Commonwealth v. Traylor
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of seven indictments charging offenses under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 265, 13J(b), which imposes criminal penalties on a person who wantonly or recklessly permits bodily injury to a child in his care or wantonly or recklessly permits another to commit an assault and battery causing bodily injury upon such a child. The seven indictments were each based on a distinct injury or set of injuries to the victim. Defendant appealed, contending that the indictments were duplicative. The Supreme Judicial Court reversed all but one of Defendant’s convictions, holding that, to establish multiple violations of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 265, 13J(b), the Commonwealth may not establish multiple convictions solely by showing multiple injuries to a single child but, rather, must prove either that the defendant engaged in separate and discrete instances of criminal conduct or that multiple victims were harmed as a result of the defendant’s criminal conduct.
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