Commonwealth v. Brown

81 N.E.3d 1173 (2017)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D was a passenger in a green Honda Civic automobile. The other occupants of the vehicle were his friends Ariel Hernandez, Giovanni Hill, and Darien Doby. Hernandez was the driver. Hill was in the front passenger seat, and D and Doby shared the rear passenger seat. Hernandez drove past two men walking on the street and raised the possibility of robbing them. The passengers convinced Hernandez not to do so. They noticed two women walking down the street. Hernandez pulled into a side street and removed a firearm from the trunk. Hill and Hernandez rounded the corner and confronted the women while D and Doby waited in the vehicle. Hernandez, gun in hand, grabbed their purses. The two men returned to the vehicle, and Hernandez drove away, with the purses and the handgun in his lap. He stopped at a friend's house to exchange the green hooded sweatshirt he had been wearing for a black sweatshirt without a hood. D, Doby, and Hill left the friend's house, while Hernandez stayed behind. All of them eventually met at D's one-bedroom apartment. Hernandez stashed the handgun. Hill went to a bank to attempt to withdraw money with victim's bank card. Hill borrowed D's black sweatshirt so he could change out of the jacket he had worn during the robbery. Jamal and Karon McDougal visited D's apartment. Joshua Silva joined them. Jamal asked Hernandez if he wanted to participate in robbing someone who owed money to one of Jamal's friends. Karon predicted that the robbery would be “pretty easy.” He warned the others, however, that they were going to rob two “pretty big guys” who worked in bars. Hernandez agreed to participate in the robbery. Silva joined them as the getaway driver. Hernandez retrieved his gun, looked it over, and tucked it inside his waistband. Hernandez asked D for a hooded sweatshirt so that he could “hide his face.” D gave Hernandez a black and red pullover-style hooded sweatshirt with a white Red Sox “B” logo on the front. Jamal and Karon also borrowed hooded sweatshirts from D. Jamal asked to borrow D's “burner” (gun). D gave Jamal a .380 pistol that had been stored underneath his bed. Jamal, Karon, Hernandez, and Silva drove in Silva's Toyota Camry automobile to the victims' townhouse. Silva parked on a nearby side street. Silva waited in the vehicle. Shortly after 1 a.m., the occupants of the townhouse heard loud banging on the front door. Tony went downstairs and opened the front door. His housemates heard a scuffle at the bottom of the stairs near the door, and then Jamal and Hernandez chased Tony up the stairs into the second-floor living room. Jamal put Tony in a headlock and was pointing the gun at his head. Hernandez rushed toward Staples, brandishing a gun, and ordered him upstairs. Staples and Hector ran upstairs to hide. Tony managed to break free from Jamal and also ran up the stairs. Jamal and Hernandez followed him. From his hiding place, Staples heard Hector's door being kicked in, followed by an argument, and then gunshots. Hector was found lying face up on his bed, gasping for air. He had been shot three times and died of multiple gunshot wounds. Tony, fatally shot in the abdomen, managed to stagger to the fourth floor, where he was treated at the scene before he died. After the gunshots, Jamal and Hernandez ran outside, cheering and exchanging “high fives.” They met up with Karon and Silva and drove back to Ds apartment. Jamal and Hernandez informed Karon that they had been unable to steal anything. Jamal remarked that Hernandez was a good shot, and Hernandez responded, “Yeah, once I seen them jump on you, I just started shooting.” Jamal returned D's gun to him. Hernandez asked D if he could leave his gun at D's apartment. D said no, Hernandez gave the gun to Hill and told him to put it in the trunk of the Honda Civic. Jamal, Karon, and Hernandez removed the borrowed sweatshirts and left them in D's living room. Police unraveled the crime fairly fast. D admitted to having given this gun to Hernandez and the other men on the evening of the shootings. D said he did not know what Hernandez and the other men were going to do with the gun but admitted he believed they were going to rob someone. D was convicted on all charges D appealed.