Commonwealth v. Rivera

805 N.E.2d 942, 441 Mass. 358, 2004 Mass. LEXIS 150
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedMarch 30, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 805 N.E.2d 942 (Commonwealth v. Rivera) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Rivera, 805 N.E.2d 942, 441 Mass. 358, 2004 Mass. LEXIS 150 (Mass. 2004).

Opinion

Cowin, J.

A jury convicted the defendant of murder in the first degree on grounds of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty. His defense at trial was that he lacked criminal responsibility due to his mental illness at the time of the killing.1 The defendant appeals, claiming errors in the denial of his motion to suppress2 and errors at trial. He maintains that his motion to suppress should have been allowed because his mental illness vitiated his waiver of Miranda rights given three and one-half hours before he confessed. The defendant also asserts error based on the judge’s allegedly numerous interruptions of the defense experts’ testimony; the judge’s reference in her instructions to the fact that the defendant had not testified despite defense counsel’s request that the matter not be mentioned; and the judge’s refusal to instruct on voluntary manslaughter. The defendant also presents the following claims for the first time on appeal, asking that we review them pursuant to our authority under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, to determine whether there has been a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice. He requests that in determining whether his statements to the police should have been admitted at trial we consider the effect on the voluntariness of his waiver of Miranda rights of (a) expert evidence introduced for the first time at trial describing his schizophrenia and its effect on memory, and (b) the impact of the failure of the police to advise him in a timely fashion of his right to make a telephone call as required by G. L. c. 276, § 33A. Finally, the defendant asks that this court exercise its power under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, to reduce the [360]*360verdict to murder in the second degree or voluntary manslaughter. We reject the defendant’s contentions, conclude that there is no basis to exercise our power pursuant to § 33E, and affirm the defendant’s conviction.

1. The judge’s findings and rulings regarding the defendant’s statements. We summarize the facts from the judge’s careful and comprehensive findings in her memorandum of decision on the defendant’s motion to suppress.3 The victim was stabbed to death behind 1482 Beacon Street in Brookline on July 2, 1998. The police soon focused on Luis Rivera, the defendant. He was a high school graduate, almost twenty-two years old, but did not work or attend school. He was being treated for schizophrenia with Zoloft and Zyprexa, and was on Social Security disability income. On July 3, 1998, at about 9 p.m., Sergeant Gerard R. Mattaliano of the State police and Sergeant Michael McCarthy of the Brookline police department went to the apartment at 1600 Beacon Street where the defendant lived with his parents. They introduced themselves to the defendant and explained that they were investigating the victim’s murder. The defendant agreed to speak with them. During the interview the defendant told the police that his memory was “not the greatest” because he was on medication for schizophrenia. His mother confirmed his treatment and that she assured that he took his daily medication. He had been taking the medication in the days just before the murder.

Approximately ten minutes after the interview began, Mattaliano orally advised the defendant of his Miranda rights and handed him a Miranda card that he read on both sides. The defendant indicated that he understood his rights, agreed to continue the interview, and signed the card accordingly. The defendant said that he knew the victim from Brookline High School but that he had not spoken with him for a few months. In response to a question whether he owned a knife, he said that he did and showed it to the police. He told the police that on the night of the murder he was at home, was visited by a friend and the two of them went to Newbury Street. He produced a sales receipt from a Newbury Street music store, indicating [361]*36111:57 p.m. on July 2, 1998. In response to questions, the defendant described the clothing he was wearing on the night of the murder and the telephone number of his pager. During the interview, the police noticed cuts on the defendant’s body that appeared to be fresh.

The officers told the defendant that he was not under arrest, but asked him to go to the police station for further interviewing. Unbeknownst to the defendant, the officers wanted to talk to him out of the presence of his mother to ask him about possible drug dealing in which they suspected he was involved. At the police station the officers repeated to the defendant that he was not under arrest and obtained his consent to photograph the cuts on his body; take the clothes he had worn the night before; and search his living quarters, property, car, and himself without a warrant. Each of three consent forms was read to him; he then read and signed each. He said that he understood the forms. The officers photographed the cuts and asked the defendant how he got them; he explained their origin.

As the interview continued, the defendant responded to questions about his experience with women, naming particular ones. When the officers asked him about a place called “The Rome,” he said that it was an area located behind 1482 Beacon Street and that he had smoked marijuana there in the past. The officers observed that the defendant became nervous when talking about one of his women friends and when discussing “The Rome.”

Mattaliano reminded the defendant that this was a serious homicide investigation, that it was extremely important to tell the truth, and that he did not believe the defendant was being truthful. So confronted, the defendant admitted that he had sold marijuana to various people, including the victim. He had sold marijuana to the victim more than twenty times, most recently about two weeks earlier, and considered him a good customer. Mattaliano then told the defendant that two dime bags of marijuana had been found in the victim’s pocket and that the police had information that the defendant often sold dime bags of marijuana in “The Rome.” Mattaliano asked the defendant if he knew what a hypothetical question was, and, when the defendant responded affirmatively, asked him what he would say if the investigation should reveal his fingerprints on the dime bags found in the victim’s pocket. (The police had no such evidence.)

[362]*362These questions caused the defendant’s demeanor to change noticeably. He appeared more concerned, took a deep breath, leaned back in his chair, and admitted to further drug dealing. When asked if he had sold drugs to the victim on the night he was murdered, he told the police that the victim had paged him about 7:30 p.m., left his telephone number (which the defendant recited), and the code for two bags of marijuana. The defendant said that he returned the victim’s page at about 8:30 p.m., and arranged to meet him at “The Rome” to make the sale. When Mattaliano asked if he had killed the victim, the defendant became very subdued, covered his face, removed his glasses, stared at the floor, began to cry, and admitted to the killing. (At this point, it was 12:30 a.m., approximately three hours and twenty minutes since the defendant had been given the Miranda warnings at his home.)

The defendant then provided the police a detailed account of how he had approached the victim, how he had held the knife, how many times he had stabbed the victim, and where the wounds were inflicted. He stated that he knew when he left his house that he was going to kill the victim, and that he was very angry with the victim, that the victim was “messing around with his . . .

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
805 N.E.2d 942, 441 Mass. 358, 2004 Mass. LEXIS 150, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-rivera-mass-2004.