Commonwealth v. Donahue

• Decision Date: 07 December 1999
• Citation: 723 NE 2d 25,430 Mass. 710
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. EDWARD W. DONAHUE.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

430 Mass. 710

723 NE 2d 25

COMMONWEALTH v. EDWARD W. DONAHUE.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex.

December 7, 1999.

February 3, 2000.

Present: MARSHALL, C.J., ABRAMS, LYNCH, GREANEY, IRELAND, SPINA, & COWIN, JJ.

Richard J. Shea for the defendant.

Thomas D. Ralph, Assistant District Attorney (Melissa Weisgold Johnsen, Assistant District Attorney, with him) for the Commonwealth.

SPINA, J.

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree under theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty. On appeal, he claims that (1) the affidavit offered in support of the application for the search warrant for his home and car failed to establish probable cause; and (2) pursuant to G. L. c. 278, § 33E, this court should reduce the verdict to murder in the second degree or order a new trial because the evidence of premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty was unfairly bolstered by the testimony of the psychiatrists who had examined him. We reject the defendant's claims as to probable cause. We decline to exercise our power under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, to grant a new trial or reduce the verdict. On October 17, 1997, the partially decomposed body of Elaine Donahue, a nurse and mother of four, was found by police in a fifty-gallon Rubbermaid container that had been stored in a rented storage locker. She had been missing since September 18, 1997, and at the time her body was discovered, she had been dead for approximately one month. Death resulted from at least two severe blows causing multiple skull fractures.

Before the victim's body was discovered, extensive investigation had led police to suspect her husband, the defendant. On October 17, 1997, police executed a search warrant for the defendant's home and car. A specially trained "cadaver-sniffing" dog signaled the presence of human remains, blood, body fluid, or decomposition in the closet of the master bedroom and in the basement of the home, as well as in the trunk of the defendant's car and in a mattress stripped of its stuffing which the defendant had tried to hide in his backyard. Several other pieces of highly incriminating evidence were found, including (1) a large blood stain on the master bedroom window, (2) numerous blood stains on the wall, floor, and headboard in the master bedroom, (3) a bag of mattress stuffing which tested positive for blood, (4) the victim's purse, (5) a receipt for the purchase of a fifty-gallon Rubbermaid container, and (6) two documents relating to the rental of a storage locker at an E-Z Mini Storage facility in Lynnfield. Based on this discovery, police obtained the search warrant for the storage locker. Inside the locker was the fifty-gallon Rubbermaid container containing the victim's body. A shoe print in the storage locker matched that of the defendant. Along with the victim's body, the defendant's thumb print was found inside the fifty-gallon container.

On October 19, 1997, the defendant spoke from a jail cell at the Reading police department to his sister-in-law. During their conversation, the defendant said he had "just lost it," and that there was "no excuse or explanation" for what he had done. From the sister-in-law's testimony at trial, the jury could reasonably have found that the defendant admitted killing his wife while she slept.

1. Motion to suppress. The defendant argues that the affidavit supporting the application for the search warrant for his home and car failed to establish probable cause, and instead merely established that a person was missing. The argument has no merit.

To establish probable cause to search, "[a]n affidavit must contain enough information for an issuing magistrate to determine that the items sought are related to the criminal activity under investigation, and that they reasonably may be expected to be located in the place to be searched at the time the search warrant issues." Commonwealth v. Cinelli, 389 Mass. 197, 213, cert. denied, 464 U.S. 860 (1983). "[T]he nexus between the items to be seized and the place to be searched need not be based on direct observation ... [but] ... [t]he nexus may be found in `the type of crime, the nature of the missing items, the extent of the suspect's opportunity for concealment, and normal inferences as to where a criminal would be likely to hide [evidence of the crime].'" Id., quoting United States v. Lucarz, 430 F.2d 1051, 1055 (9th Cir. 1970). See Commonwealth v. Wilson, 427 Mass. 336, 342 (1998). The affidavit need not convince the magistrate beyond a reasonable doubt, but must provide a substantial basis for concluding that evidence connected to the crime will be found on the specified premises. Commonwealth v. Stewart, 358 Mass. 747, 749 (1971). Moreover, affidavits for search warrants should be interpreted "in a commonsense and realistic fashion," United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 108 (1965); see Commonwealth v. Burt, 393 Mass. 703, 714 (1985), and "read as a whole, not parsed, severed, and subjected to hypercritical analysis." Commonwealth v. Blake, 413 Mass. 823, 827 (1992). Commonwealth v. Stewart, supra at 751. See United States v. Ventresca, supra.

