Commonwealth v. Philbrook
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of murder in the first degree on a theory of deliberate premeditation in the shooting death of his former wife. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the convictions, holding (1) the trial judge did not abuse her discretion in allowing the admission of evidence of prior bad acts; (2) the prosecutor did not commit error during closing arguments; (3) the trial judge did not err in denying Defendant’s motion for a mistrial after learning that three jurors had discussed the case before deliberations began; and (4) the Court declines to exercise its power under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33Ea to reduce the verdict of murder in the first degree to a lesser degree of guilt.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.