Commonwealth v. Taylor

161 N.E. 245, 263 Mass. 356, 1928 Mass. LEXIS 1164
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedApril 17, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 161 N.E. 245 (Commonwealth v. Taylor) 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. Taylor, 161 N.E. 245, 263 Mass. 356, 1928 Mass. LEXIS 1164 (Mass. 1928).

Opinion

Pierce, J.

This is an appeal, on an assignment of errors under St. 1925, c. 279, from a conviction of the defendant of murder in the first degree of Stella Pomkala, age twenty, at Salisbury Beach in the town of Salisbury and county of Essex.

At the trial there was evidence, undisputed by the defendant, which warranted a jury in finding the following facts: On the evening of June 5, 1927, the deceased left the studio of her employer at Salisbury Beach for a walk, wearing on her wrist a Waltham watch and on her finger a ring. At 7:30 a.m. her body was found strangled on the beach some distance from the studio. There were marks in the sand which indicated a struggle. Her body was lying on its back, head toward the water, legs spread apart, dress above her knees, and her bloomers cut in five or six pieces with a very long knife, a razor or scissors.

The autopsy disclosed bruises in both upper fids of her eyes and hemorrhage to the membrane covering the eyes, showing “the sort of thing that would come from the pressure of fingers or thumbs.” A series of bruises across her neck and down the side of her neck, bruises and an abrasion on her hand, which “might well have been produced by the tearing of a wrist watch down over the back of the hand,” laceration of the lesser lips of the vagina and a laceration of the fourchette, which “might have been the result of the application of a male organ.” The autopsy further disclosed that the deceased was a virgin, that no instrument or implement was used in the commission of the murder, and that the marks on her face, neck, hands, vagina and fourchette were imposed on the deceased before her death.

There was uncontradicted evidence that the defendant, wearing “goggles” similar to those found near the body, was on Salisbury Beach Sunday night, June 5, 1927; that he had an odor of liquor on his breath; that at 10:30 p.m. he was seen going in the direction of that part of the -beach where [359]*359the body was found, and that at 11:05 p.m. he was seen without goggles, coming from the part of the beach where the body was found; and that the wrist watch which the deceased was wearing at the time of her death was sold by the defendant to a man named Dowe, who turned it over to the authorities. There was evidence that the defendant on June 4 and 5 was employed as a barber at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire; that about noon on June 5, he purchased and drank a pint of witch hazel; that between noon and 3:30 in the afternoon he purchased and drank three bottles of witch hazel and a pint of "moonshine” whiskey; that about 3:30 he met some men, was offered and accepted a ride; that the men had a combination of alcohol and water and he drank some of it. He testified, in substance, that he had no recollection of what happened after he took the last drink, between Hampton Beach and the town of Hampton, until he woke up the next morning at the "Salvation Army Palace” in Boston.

At the trial the Commonwealth offered and the court received in evidence, against the exceptions of the defendant, a criminal record of the State of West Virginia, showing that the defendant on March 10, 1913, was convicted of robbery and sentenced to five years at the West Virginia penitentiary. It is the contention of the defendant that under G. L. c. 233, § 21 (Third) the record was not admissible because the day, October 18, 1927, when the defendant testified, was "after ten years from the date of expiration of the minimum term of imprisonment imposed by the court.” The statutes of West Virginia upon which the defendant relies to establish his contention that the minimum term of his sentence had expired more than ten years before the day of his testimony are the acts of 1882, c. 118, § 12, fixing the penalty of robbery and the place of the execution of it; the act of 1882, c. 154; and the act of 1893, c. 46, § 26, which reads: "All convicts sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of two years or more, and not for life, who may faithfully comply with all the rules and regulations of the penitentiary during his, or her term of confinement, shall be entitled to a diminution of time from such sentence of five days per month during his or her [360]*360term of confinement: provided, however, that any infraction of such rules and regulations by. a convict shall, as to such convict, operate only as a deprivation of such diminution of time for the month in which such infraction of the rules and regulations occurs, and for as many of the preceding months of said convict’s term of confinement as in the judgment of the warden will be equitable and just.” The defendant’s sentence, which would have expired nominally on “November 14,1916,” had he observed the rules and regulations, was extended “480 days’’ during his incarceration at the West Virginia penitentiary, and they “were added to his sentence for violation of certain rules of that institution.” It is obvious the right to a diminution in the sentence imposed was not absolute, but was conditional upon obedience to the rules and regulations of the penitentiary, and that without such obedience no right to a diminution is conferred by the statute. The evidence was admitted rightly. The sentence expired in fact on “March 9, 1918,” that is, within ten years before October 18, 1927, and the exceptions must be overruled.

The second assignment of errors arises on the exceptions saved to the refusal of the judge to rule (1) “On all the evidence the Commonwealth has not shown, as a matter of law, that the murder was committed with the extreme atrocity or cruelty necessary to a verdict of murder in the first degree”; (2) “The death by strangulation of the- deceased, Stella Pomkala, in the maimer shown by the Commonwealth was not extreme atrocity or cruelty”; (3) “The word ‘extreme’ as used in G. L. c. 265, § 1, has an important significance. Murder that is atrocious and cruel is not sufficient to justify a jury in rendering a verdict of murder in the first degree”; and (4) “The word ‘extreme’ as used in G. L. c. 265, § 1, transcends the ordinary atrociousness and cruelty ordinarily associated with murder.” The recital of the facts, supra, and the circumstances under which the deceased was robbed, raped and murdered would seem to silence every doubt that the judge acted rightly in submitting to the jury the question whether the atrocity or cruelty of the murder was “extreme.” Commonwealth v. Desmarteau, 16 Gray, 1. Commonwealth [361]*361v. Feci, 235 Mass. 562. Commonwealth v. Devereaux, 256 Mass. 387. It is to be noted that the defendant makes no contention that the judge erroneously instructed the jury in the law which should govern their determination, but “rather that he should have withheld its submission from the jury.”

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Bluebook (online)
161 N.E. 245, 263 Mass. 356, 1928 Mass. LEXIS 1164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-taylor-mass-1928.