Commonwealth v. Silanskas

• Decision Date: 05 December 2000
• Citation: 433 Mass. 678,746 NE 2d 445
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. JOHN F. SILANSKAS.

433 Mass. 678

746 NE 2d 445

COMMONWEALTH v. JOHN F. SILANSKAS.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Plymouth.

December 5, 2000.

April 13, 2001.

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

Matthew A. Kamholtz for the defendant.

Mary E. Lee, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.

COWIN, J.

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree based on extreme atrocity or cruelty.¹ On appeal, he claims that (1) statements he made to the police were obtained in violation of his Miranda rights and thus improperly admitted; (2) the evidence did not support a theory of joint venture; (3) statements he made to a newspaper reporter while he was in custody were improperly admitted because (a) they were not voluntary; and (b) they should not have been admitted without a voir dire; (4) hearsay statements of the victim to Father John Bacon were improperly admitted; (5) the Commonwealth improperly cross-examined a defense pathologist by basing questions on facts not in evidence; (6) the prosecutor's closing argument was improper; and (7) the judge's instructions regarding reasonable doubt were flawed. The defendant also asks that we exercise our extraordinary power under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, to order a new trial. We affirm the conviction and decline to exercise our power under G. L. c. 278, § 33E.

1. Facts. We set forth the facts in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, reserving certain details for discussion in conjunction with specific issues raised. On the night of January 8, 1996, Brockton police discovered the body of David Crowninshield (David) in a freezer in the basement of his home. David had been severely beaten and suffered a fractured jaw, nose, sternum, and several broken ribs. He also had bruises and cuts on his face, neck, arms, and hands and a deep cut on each wrist that severed the underlying artery. He had an abrasion on his back that occurred after he was dead; the appearance of the abrasion suggested that his body had been dragged. The cause of death was blood loss.

On December 29, 1995, Lillian, David's wife, and the defendant were eating lunch at a local café. Lillian told a waitress that she was engaged to the defendant and would be marrying him on Valentine's Day. She explained that David had recently left to join a monastery in Maine, but that a divorce would not be a problem because the defendant "knew lawyers." After Lillian's credit card was declined, the defendant left to get money for the bill but never returned. The waitress reported the unpaid bill to Officer Dominic Persampieri of the Brockton police department.

Officer Persampieri spoke with Lillian on January 3, 1996, at her home. He asked if her husband were there, and Lillian stated that he was upstairs and called for the defendant by his nickname. After Officer Persampieri determined that the defendant was not Lillian's husband, both Lillian and the defendant explained to the officer that David had moved to Canada to join a monastery.

On January 7, 1996, Countee Gilliam, an acquaintance of the defendant, went to the Crowninshield home to look at a train set that was for sale. While there, the defendant showed him the body in the freezer. Lillian told Gilliam that David deserved to die because he had raped her daughter. She said that she gave David a knife and he cut his wrists. According to Lillian, she and the defendant watched David bleed to death in the living room, and the defendant later put the body in the basement freezer. When Gilliam told Lillian and the defendant that they had to "do something" about the situation, the defendant said that he was going "to turn himself in." The next day the defendant admitted to Gilliam that he had beaten David but denied killing him. He told Gilliam that Lillian paid him $5,000 to "get rid of" David. Gilliam reported these events to police that night.

Upon arriving at the Crowninshield home on January 8, 1996, Officers Persampieri and Thomas Spillane and Sergeant Richard Cudworth found Lillian and the defendant inside. Officer Persampieri read them Miranda warnings, and they agreed to let the officers search the basement. There, the police found David's body. They questioned Lillian and the defendant, placed them under arrest for murder, and transported them to the Brockton police station. The defendant made statements to the police both at the house and at the station.²

Pursuant to a search warrant, the police conducted a full search of the house. They tested for blood and found bloodstains throughout the house. They seized several items from the basement including a bloody utility knife; a plastic garbage bag containing a sponge mop head, fifteen to eighteen pieces of blood-soaked rope, and a plaid shirt; and a pair of blood-stained blue jeans hidden under the garbage bag. They also seized from one of the bedrooms a pair of black jeans the defendant had been wearing when David died.

