Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/372/372mass641.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 22:10:15+00:00

Document:
COMMONWEALTH vs. ROBERT F. BUDREAU.
COMPLAINT received and sworn to in the Central District Court of Worcester on July 31, 1975.
On appeal, trial by a jury of six having been waived, the case was heard by George, J.
Thomas F. Sullivan, Jr., for the defendant.
Joseph F. Brennan, Jr., Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.
QUIRICO, J. The defendant was tried and found guilty by a judge of a District Court on a complaint charging he had purchased, received, and aided in the concealment of certain goods and chattels knowing them to have been stolen. He claimed an appeal to a jury of six in the same District Court. When the case was reached for trial on appeal, he waived his claim to a jury, but not his appeal, and was tried before another judge in the same District Court where he had been convicted originally, and was again convicted. This appeal, claim of jury, waiver of jury and second trial were all part of a double trial, single tier procedure seemingly sanctioned by G. L. c. 218, Section 27A, inserted by St. 1972, c. 620, Section 1, and theretofore by a series of predecessor special statutes. For a comment on this double trial procedure, see Commonwealth v. Henry's Drywall Co., 362 Mass. 552, 553 n.2 (1972).
The case is now before us on the defendant's bill of exceptions alleging error in two rulings made during the second trial, one ruling relating to the admission of evidence and the other being the judge's denial of the defendant's motion, filed at the close of all the evidence, "for a directed finding of not guilty." We hold that there was error and reverse.
v. Corcoran, 332 Mass. 615 (1955). Commonwealth v. Young, 326 Mass. 597, 598 (1950). Commonwealth v. Capitol Theatre, Inc., 325 Mass. 146, 147-148 (1949). Commonwealth v. Slome, 321 Mass. 713, 714 (1947). Commonwealth v. Goldberg, 316 Mass. 563, 564 (1944). Commonwealth v. Albert, 307 Mass. 239, 244 (1940).
Treating the defendant's motion "for a directed finding of not guilty" as a request for a ruling that the evidence was not sufficient to warrant a conviction, we must consider and determine whether the evidence stated in the bill of exceptions, in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth is sufficient to permit the judge to infer the existence of the essential elements of the crime charged in the complaint. See Commonwealth v. Sandler, 368 Mass. 729, 740 (1975).
bore identifying numbers or marks which he had placed on them as a cost code. He identified the boxes, but he testified that he could not state for certain if the articles in the boxes were in fact any of the items stolen from his store. He could say only that they were of the same type and model numbers and that the boxes in which they were contained at the police station had on them his own identification numbers or marks. The officer did not know where the boxes which were at the police station had come from.
We hold that the evidence thus summarized in the bill of exceptions was not sufficient to permit an inference that the three articles seized by the police under the search warrant had been stolen. The defendant was therefore entitled to a ruling that the evidence was insufficient to warrant his conviction of the crime charged, and his exception to the denial thereof is sustained.
By reason of our conclusion, we do not reach the further question whether it was error for the judge to permit testimony from the police officer that when he went to serve the search warrant the defendant's father pointed out a room in the house as the one occupied by the defendant.

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