Commonwealth v. DaSilva
Annotate this CaseDefendant was a participant in a drive-by shooting against a group of young men that killed one member of the group and wounded two others. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the convictions and declined Defendant’s request that it grant relief under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E, holding (1) the trial court did not err in admitting the grand jury of a Commonwealth witness; (2) the trial court did not err in admitting prior bad act evidence; (3) the trial court did not err in admitting evidence of Defendant’s refusal to have his custodial interrogation recorded; (4) the trial court did not err in admitting evidence of 911 calls received by a police dispatcher; (5) the trial court erred in admitting evidence concerning the course of the investigation and the role of the grand jury, but the error did not prejudice Defendant; (6) the prosecutor’s impeachment of a defense witness with her failure to report exculpatory evidence to police was not in error; (7) the prosecutor did not engage in impermissible misconduct during closing argument; and (8) the trial judge did not err in declining to give a Bowden instruction.
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