Commonwealth v. Facella
Annotate this CaseThe Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of murder in the first degree on a theory of extreme atrocity and cruelty, denied Defendant’s motion for a new trial, and declined to exercise its power under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E to reduce the verdict or order a new trial. The court held (1) the trial judge did not err by admitting, in the Commonwealth’s case-in-chief, evidence of Defendant’s previous incarceration; (2) the trial judge did not err by giving limiting instructions regarding prior bad act evidence admitted in the Commonwealth’s case-in-chief or in its timing regarding the limiting instructions; (3) the trial judge did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence of Defendant’s prior bad acts in the Commonwealth’s rebuttal case; and (4) nothing in the record warranted a reduced verdict or a new trial under section 33E.
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.