Commonwealth v. Cadet

473 Mass. 173

40 N.E.3d 1015

COMMONWEALTH

v.Pierre P. CADET.

SJC–10505.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Plymouth.

Argued April 10, 2015.

Decided Nov. 18, 2015.

James M. Doyle, Boston, for the defendant.

Mary Lee, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.

Present: GANTS, C.J., BOTSFORD, DUFFLY, LENK, & HINES, JJ.

Opinion

DUFFLY, J.

In May, 2007, the defendant was convicted by a Superior Court jury of murder in the first degree on the theory of extreme atrocity or cruelty in the stabbing death of his girl friend, Betina Francois. At trial, the defendant did not contest that he had stabbed the victim, but argued that he had done so in self-defense, after she became enraged and attacked him with two knives. In March, 2013, while his appeal from his conviction was pending, the defendant filed in this court a motion for a new trial; the appeal was stayed, and the motion was remanded to the Superior Court. The defendant's appeal from the denial of that motion was consolidated with his direct appeal.

We conclude that, although there were improprieties in the prosecutor's conduct at trial, including in his cross-examination of the defendant and in his closing argument, they did not create a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice. Accordingly, we affirm the defendant's conviction and the denial of his motion for a new trial. Having conducted a thorough review pursuant to our duty under G.L. c.278, § 33E, we discern no reason to reduce the verdict or to order a new trial.

Background. We recite some of the facts that the jury could have found, reserving additional facts for discussion of the issues raised.

1. Commonwealth's case. At the time of the victim's death in late September, 2004, she and the defendant had been involved in a romantic relationship for three years. They had purchased a triple-decker house in Brockton in 2002, and lived there in the first-floor apartment. The relationship changed notably in January, 2004, after an argument during which the defendant hit and shoved the victim. The victim obtained an abuse prevention order against the defendant, but the relationship, although volatile, continued. Notwithstanding the abuse prevention order, the victim and the defendant generally lived together in the same apartment,

while sometimes living apart for a few weeks at a time.¹ They had numerous arguments, but still socialized together. After the victim was involved in an automobile accident in April, 2004, the victim and the defendant shared the use of his automobile until September, when the victim purchased another vehicle. They drove each other to and from work and school, and brought each other lunch. The victim invited the defendant to events at her workplace, and, in the spring and summer of 2004, they went on various trips out of State and to Canada, including trips to visit relatives in New York.

In July, 2004, the victim's family, friends, and coworkers began noticing injuries on her body and on her face, including bruises, black eyes, and bite marks. They also noticed that the defendant often telephoned the victim many times a day, and that at times she appeared upset after his calls.² In late July or early August, 2004, the victim's family helped her remove the defendant's belongings from the apartment, and change the locks. The defendant was angry at the way he felt the victim's relatives were treating him as a result of her statements to them about the relationship. Twice thereafter, the defendant attempted to break into the apartment. In August, 2004, he was charged with violating the abuse prevention order, but the victim resumed allowing him to stay in the apartment, and went on several more trips with him, to Florida and New York. Sometime that month, the victim's sister's husband had an encounter with the defendant during which the defendant said that he planned to teach the victim “a lesson.” In late August, 2004, one of the victim's friends stayed with her for five days; during that time, the defendant made “innumerable” calls to the victim and, on two nights, came to the victim's house unexpectedly in the middle of the night, banging on the door and fleeing when police were called. The defendant then resumed spending nights in the apartment, and socializing

with the victim.

