Mass. SJC Reverses 2013 Murder Conviction of Curtis Combs
Mass. SJC Reverses 2013 Murder Conviction of Curtis Combs
SJC-11724
The defendant appeals from the two convictions and from the
denial of his motion for a new trial. He claims that (1) the
require a new trial; and that (4) we should exercise our power
previous day. Both men sold cocaine, and they had arranged a
drug deal. The plan also involved the defendant, Curtis Combs,
could reasonably infer that the victim was alive when they
9 The defense theory at trial was that Manny had killed the
victim before leaving Connecticut, and arrived at the
defendant's girl friend's apartment with the body. Viewing the
evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth,
however, the jury could infer that the victim was still alive
when he and Manny arrived in Springfield. Testimony established
that the victim was driving a white Saturn Outlook sport utility
vehicle (SUV) when he and Manny left Hartford. In addition, the
defendant told police that Manny arrived at the apartment with a
friend, and that the defendant had let this friend into the
apartment to use the bathroom.
6
side apartment open and close. He looked out the front window
drive the SUV over the grass on the side of the house and around
could not see what it was, or whether there was anyone else in
the SUV (the windows were tinted), but both men appeared
"excited." Bautista saw only the defendant and Manny, and did
not know whether there was anyone else inside the left-side
time, and then left the duplex, leaving the defendant and Manny
SUV, presumably with the victim or the victim's body, while the
and Manny exchanged two calls at 12:06 and 12:10 P.M., and at
area. 12
arrived in Springfield, and through the time that Manny and the
with a ligature. Manny and the defendant left the victim's body
Bloomfield retail store. Manny then got into the Grand Prix,
11
Bautista testified that his exchange with the defendant
in the backyard lasted from four to five minutes.
12
A Massachusetts State trooper testified that the drive
from downtown Springfield to the police department in
Bloomfield, Connecticut, takes "[p]robably [thirty] minutes."
8
Manny showed his boss about $4,000 to $5,000 in cash, and said
that he had just sold a "kilo," but that the sale had taken
across the back seat of the SUV, which was parked in the store's
fibers, and latent prints from the interior and exterior of the
the slide control lever of the rear driver's side seat, used to
knowing Manny or the victim, and said that he had not left
friend got into the SUV and drove to a retail store in West
retail store for twenty minutes, and then drove on the highway
work. The defendant then picked up Manny and drove him back to
work in Hartford. 13
2018) ("At least when the matter has been put into issue by the
Mass. 396, 407 (2016). "[I]t is not enough for the appellate
must find that there was enough evidence that could have
Linton, 456 Mass. 534, 544 (2010). See Lao, supra, quoting
and common sense"). Still, a conviction may not "rest upon the
or guesswork").
677. 17
16
Although the trial transcript reads "forty minutes,
forty-five minutes," this appears to be a typographical error;
the prosecutor argued in closing that it took "four minutes" for
the victim to die.
17
In opposing the defendant's motion for a required finding
of not guilty, the Commonwealth argued that "based on telephone
records, map and the main contact at the time the victim was
picked up in Connecticut, brought down to Massachusetts, the
[d]efendant's statements that said, [d]efendant's statements say
brought a gun with him, and his wife brought him in the house,
there were no phone calls during that period of time . . . .
15
and a drug deal; the victim was alive when he arrived with Manny
victim was alone at the apartment with Manny and the defendant
in Bloomfield, where they left the victim's body inside the SUV.
"might have been in the face down position" when strangled. The
these facts support an inference that the victim was not killed
in the SUV but, rather, was placed there only after being killed
then, for how long the victim may have been on his back before
on them when the police discovered his body, but police found
for January," that "the temperature was very nice," and that
infer from these facts that (1) the back yard of the Springfield
apartment was muddy on the day of the killing, and (2) further -
- because there was mud on the floor of the SUV, but not on the
given day in January; even then, such testimony does not itself
that the photograph was "from autumn and back then it was
from the SUV, it is not clear whether it was ever sent for
analysis; no dirt sample was ever taken from the back yard of
yard, and the source of the dirt in the SUV, remain wholly
told police that that he had used a knife on his victim and
worked; there was evidence that her hands were bound during the
evidence from which the jury could conclude that [the victim]
did not die in the wooded lot where she was discovered." Id. at
was evidence that the victim did not die at the tree where her
21As noted, Manny was also charged with murder in the first
degree for killing the victim, and this court affirmed Manny's
conviction. See Williams, 475 Mass. at 723. Jurisdiction was
not an issue in that case, however, as the Commonwealth had
21
speculation").
reversed. 22
So ordered.