Com. v. Smith

• Citation: 596 N.E.2d 346,413 Mass. 275
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. Marvin SMITH.
• Decision Date: 27 July 1992
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

Page 346

596 N.E.2d 346

413 Mass. 275

COMMONWEALTH v. Marvin SMITH.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,

Suffolk.

Argued May 6, 1992.

Decided July 27, 1992.

Daniel Patrick Leonard, Terence K. Ankner, Boston, with him, for defendant.

Jane A. Sullivan, Asst. Dist. Atty., for Com.

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

GREANEY, Justice.

A jury in the Superior Court convicted the defendant, Marvin Smith, of murder in the first degree. The Commonwealth proceeded against the defendant on a joint venture theory, asserting that the defendant participated with Jessie Lewis in the murder of the victim, Lee E. Taylor. Lewis and Smith were tried together. ¹ The defendant makes several arguments on appeal. We need not discuss all of the arguments because we agree with the defendant that the evidence presented by the Commonwealth was insufficient to warrant his conviction, and, consequently, his motion for a required finding of not guilty must be allowed.

The evidence in the Commonwealth's case-in-chief viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, Commonwealth v. Anderson, 396 Mass. 306, 311, 486 N.E.2d 19 (1985), permitted the jury to find the following facts. Sometime during the morning or early afternoon of February 18, 1988, the day of the murder, the defendant came into Lawson's Barbershop in the Roxbury section of Boston, the scene of the murder. The defendant was a regular customer of Lawson's. At that time, the shopowner, Robert Lawson, the defendant's regular barber, was too busy to cut the defendant's hair, so the defendant left.

At 3 P.M. on the same day the defendant and the codefendant Jessie Lewis, who was his cousin, went to Boch Motors in Norwood to obtain an inspection sticker for the defendant's automobile, a maroon 1986 Toyota Cressida, which the defendant had purchased from Boch Motors on February 15, 1988, three days earlier. The computer printout of the results of the emissions inspection of the defendant's automobile, which was introduced in evidence at trial, listed the registration number as 369NHL.

Later that day, at some time between 3 and 3:30 P.M., the defendant returned to the barbershop, and parked his automobile in front of the shop. Robert Lawson was still busy, but told the defendant that he could cut his hair if the defendant waited. The victim was in the barbershop at 4 P.M., standing next to the barber's chair of another barber, Jamerilla Lawson, the shopowner's nephew. There were anywhere from eight to twenty people in the shop at this time. Lewis came into the shop, drew a handgun from inside his belt, and walked toward the victim. There was conflicting testimony as to whether Lewis was wearing eyeglasses at the scene of the murder. On seeing Lewis, the victim attempted to grab Jamerilla Lawson, who pulled away. The victim then ran to the back of the shop and grabbed Robert Lawson. Others fled when they saw or heard that Lewis had a handgun. Lewis walked toward the back of the shop, pursuing the victim. Robert Lawson struggled to get free of the victim's grasp, and both men fell to the floor. Lewis then shot the victim in the head several times.

Just prior to the murder, a customer of the barbershop pulled up to the shop in a taxi cab. He heard three or four gun shots coming from inside the shop and saw people walking and running out of the shop. He also saw a small red or burgundy automobile which he called a "Toyota" or "Maxima" parked in front of the shop. He saw Lewis and a younger man leave the shop. The younger man entered the driver's side of the automobile, pushed open the passenger side door, and said to Lewis, "Hurry up. Get in the car." ² The witness saw this automobile drive off "fast." Another customer, who had fled outside after he saw Lewis draw the handgun, saw someone walk out of the shop "casually," after the shooting had stopped, and get into an automobile parked in front of the shop. This witness stated that the automobile was new, brown or maroon, and "might have been foreign."

On February 19, 1988, Boston police Sergeant Detective Charles H. Horsley interviewed the defendant in the presence of an attorney at Horsley's office in South Boston. The defendant appeared at the interview voluntarily, and gave an account of his whereabouts the day of the murder. The defendant stated that he had gone to his mother's home that morning to retrieve some documents pertaining to his automobile, and that he had arrived alone at Boch Motors at approximately 2 P.M. The defendant also told Horsley that he arrived at the barbershop sometime between 3 and 3:30 P.M., and that he parked his automobile directly in front of the shop. Horsley testified that the defendant gave him a motor vehicle registration, which Horsley photocopied and returned. ³ Horsley then administered Miranda warnings, and the defendant told him that his previous account had not been completely truthful in that he had not been alone the entire day. Smith did not admit that he had been with Lewis. Counsel for the defendant then terminated the interview. When the defendant attempted to leave, Horsley placed him under arrest.