All reasonable inferences which may be drawn from the information in the affidavit may also be considered as to whether probable cause has been established. Commonwealth v. Smith, 370 Mass. 335, 342, cert. denied, 429 U.S. 944 (1976); Commonwealth v. Stewart, supra at 752.

We summarize the information in the affidavit. Elaine Donahue was reported missing by the defendant on September 18, 1997. The police interviewed several of her family members, friends, and coworkers, and learned that she was a very stable, responsible person of the highest moral character who would never have simply abandoned her children, friends, or job. She had no prior history of leaving home without notice, and no history of emotional problems. There was no indication that she was romantically involved with another person. Although the defendant told the police that his wife had gone shopping the last time he had seen her, no corresponding activity was reported by her bank or credit card issuer. When police found her car in the parking lot of a local shopping center, they noted that the driver's seat was pushed to the "far back position," an unusual position for a woman of Elaine Donahue's diminutive physical size.

Between September 18, the date of her disappearance, and October 17, the day the search warrant was executed, no one had heard from Elaine Donahue. Police conducted an aerial search for her and found nothing. With cadaver-sniffing dogs, they searched the wooded areas near her home and those next to the parking lot where her car was discovered, but found nothing. Police also requested permission from the defendant on September 20 to conduct a canine search of the interior of his home, but the defendant refused. The media broadcast a picture of Elaine Donahue with a story about her disappearance; flyers were posted and distributed; hotels, hospitals, shelters, transportation service providers, and law enforcement agencies were contacted, all without any response.

Elaine Donahue and the defendant had serious marital problems stemming from the defendant's addiction to gambling. At one point, the defendant threatened to kill his wife if she ever tried to take their children away from him. The defendant admitted to police that he and his wife were rarely intimate, but had decided to stay together for the sake of their children. Elaine Donahue agreed to stay with the defendant on the condition that she maintain complete control over the family finances. The defendant, an accountant by occupation, found his wife's total control over the finances to be "frustrating." He was required to go to her each time he needed money, even for mundane items such as gas, bowling fees, and fast food. The defendant was aware that he was the beneficiary of his wife's life insurance policies, which had an aggregate face value of $350,000. Years before she disappeared, Elaine Donahue told her best friend, "If anything happens to me, don't let Ed get away with it."

Over the course of their investigation, the police noted behavior by the defendant which, viewed as a whole, caused them to focus on him as a suspect. He failed to answer his own telephone when it rang, notwithstanding the fact that his wife was inexplicably missing and could have been trying to reach him. He cashed checks totaling $900 on the same day that his wife disappeared, despite the fact that his wife did not ordinarily permit him to handle money. On the same day Elaine Donahue disappeared, the defendant was seen riding a bicycle near where her car was found. When asked the last time he had been on a bicycle, the defendant replied, "Who can put me on a bicycle?" Unprompted, the defendant called the police in an "anxious" voice to ask when he would be eliminated as a suspect. He later asked police another unprompted question about how suspects in the murder of ten year old Jeffrey Curley recently were apprehended. On October 8, 1997, the police asked the defendant to tell them in what area his wife's body could be found. The defendant responded that "she's not in an area." On October 9, 1997, the defendant again declined consent to a canine search of his home. On October 14, 1997, the police renewed their request to conduct a canine search of the defendant's home and property. The defendant at first resisted this request, but then consented. Police agreed to conduct the search between 8:15 A.M. and 8:30 A.M. on October 17, 1997, after his children had gone to school. On the day before the scheduled search, the defendant purchased a fifty-gallon Rubbermaid container. Before making his purchase, the defendant asked the clerk whether the store had a larger container he could purchase. At approximately 2 A.M. on October 17, 1997, six hours before the scheduled search, the defendant walked out the rear entry...