Commonwealth v. Alcantara
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree, assault with intent to kill, and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon. Defendant appealed, assigning error to several evidentiary rulings made by the trial judge. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions, holding (1) to the extent the trial judge erred in failing to instruct the jurors that they could consider Defendant’s custodial statements as evidence of consciousness of guilt if the Commonwealth proved that the statements were false, the error did not influence the jury; (2) the trial judge did not err in admitting a witness’s statement made on a 911 call; (3) the trial judge was within her discretion in excluding third-party culprit evidence; (4) the trial judge properly excluded certain evidence of the police investigation; and (5) the trial judge did not err in denying Defendant access to the treatment records of a Commonwealth witness or in limiting cross-examination of that witness.
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