Horsley also testified that on February 25, 1988, he saw the defendant's automobile parked on the street. The vehicle was a maroon Toyota Cressida, with registration number 369NHM, and its dealership label indicated that it had been purchased at Boch Motors.

At the conclusion of the Commonwealth's evidence, the defendant rested and moved for a required finding of not guilty on the ground that the Commonwealth had not introduced sufficient evidence to warrant the jury in finding beyond a reasonable doubt that he had participated as a joint venturer with Lewis in the murder. See Mass.R.Crim.P. 25(a), 378 Mass. 896 (1979). The judge denied this motion, and the jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree by reason of deliberately premeditated malice aforethought. The defendant renewed his motion for a required finding after the jury's verdict was returned. The renewed motion was also denied.

"The essential question in evaluating the denial of a motion for a required finding of not guilty is whether the evidence received, viewed in a light most favorable to the Commonwealth, is sufficient so that the jury 'might properly draw inferences, not too remote in the ordinary course of events, or forbidden by any rule of law, and conclude upon all the established circumstances and warranted inferences that the guilt of the defendant was proved beyond a reasonable doubt.' Commonwealth v. Vellucci, 284 Mass. 443, 445 (1933)." Commonwealth v. Stewart, 411 Mass. 345, 349-350, 582 N.E.2d 514 (1991), quoting Commonwealth v. Clary, 388 Mass. 583, 588-589, 447 N.E.2d 1217 (1983). "[I]t is not enough for the appellate court to find that there was some record evidence, however slight, to support each essential element of the offense." Commonwealth v. Latimore, 378 Mass. 671, 677, 393 N.E.2d 370 (1979). "A joint venturer, is 'one who aids, commands, counsels, or encourages commission of a crime while sharing with the principal the mental state required for the crime." Commonwealth v. Stewart, supra 411 Mass. at 350, 582 N.E.2d 514, quoting Commonwealth v. Soares, 377 Mass. 461, 470, 387 N.E.2d 499, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 881, 100 S.Ct. 170, 62 L.Ed.2d 110 (1979). In this case, the requisite mental state is that for murder in the first degree, deliberately premeditated malice aforethought. Commonwealth v. Soares, supra. See Commonwealth v. Fickett, 403 Mass. 194, 198, 526 N.E.2d 1064 (1988); Commonwealth v. Mandile, 403 Mass. 93, 99, 525 N.E.2d 1322 (1988). Thus, the evidence viewed in a light most favorable to the Commonwealth must be sufficient to warrant a jury's finding beyond a reasonable doubt that the "defendant was (1) present at the scene of the crime, (2) with knowledge that [Lewis] intend[ed] to commit the crime or with intent to commit [the] crime, and (3) by agreement [was] willing and available to help [Lewis] if necessary." Commonwealth v. Mandile, supra at 99-100, 525 N.E.2d 1322, quoting Commonwealth v. Bianco, 388 Mass. 358, 366, 446 N.E.2d 1041, S.C., 390 Mass. 254, 454 N.E.2d 901 (1983).

The Commonwealth argues that the defendant knowingly and intentionally participated with Lewis in the murder either by going to the barbershop to find and point out the victim to Lewis or by driving the get-away car (or by doing both).

There is no support for the theory that the defendant played a role in the murder by identifying the victim for Lewis. No witness identified the defendant as the man the victim ran to and grabbed in an effort to avoid Lewis. That man was identified by all the witnesses except one as the owner of the barbershop, Robert Lawson. ⁴ Several witnesses testified that the defendant had entered the barbershop at some time during the hour before the murder took place, and the defendant's regular barber testified that he told the defendant to wait for a haircut. Two of the prosecution's witnesses testified that the defendant left the shop prior to the murder, and others testified that they were not sure whether the defendant was in the shop at the time of the murder. There was no testimony that the defendant and Lewis arrived at the barbershop together, that Lewis arrived in the defendant's automobile, or in any automobile, or that Lewis and the defendant were ever present in the shop simultaneously. The only time the defendant and Lewis were seen together was at Boch Toyota, approximately one hour before the murder.

The contention that the defendant was the driver of the get-away car is of questionable probative force. While there was evidence that the defendant and Lewis had been together at Boch Motors in the defendant's car about one hour before the murder, there was no evidence clearly identifying the defendant's car as the one Lewis entered after the murder, and no...