, with whom she returned to the apartment, broke the lock, and went inside. Fields went directly into Jessica's bedroom to retrieve some clothing for her, and she noticed that Jessica's mattress was missing. She saw that the victim's clothes, including her winter coat, were still in the closet, that all of her shoes were in the apartment, and that the bricks in front of the fireplace in the living room were pulled away from the wall. When she detected a strange odor coming from the fireplace, she asked the landlord to pull the bricks from the wall, and there she saw the victim's hair and a lot of cotton cloth stuffed into the wall. The police were called, and they removed the victim's body from the fireplace.

Outside the apartment, one of the officers noticed an old mattress with the stuffing removed. A partial box spring with stuffing and straw hanging from it was found in Jessica's room. The stuffing in the fireplace appeared to be the same as that of the stripped mattress, and samples of the stuffing in Jessica's bedroom matched the stuffing in the fireplace.

Homicide detectives collected other physical evidence from the apartment. The sheet and bedspread in which the body was wrapped tested positive for blood. Police also recovered from DuBuissant's bedroom a sheet, a pillow case, a laundry bag, and a sleeveless jersey, all of which tested positive for blood, and they found a bloodstained female undergarment near the body.

Dr. Leonard Atkins, a medical examiner, performed an autopsy and determined that the cause of death was asphyxia, which he defined as a cutting off of the supply of air. Dr. Atkins testified that homicide by asphyxia can occur without physical injury, such as when one covers the victim's mouth with a pillow. He found no injuries, internal or external, to the victim's head, chest, neck, or abdomen. He noted that there was extensive skin slippage and blistering, due to body decomposition, and that an obnoxious odor was present, a result of the growth of bacteria in the body. A blood and body fluid sample showed the presence of a small quantity of alcohol which he attributed largely to alcohol formed by tissue decomposition. Otherwise, there was no evidence of drugs or alcohol in the victim's body.

Dr. Atkins noted on cross-examination that one would need to apply some pressure to suffocate someone with a pillow. He acknowledged that he found no lacerations or bruises in the mouth, lip, and teeth area. There was no evidence of pinpoint hemorrhaging, which is usually associated with violent strangling or suffocation. On...