Commonwealth v. Burgess

Decision Date06 April 2001
CourtUnited States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
PartiesCOMMONWEALTH v. RYAN J. BURGESS.

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

James E. Methe for the defendant.

Kelly-Anne DeFao, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.

MARSHALL, C.J.

After a jury trial, the defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree on theories of extreme atrocity or cruelty and felony-murder. He was also convicted of armed burglary, the underlying felony. The defendant appeals from his convictions, claiming constitutional error in the admission in evidence of his clothing taken during a search that he maintains was unlawful; in the denial of his motion to suppress inculpatory statements made to the police while he was in custody; in jury instructions concerning his intoxication on the night of the killing; and in his claim of inadequate representation by trial counsel. The defendant also asks us to exercise our power under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, to reduce the verdict. We affirm the convictions, and decline to exercise our statutory power.

1. Background. On the night of December 31, 1996, the defendant broke into the home of the victim, and brutally strangled and stabbed her to death. We recount the relevant facts leading up to the killing, reserving discussion of other facts in conjunction with the issues raised. On the evening in question, the defendant attended a New Year's Eve party in Middleborough. Between 7 P.M. and 9 P.M., the defendant drank approximately ten twelve-ounce beers and two "shots" of Goldschlager (an alcoholic drink). He also ingested a tablet of Tylenol with codeine. The defendant left the party on his own shortly after 9 P.M., after an argument with the party's host.

After walking some distance, the defendant approached the home of the victim's parents where the victim was staying during her school holiday. He entered the back porch of the house through an unlocked storm door after seeing an automobile pull out of the driveway. When the victim came to the door and inquired what the defendant was doing, the defendant told her that he was a friend of her sister. The victim then began to scream.

The defendant entered the home and began to choke the victim. The victim fell back onto a couch as she pushed the defendant away. As the victim struggled to breathe, the defendant retrieved a large knife from the kitchen. When the victim tried to escape, the defendant "stalked" her, and stabbed her repeatedly in the neck, back, and hands. After the victim fell to the floor, the defendant dragged her body so that it would be out of view of the windows, then had intercourse with her, ejaculating on himself. The evidence was inconclusive as to whether the victim was dead or alive at the time.

The defendant then went upstairs, "ransacked" three bedrooms, and smoked a cigarette. He fled when he heard the victim's family return home. He discarded the knife while running through the woods to the Middleborough home of a friend with whom he had been living for the two months prior to the killing. The police found him there the following morning.

A subsequent autopsy revealed that the victim was stabbed more than twenty-one times in her neck and back; eleven of the wounds were fatal. She received multiple abrasions and bruises to her neck, a fractured hyoid bone, and suffered hemorrhaging in her voice box, larynx, and neck muscles. Several stab wounds to the victim's hands and wrists indicated that she had tried to defend herself. There was a bite wound on one of her nipples.

2. Motions to suppress. Prior to trial, the defendant filed motions to suppress clothing seized by the police from his bedroom, and to suppress statements that he made to the police the day after the murder while in a cruiser and at the State police barracks. The defendant claims in essence that, because he was young (he was eighteen years of age at the time), had a history of substance abuse, had a limited education (eighth grade), and was not living with and did not have the support of his family, he was overwhelmed by the presence of the several police officers who came to question him the morning after the murder such that all of his interactions with the police that day are constitutionally suspect. After a pretrial evidentiary hearing at which three police officers and the father of the friend with whom he was living testified, a motion judge made careful factual findings with respect to each of the defendant's claims. On the basis of those findings, he determined that the defendant's clothing and statements to the police were admissible. We address each ruling in turn.

