Commonwealth v. Conaghan

48 Mass. App. Ct. 304

720 NE 2d 48

COMMONWEALTH v. DEBORAH CONAGHAN.

No. 98-P-315.

Court of Appeals of Massachusetts, Worcester.

April 13, 1999.

December 3, 1999.

Present: LAURENCE, DREBEN, & GILLERMAN, JJ.

Dana Alan Curhan for the defendant.

Anne S. Manzello, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.

GILLERMAN, J.

On September 1, 1992, the defendant, Deborah Conaghan, pleaded guilty to the charge of manslaughter in connection with the death of her five year old son, Garrett. On April 29, 1997, approximately four and one-half years later, the defendant filed a motion in the Superior Court to withdraw her guilty plea. She subsequently filed a motion for a psychiatric examination on December 2, 1997, and a nonevidentiary hearing on the motion was held on December 16, 1997. The motion judge, who was not the trial judge, denied both motions on January 12, 1998.

The defendant claims that the judge erred in denying her motion to withdraw her guilty plea or, in the alternative, that he erred in failing to grant her an evidentiary hearing because she presented substantial evidence that (1) her former boyfriend inflicted the fatal injuries upon her son; (2) to the extent that she may have contributed to her son's death, she suffered from battered woman's syndrome and other psychological disorders and therefore lacked the state of mind necessary to support a conviction; and (3) her plea was the product of intimidation and coercion and therefore was not voluntary.

The defendant also argues that the motion judge erred in denying her motion for a psychiatric examination. While her claim for an independent psychiatric examination was specifically denied, the defendant contends that the judge failed to consider her alternate claim that she was entitled to be examined by a psychiatrist designated by the court.

1. The plea hearing. At the plea hearing, the Commonwealth contended that the following facts would be proven if the defendant's case proceeded to trial.

The defendant is divorced from Garrett's father. During the summer of 1991, Garrett stayed with his father, who was living in New Jersey. Garrett returned to the defendant's residence at the end of August. At that time, the defendant was living with her boyfriend, Paul Haynes (Haynes).

Garrett entered the first grade in September, 1991. On October 1, 1991, Garrett's teacher noticed bruises on his hands and sent him to the school nurse. The nurse noticed additional bruising on his right forearm and on his temple. The nurse filed a report with the Department of Social Services (DSS), and an investigation was commenced. When questioned by a DSS investigator, the defendant stated that the bruising occurred when Garrett fell against a car as he was riding his bicycle.

On October 3, 1991, Garrett was examined by a pediatrician who determined that the injuries were not accidental. However, when the doctor spoke to the defendant about the cause of Garrett's injuries, she provided the same explanation that she had given the DSS investigator, i.e., that Garrett had fallen against a car while riding his bike.

On October 12, 1991, at approximately 1:30 P.M., the defendant brought Garrett into the emergency room at St. Vincent Hospital. He was unconscious, with no heartbeat or other vital signs. The defendant told the emergency personnel that Garrett had slipped in the bathroom, fallen backward, and struck the back of his head. She stated that he then had a seizure and lost consciousness. His body went limp, and his lips changed color. It was at that time that the defendant decided to take Garrett to the hospital. He died at approximately 3:00 P.M. that afternoon.

Police officers went to the defendant's house later that day to question her. She told the officers that earlier in the day, she had given Garrett lunch, after which he had rushed into the bathroom. He vomited into the sink, and the defendant helped him wash his face. Garrett then slipped on water that the defendant had spilt on the floor while she was washing his face. He fell back, hit his head on the floor, and went into a seizure. The defendant also told the police that Garrett's hands had been bruised when he ran into a car with his bicycle.

The next day, an autopsy was performed on Garrett's body. The autopsy revealed that he had suffered three subdural hematomas of varying age. One was consistent with having been sustained on the day that he died, one was sustained approximately fourteen days before that, and the third was older and could not be dated. It was determined that the cause of death was blunt trauma, and that the recent hematoma had aggravated his fourteen day old subdural hematoma, thereby causing his brain to swell, resulting in death.

On October 17, 1991, police officers again interviewed the defendant. She initially gave them the same account that she had given five days earlier, but she changed her story when one of the officers said that he did not believe her.¹ The officers asked her a number of questions about events on the day that Garrett died, and she gave them a statement.