Certain bloodstains on the knife, the plaid shirt, the blue jeans, and the black jeans were all consistent with David's blood type. The plaid shirt was bloodied on the upper sleeve and inside the cuffs. The stains on the blue jeans were concentrated along the back left side in a pattern suggesting that the person was standing as blood flowed down onto the back of the pants.

David had spoken with Father John Bacon by telephone on December 26, 1995, the day he died. David stated that Lillian had come under a "bad influence" and he was going to divorce her, that his life was being threatened and he was going to find a safe place where he could call Father Bacon again.

On January 21 and 28, 1996, a newspaper reporter who was previously acquainted with the defendant interviewed him while he was in custody at the Plymouth County house of correction. The defendant told the reporter that he and David had fought, that he left the house when Lillian said she was leaving David and David said he was going to kill himself, and that when he returned, David was in the basement and had two slit wrists. The defendant stated that David was still alive at this time, but that when he checked on David two hours later, David was dead. The defendant hid the body in the freezer, afraid the police would not believe what had happened. The defendant denied any romantic involvement with Lillian. The defendant also stated that an unnamed third person had been in the house, and he blamed this person for killing David. The defendant told the reporter he would be getting a teardrop tattooed under his eye. The reporter asked the defendant if he knew that such a tattoo meant that he killed someone, and the defendant answered, "Yes, I do."

While Lillian and the defendant were in custody pending trial, the defendant wrote letters to Lillian. He told her that he loved her and implicated a third person (Steve) in David's death. He wrote that he had hit David, but then left the house.

2. The defendant's statements. We recite the relevant facts found by the judge on the defendant's motion to suppress his statements to the police, with minor additions from uncontested testimony from the transcript of the hearing. When the Brockton police officers arrived at the Crowninshield residence, they read the Miranda warnings to the defendant and Lillian. After the police discovered David's body, Officer Spillane took the defendant into the kitchen to question him and advised the defendant of his Miranda rights again. The defendant stated both times that he understood his rights. The defendant told the police that Lillian hired him to beat David, which he did; that David wanted to commit suicide because Lillian was going to leave him; and that at David's request Lillian brought him a knife; and that David cut himself, including his wrists. The defendant demonstrated how David hacked at, rather than sliced, his wrists. The defendant explained that he took David to the basement at Lillian's request, had second thoughts, however, and wanted to telephone an ambulance, but Lillian had locked the basement door; David then bled to death in the basement and he put David in the freezer after Lillian offered him money to do so.

Officer Spillane noticed an odor of alcohol on the defendant's breath, and the defendant repeatedly asked for a beer. The officer believed that the defendant was under the influence of alcohol but "not to the point where he couldn't understand what I was saying, and he was talking fluently to me." The defendant did not have difficulty walking or communicating, and his answers to questions were appropriate. During the questioning, the defendant mentioned the name of his attorney and recited the attorney's telephone number, but when Officer Spillane asked the defendant if he wanted to telephone his attorney, the defendant said no.

The officers handcuffed Lillian and the defendant and drove them to the Brockton police station. When they arrived at the station, Officer Persampieri informed the defendant that he was not under arrest,³ but that the case was still under investigation. Officer Spillane questioned the defendant further at the station. The defendant repeated essentially the same story, but added that another person was involved and that Lillian had paid this other person who "was more involved than [the officer] knew." The defendant mentioned that he had telephoned his attorney earlier in the day. Officer Spillane again asked him whether he wanted to contact his attorney, and the defendant said no.

Trooper William Barrett of the State police and Detective Manuel Gomes of the Brockton police department questioned the defendant at the station (Barrett-Gomes interview). This interview took place one hour after the defendant initially had been advised of his rights.⁴ Before it began, Detective Gomes asked the defendant if he had been advised of his rights and if he wished to speak to the police, and the defendant responded affirmatively. Trooper Barrett then asked the...