Commonwealth v. Watkins
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of murder in the first degree. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the convictions and the trial court’s denial of Defendant’s motion for a new trial and declined to reduce the degree of guilt pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E, holding (1) there was sufficient evidence to sustain Defendant’s conviction; (2) Defendant suffered no prejudice as a result of the Commonwealth’s failure to disclose certain evidence; (3) there was no error due to the Commonwealth’s exclusion of third-party culprit evidence; (4) the judge judge did not abuse her discretion in denying Defendant’s motion to exclude hearsay statements by the victim’s girl friend; (5) the prosecutor did not engage in impermissible misconduct; (6) defense counsel’s performance was not constitutionally deficient; and (7) Defendant failed to establish that a new trial was required because the prosecutor had represented him on several previous occasions.
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