The defendant stated that on the day of Garrett's death, he vomited in the bathroom and, to punish him, the defendant took him into the kitchen. She told the police, "I pushed him with my right hand on his chest or head. Garrett would fall down. Then he got back up and I would push him again and Garrett would fall on the floor. This happened two or three times. Then he just fell on the floor and went into a seizure." In answer to additional questions the defendant said she had given him the same form of punishment four or five times previously. On those occasions, she said, "Garrett was disobeying or not listening to me so instead of hitting him I kept pushing him onto the floor. I pushed him two to three times and every time I pushed him he got up and I pushed him again." The use of this means of punishment had caused Garrett to develop a "lazy eye" and had also caused him to begin vomiting regularly.

The defendant also told the police that after she had knocked Garrett down several times on the day of his death, he went into a seizure. She took him into his bedroom to get him dressed. While in the bedroom, Garrett stopped breathing, and his lips turned blue. Asked to describe the seizure, the defendant said Garrett fainted, fell forward, hit the front of his head, and was shaking on the ground. After relating these facts to the police, the defendant signed her statement. The defendant acknowledged to the judge that her statement to the police was "true and accurate."

Earlier in the proceeding, the judge had probed the defendant's mind. He questioned her about her prior psychiatric treatment, asked whether she was on any medication, discussed the effects of her medication, asked whether she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and asked if she had had a period of psychiatric examination in connection with this case. All these questions were answered in the negative or otherwise to the satisfaction of the judge. During the colloquy, the defendant stated that she was pleading guilty of her own free will. She replied, "No," when she was asked if anyone had threatened her or made any promises to her in order to get her to plead guilty. She also replied, "No," when the judge asked her if she was confused by anything he said and if she had any questions about the plea procedure. She acknowledged that throughout the proceedings against her she had been represented by a good lawyer who had worked in her best interest. The judge told the defendant the maximum sentence for manslaughter was twenty years in a State prison, and the defendant said she understood that.

Finally, the judge asked the defendant, "And may I understand that you are pleading guilty for but one reason, that being that you are, in fact, guilty, which is to say that you did do the things that [the prosecutor] told me you did?" The defendant answered, "Yes." The plea judge then concluded, "I find that the plea of guilty is freely, willingly, voluntarily and intelligently offered and it is accepted."

2. Motion to withdraw the defendant's guilty plea.

(a) Standard of review. A postconviction motion to withdraw a guilty plea is treated as a motion for a new trial. Commonwealth v. DeMarco, 387 Mass. 481, 482 (1982). See Commonwealth v. Russin, 420 Mass. 309, 315 (1995). "The judge is to apply the standard set out in rule 30 [Mass.R.Crim.P. 30(b), 378 Mass. 900 (1979)] `rigorously,' and may grant a motion to withdraw a guilty plea only if `it appears that justice may not have been done.'" Commonwealth v. Facella, 42 Mass. App. Ct. 354, 355 (1996), quoting from Commonwealth v. DeMarco, 387 Mass. at 486-487. The motion is addressed to the sound discretion of the judge. Commonwealth v. Correa, 43 Mass. App. Ct. 714, 716 (1997). "Contrary to the defendant's contention, the judge properly exercised his discretion in concluding that [her] motion did not raise a `substantial issue,' and that an evidentiary hearing was not required." Commonwealth v. Facella, supra at 355, citing Commonwealth v. DeVincent, 421 Mass. 64, 67, 69 (1995).

(b) Consideration of the defendant's supplementary materials. The defendant filed various documents in support of her motion to withdraw her guilty plea, including the transcript of her plea colloquy hearing; an affidavit from her attorney; an affidavit from the defendant herself; the transcript from the trial of her former boyfriend, Haynes, in an unrelated case²; several investigative reports; and her prison medical records. In rendering a decision on the motion, the judge considered only the motion itself, the defendant's colloquy transcript, and the affidavits of the defendant and her attorney. He refused to consider the defendant's medical records, the investigative reports, and the transcript of Haynes's trial, stating that "[these] materials ... are not in affidavit form and have been afforded...