Commonwealth v. Jones
| Decision Date | 24 October 1934 |
| Citation | 192 N.E. 522,288 Mass. 150 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH v. JONES. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from Superior Court, Middlesex County; Beaudreau, Judge.
James A. Jones, Jr., was convicted of manslaughter, and he appeals.
Affirmed.J. D. McCarthy, of Malden, and C. E. Daly, of Boston, for appellant.
F. A. Crafts, Asst. Dist. Atty., of East Cambridge, for the Commonwealth.
This is an appeal under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 278, §§ 33A to 33G. On December 16, 1933, the defendant, while operating a truck, struck one Catherine Moore. As a result of the injuries received Mrs. Moore died on the same day.
On December 18, 1933, a complaint issued from the First District Court of Eastern Middlesex charging that the defendant ‘on the sixteenth day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirty three, at Everett, in the County of Middlesex, and within the judicial district of said Court, in and upon a certain way, to wit:-Ferry Street, did operate a motor vehicle negligentlyso that the lives or safety of the public might be endangered * * *.’ On December 28, 1933, after trial the defendant was found not guilty and discharged.
On January 5, 1934, the defendant was indicted for manslaughter. He was arraigned on the indictment on January 12, 1934, and filed a general plea of not guilty. On January 31, 1934, he filed a plea in bar setting up as prior jeopardy an acquittal in the First District Court of Eastern Middlesex from a charge of operating a motor vehicle so that the lives and safety of the public might be endangered-a statutory misdemeanor under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 90, § 24. The misdemeanor charge in the District Court arose out of the same transaction as the indictment charging manslaughter. The plea was denied on February 5, 1934, and the defendant duly saved his exception. Subsequently, a jury was empanelled and sworn to try the issue. At the close of the evidence the defendant moved that the jury be directed to return a verdict of not guilty. This motion was denied. The record does not disclose any exception taken by the defendant to the denial of this motion. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the indictment for manslaughter, on February 12, 1934, and the defendant was sentenced to hard labor in the house of correction in Cambridge for two years and to pay a fine of $100.
The defendant appealed, and assigned error specifically set forth in his assignment of errors, which reads as follows: ‘The Superior Court erred in denying the defendant's Plea in Bar. The grounds upon which said claim of error is based are: That the acquittal of the defendant of the crime pleaded in bar under principles of former jeopardy barred his trial on the indictment charging manslaughter. That the acquittal of the defendant of the crime pleaded in bar under principles of res judicata barred the reopening of the question whether or not the conduct of the defendant had been ‘wanton and reckless' since that issue had been determined in favor of the defendant at the trial of the crime pleaded in bar.’
The only question involved is whether or not the trial and acquittal of the defendant in the District Court for the statutory misdemeanor operate as a bar to the trial for manslaughter arising out of the same...
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