Commonwealth v. Rancourt
| Decision Date | 18 February 1987 |
| Citation | 399 Mass. 269,503 N.E.2d 960 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH vs. MICHAEL A. RANCOURT. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Present: HENNESSEY, C.J., WILKINS, ABRAMS, LYNCH, & O'CONNOR, JJ.
Kenneth G. Littman for the defendant.
Dana A. Curhan, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.
After trial by jury, the defendant, Michael A. Rancourt, was convicted of aggravated rape, G.L.c. 265, § 22(a) (1984 ed.); kidnapping, G.L.c. 265, § 26 (1984 ed.); and assault by means of a dangerous weapon, G.L.c. 265, § 15B (1984 ed.). The defendant appealed his convictions to the Appeals Court, asserting that (1) the judge erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained from him by a fellow inmate, while he was incarcerated for failure to post bail; (2) the judge erred in admitting evidence of a previous incident involving the defendant; (3) the judge erred in submitting to the jury prior to presentation of the defendant's case a letter written by the defendant; and (4) the judge erred in denying defense counsel's request for a presentence report. We transferred the case to this court on our own motion. We affirm.
We summarize the evidence.1 On August 2, 1984, in the early morning hours, Donna Ceseretti and Rhonda Nardolillo left Route 95 at the West Exchange Street exit in Providence, Rhode Island. As they were stopped at a traffic light off the exit, a man, later identified as the defendant, attempted to unlock the door and to get into the automobile. The women pulled away, and the defendant was unsuccessful in his attempt to enter the automobile. The women filed a police report with the Providence police department.
Approximately a half hour later, the victim left the highway at the same place. As she waited at the red light, the defendant jumped into her automobile. The victim saw something slim and metal in the defendant's hand. The defendant told her that it was a knife.
At the defendant's direction, the victim drove to Route 195 and followed that highway to Westport. In Westport, the defendant told the victim to leave the highway and to drive to a dimly lit street. The victim was fearful and pulled over in front of some hedges because lights were visible through the hedges. She flooded the engine so that they could not proceed any further down the dark road.
The defendant then forced the victim to perform oral sex on him. He then performed oral sex on the victim. In addition, he tried to force the victim to sit on the stick shift of the automobile. The defendant ordered the victim to lie across the seat, and he attempted to rape her. The defendant told the victim to get out of the automobile. Once outside, the defendant raped the victim.
The victim noticed a light turning on and off in the house behind the hedges. After the rape, as she began to get dressed, she asked the defendant to look under the automobile seat for her sneaker. While he looked, she ran toward the house. The owner of the house let her in and called the police.
The defendant, testifying on his own behalf, stated that after a night out in Providence, his automobile would not start. Trying to find a ride home to Fall River, he walked to West Exchange Street. He watched some automobiles go by, and he then approached one, with two women inside, to ask for cigarettes. The women pulled away.
The defendant later approached a second automobile, that of the victim. The defendant's testimony from this point corroborated much of the victim's testimony: he testified that he entered the automobile in Providence; that he told the woman to take Route 195; and that he told her to leave it at Westport, and to turn onto the dimly lit street. He also confirmed that they engaged in oral sex and sexual intercourse. However, he contended that the victim consented to the sexual activity.
1. Motion to suppress evidence obtained from fellow inmate. After his arrest, the defendant was incarcerated in lieu of bail. While incarcerated, he wrote a letter describing the incident to a fellow prisoner at the request of that prisoner. The defendant moved to suppress the letter. After making oral findings, the judge denied the motion. The defendant argues it was error to deny his motion. He asserts that the letter was obtained from him "without his knowledge or consent by an inmate, acting as an agent of the Commonwealth." Such conduct, he asserts, violates his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights.
The judge's oral findings are as follows. The defendant was placed in the New Bedford house of correction on August 3, 1984. A day or two later, he met another inmate, George Thompson. Thompson asked the defendant why he was there, and the defendant spoke freely with Thompson about his cases.2 The defendant told Thompson that he raped the victim.
After these conversations, Thompson telephoned Massachusetts State Trooper Kenneth Candias, whom Thompson had known for seven to eight years. Thompson had provided Trooper Candias information from time to time. Thompson spoke to the trooper, and the trooper told him he would arrange a meeting between Thompson and the assistant district attorney handling the case against the defendant. The assistant district attorney arranged for Officer Russell Hauge of the Fall River police department and Officer John Gifford of the Westport police department to meet with Thompson at the house of correction.3 Thompson told Officer Hauge what the defendant had said about the Westport case. Officer Hauge told Thompson that if he obtained any other information and wanted to relay that information, he should telephone or write to the district attorney's office.