On Sunday morning, September 26, 2004, neighbors saw the defendant and the victim, who were “dressed for church,” leave the apartment. Their vehicles, which had been parked side by side in front of the house at 7 a.m. , were gone for much of the day, and returned at approximately 5 p.m. in the afternoon. Later, one neighbor saw the defendant, still dressed in a suit, carrying out trash; another neighbor noticed that the defendant's vehicle was parked one-half block away from the house, in a location where she had never before seen him park. Around 7:30 p.m. that evening, the defendant and the victim were both in the apartment. As the neighbors who lived in the apartment above were walking up the back stairs to their apartment and passing the victim's kitchen door, they heard the victim say, in an “irritated” voice, “What the fuck is this? I'm not going to take this bullshit anymore.” She then said, “I swear to God, I swear to God,” and then, “Leave me alone” three times. Approximately ten minutes later, loud music began playing inside the apartment. Shortly after the music started playing, a neighbor saw the victim's automobile backing out of the driveway “very fast,” and being driven away. When one of the neighbors noticed the victim's automobile leaving, she called the victim's cellular telephone to complain about the loud music, thinking that the victim had forgotten to turn it off, but there was no answer. The music played until at least 11 p.m. , but the victim did not answer repeated calls to her cellular telephone.

At approximately 9 p.m. , the defendant, driving the victim's sport utility vehicle (SUV) was involved in a single-vehicle roll-over accident in Exeter, Rhode Island. The SUV had been traveling at over one hundred miles per hour when it left the highway, traveled through a wooded median, and flipped over, landing on its roof and throwing the defendant onto the shoulder of the road.³ Rhode Island State police officers responding to reports of the accident found the defendant, unresponsive and bleeding, lying face down in the breakdown lane; there was blood nearby. The defendant was identified by documents in his pocket.

Emergency room staff determined that the defendant had at least two injuries to his neck, including a “tracheal laceration

between the first and second tracheal ring ... under the voice box” and a “right internal jugular vein laceration.” The defendant also had a wound in his stomach, and a knife wound on his left palm. The wounds were not consistent with having been obtained as a result of the motor vehicle accident.⁴ The defendant underwent two surgeries that night to repair damage from the injuries. Telephone records showed that during the course of his drive from Brockton to Rhode Island, the defendant made at least twenty-one calls from his cellular telephone in an attempt to reach his brother, including numerous calls to his brother's friend's cellular telephone, as well as calls to the friend's land-line and to a cellular telephone belonging to the friend's wife.

Hospital staff contacted Rhode Island State police about the defendant's injuries, which they believed were knife wounds, and Rhode Island troopers notified the Brockton police. On the morning of September 27, 2004, after learning that the victim had an active restraining order against the defendant, Brockton police went to the victim's house to perform a well-being check. They found the victim's body on the couch in the living room. She had been stabbed nine times, in the chest, neck, and upper left arm. At least four of the wounds could have been fatal. The wound to the arm could have been consistent with being a defensive wound that the victim sustained while attempting to block a blow. Police found a bloody knife blade on the floor near the couch, a knife handle on the couch near the victim, and an unbroken knife in a crevice in the couch. Later testing showed that blood on the knives and elsewhere in the living room, including the victim's jeans, contained deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from both the victim and the defendant. The defendant's DNA was also present in small bloodstains on the kitchen floor and the dining room table.

Police found a note written by the defendant on a coffee table near the victim's body. The note began, “To everyone who does

not know the life that I've been living with [the victim] for [three] years. I've had enough.” It stated that the victim had called the defendant as he was driving home from church and asked him to come to the apartment as soon as possible, but when he arrived, the victim started arguing with him and threatened to call the police. The note also said that the victim and her family were trying to destroy the defendant's life, that he did not deserve to be in prison, and that his life was “already over.”

2. Defendant's case. The defendant testified in his own defense. He said that when he arrived at the apartment, the victim wanted to discuss their relationship but he wanted to work on a paper for one of his college courses. The victim became angry and threatened to call police, saying that she would “destroy his life.” He piled his clothes and books near the back door, preparing to leave, but she would not let him leave the apartment. As he passed by her to return from the kitchen to the living room, she swung a knife with one hand, cutting his neck. Moments later, in the living room, the victim “came at him” swinging two knives, saying, “Am I going to do it?” The defendant pushed her down onto the couch and was able to grab one of the knives the victim had been using to stab him. He then kept stabbing her until she stopped stabbing him.

The defendant...