NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal 

revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound 

volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical 

error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of 

Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 

Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-

1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us

SJC-11832

COMMONWEALTH vs. ALFREDO COMPANONIO.1

July 6, 2015.

Practice, Criminal, Capital case, Postconviction relief, Appeal.

The defendant was convicted in 1987 of murder in the first 

degree. In 2005, this court affirmed the conviction as well as 

several trial court orders on postconviction 

motions. Commonwealth v. Companonio, 445 Mass. 39 (2005). The 

defendant has since filed additional motions in the trial court 

seeking postconviction relief, all of which have been denied. 

In December, 2014, a single justice of this court denied the 

defendant's application for leave to appeal from the denial of 

his most recent motion. See G. L. c. 278, § 33E. The single 

justice concluded that the defendant's claims were not "new and 

substantial" within the meaning of the statute. The defendant 

now purports to appeal to the full court from the single 

justice's ruling.

A defendant who is denied leave to appeal from a single 

justice acting as a gatekeeper pursuant to the last sentence of 

G. L. c. 278, § 33E, has no right to appeal from the single 

justice's ruling denying leave. The single justice's ruling is 

"final and unreviewable." See Commonwealth v. Gunter, 456 Mass. 

1017, 1017 (2010), and cases cited. It cannot be appealed to 

the full court; it is not subject to review under G. L. c. 211, 

§ 3; and it cannot be collaterally attacked. Id. We have 

routinely rejected attempts by defendants to obtain full court 

review of a single justice's ruling denying such leave to 

appeal. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Nesbitt, 459 Mass. 1005 

1 As is our custom, we recite the defendant's name as it 

first appears in the indictment.

 
2

(2011); Commonwealth v. Monteiro, 451 Mass. 1009 

(2008); Commonwealth v. Niemic, 451 Mass. 1008 

(2008); Commonwealth v. Freeman, 451 Mass. 1006 

(2008); Commonwealth v. Scott, 437 Mass. 1008 (2002). "The 

special function of the single justice mandated by the statute 

would be futile and meaningless if his or her rulings were 

subject to appeal before the full court." Leaster

v. Commonwealth, 385 Mass. 547, 548 (1982).

The defendant's reference in his notice of appeal to S.J.C. 

Rule 2:21, as amended, 434 Mass. 1301 (2001), does not improve 

his position. Rule 2:21 applies in cases where a single justice 

denies relief from a challenged interlocutory ruling of the 

trial court. It does not apply here. The denial of a 

postappeal motion for a new trial in a criminal case is not an 

interlocutory ruling. Moreover, Rule 2:21, in instances where 

it does apply, "does not create a new right of appeal" where 

none otherwise existed. McMenimen v. Passatempo, 452 Mass. 178, 

190 & n.12 (2008).

Appeal dismissed.

The case was submitted on briefs.

Alfredo Companioni, pro se.

Robert C. Thompson, Assistant District Attorney, for the 

Commonwealth.