(a) Search of the defendant's room. On the morning after the murder, three State troopers and a Middleborough police detective arrived at the home where the defendant was living after they learned that the defendant had left the New Year's Eve party on his own. The mother of the defendant's friend let the troopers into the home. The defendant was in the shower. When he emerged, one of the officers asked him about fresh cuts and scratches on his face and about the clothing he had worn the previous night. The officer also asked to see his clothing. The defendant agreed, leading the officers to his bedroom. He held up pants that were wet and apparently bloodstained. He also retrieved a pair of athletic shoes from under his bed. These too were wet. The defendant agreed that the police could take the clothes.1

The defendant maintains that he was coerced into consenting to the search. Where, as here, the Commonwealth relies on consent to justify the lawfulness of a search without a warrant, it bears the burden of proving that the consent was "freely and voluntarily" given. Commonwealth v. Krisco Corp., 421 Mass. 37, 46 (1995). The Commonwealth must show "consent unfettered by coercion, express or implied, and also something more than mere `acquiescence to a claim of lawful authority.'" Commonwealth v. Sanna, 424 Mass. 92, 97 (1997), quoting Commonwealth v. Voisine, 414 Mass. 772, 783 (1993). The motion judge's conclusion that the Commonwealth had met its burden is unassailable. His rulings that the "police behavior at the house was appropriate and professional," that the police "were not coercive," that the defendant "appeared cooperative," and that the police "did not employ trickery or deceit" were fully supported by the testimony at the hearing.2 The judge took into account the defendant's age and his level of education. See Commonwealth v. Sarourt Nom, 426 Mass. 152, 158 (1997) (no suppression where defendant was "high school dropout"). He also considered that the officers did not affirmatively inform the defendant that he could withhold consent to the search or questioning. See Commonwealth v. Sanna, supra at 97-98 n.10 (failure to inform of right to withhold consent relevant but not necessarily dispositive). Based on the totality of the circumstances, the judge did not err in denying the motion to suppress the admission of clothing in evidence. See Commonwealth v. Parker, 402 Mass. 333, 342 (1988).

(b) Statements made in the police cruiser. The house where the defendant was living at the time of the murder is located a short distance from the State police barracks. The motion judge found that, while in a cruiser heading to the barracks, the defendant received "complete and accurate" Miranda warnings. During the ride the defendant admitted that he had entered the victim's home the previous night, and (in response to a comment by one of the officers) agreed that someone in the house had "led [him] on," and that he had later fled and had run out into the woods.3 The defendant claims it was error for the motion judge to deny the motion in two respects. First, he claims the judge failed to take into account that the officers would not have had time during the brief journey both to advise him of his Miranda rights and to interrogate him. Second, he suggests that the judge erroneously credited the testimony of the police officers regarding the fact of and content of the Miranda warnings.4 There is no merit to either claim. The motion judge's findings and decision are amply supported by the evidence. See Commonwealth v. Yesilciman, 406 Mass. 736, 743 (1990), quoting Commonwealth v. Moon, 380 Mass. 751, 756 (1980) (determination of weight and credibility of testimony "is the function and responsibility of the judge who saw the witnesses," not appellate court). Minor variations in the trooper's accounts of the exact language he used when giving the Miranda warnings, see note 4, supra, do not require suppression where the judge found that the content of the Miranda warnings had been adequately conveyed. See Commonwealth v. Sanna, supra; Commonwealth v. Ghee, 414 Mass. 313, 318 (1993).

The defendant's claim that, even if the warnings were adequate, his waiver was not valid because the police used coercive "psychological pressures" before he entered the cruiser, is equally unavailing. The evidence supports the judge's finding that the defendant voluntarily agreed to talk to the police, and to accompany the officers to the barracks.5 The defendant was not handcuffed, and the judge found he was "coherent, sober, and was communicating with no problem." See Commonwealth v. Raymond, 424 Mass. 382, 396 (1997). The defendant had also received Miranda warnings three years earlier when, faced with a burglary charge, he was questioned by police. See Commonwealth v. Pucillo, 427 Mass. 108, 111 (1998). There is no suggestion that the police used any unfair tactics to induce the defendant to waive his rights. See id. The Commonwealth met its burden.

The judge's findings also support his conclusion that the defendant's statements in the cruiser (in addition to his waiver) were voluntary. See Commonwealth v. Pucillo, supra at 111 n.1, quoting Commonwealth v. Edwards, 420 Mass. 666, 673 (1995) (although...

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