After his discussion with Officer Hauge, Thompson sent a letter to the defendant via a system, devised by the two men, of bedsheets tied together which extended from Thompson's cell to the defendant's cell. In his letter, Thompson suggested to the defendant that he tell Thompson the details of the early morning of August 2 so that Thompson could assist him in contriving an alibi. The judge found that Thompson was trying to deceive the defendant into providing information. The defendant wrote a letter to Thompson detailing the incident. Later the defendant asked Thompson to return the letter, but Thompson told him that he had flushed it down the toilet. In fact, Thompson had forwarded the letter to the trooper.
Based on these facts, the judge found that, although Thompson hoped to gain favorable treatment for his information, he was not an agent of any law enforcement official. He further found that the defendant was not coerced into writing the letter.4 The defendant argues that Thompson was an agent of the government when he requested and received the letter from the defendant.
The determination as to the relationship between the law enforcement officials and Thompson is a factual one, but "beyond this factual determination ... is the legal question ... whether the relationship or understanding as found by the judge is such that the informant's questioning has to be considered governmental interrogation for constitutional examination." United States v. Surridge, 687 F.2d 250, 252 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1044 (1982). While we give substantial deference to the judge's ultimate findings, "we make our own independent determination on the correctness of the judge's `application of constitutional principles to the facts as found.'" Commonwealth v. Haas, 373 Mass. 545, 550 (1977), quoting Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 403 (1977).
Thompson's sentence was revised. He was released two and one-half months prior to the date originally scheduled for his release.5 However, there is no evidence of any promises made to Thompson by law enforcement officials prior to Thompson's written communication with the defendant.6 An individual's actions will not be attributed to the State if no promises are made for that individual's help and if nothing was offered to or asked of that individual. See Thomas v. Cox, 708 F.2d 132, 133 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 918 (1983); United States v. Franklin, 704 F.2d 1183, 1190 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 845 (1983). See also United States v. Surridge, supra at 254; United States v. Van Scoy, 654 F.2d 257, 261 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1126 (1981). Simply because Thompson provided the letter "from an unencouraged hope to curry favor" does not characterize him as an agent of the government. Thomas v. Cox, supra at 136. The fact that Thompson later received a benefit from law enforcement officials "has little, if any, relevance to the question whether he was a government agent at the times he and the defendant communicated." Commonwealth v. Rodwell, 394 Mass. 694, 698 (1985). We conclude that the judge's findings in this case are supported by the evidence and that the judge's ruling that Thompson was not an agent therefore is not erroneous.7
2. Evidence of the defendant's prior act. The defendant asserts that the trial judge erred in admitting the testimony of his prior misconduct. He bases his argument on two grounds: (a) the evidence of the prior act was improperly admitted as character evidence showing the propensity of the defendant to commit criminal acts; and (b) the testimony of the witnesses who described the prior act contained improper identification evidence.
a. The propensity theory. The defendant did not object to the testimony of Donna Ceseretti, the first of the two women to testify about the incident that occurred approximately a half hour before the defendant entered the victim's car.8
Evidence of prior bad acts, while inadmissible for the purpose of proving bad character or a propensity to commit crimes, is admissible if relevant for some other purpose. See Commonwealth v. Bradshaw, 385 Mass. 244, 269 (1982); Commonwealth v. Imbruglia, 377 Mass. 682, 695 (1979); P.J. Liacos, Massachusetts Evidence 420-421 (5th ed. 1981). If ...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Com. v. Reynolds
...If nothing is "offered to or asked of" the informant, his actions will not be attributed to the Commonwealth. Commonwealth v. Rancourt, 399 Mass. 269, 274, 503 N.E.2d 960 (1987). However, "[w]here the government has entered into an arrangement with a prison inmate agreeing to pay him for in......
-
Com. v. Doyle
...at his direction") (emphasis in original). 19. In his written proposed instructions, the defendant had cited Commonwealth v. Rancourt, 399 Mass. 269, 274, 503 N.E.2d 960 (1987), in purported support of this charge. That case is of no help to him, however, since it had nothing to do with ins......
-
Commonwealth v. Fritz
...time of the challenged statement. See Commonwealth v. Murphy, 448 Mass. 452, 459, 467, 862 N.E.2d 30 (2007) ; Commonwealth v. Rancourt, 399 Mass. 269, 274, 503 N.E.2d 960 (1987). We add that the statements at issue only placed the defendant near the location where the victim had been killed......
-
State v. Hernandez
...if no promises are made for that individual's help and if nothing was offered to or asked of that individual. Commonwealth v. Rancourt, 399 Mass. 269, 503 N.E.2d 960, 964 (1987); Harmon, 573 N.E.2d at 492; see also State v. Joly, 219 Conn. 234, 593 A.2d 96, 107 n. 12 (1991); People v. Belgr......