Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/349/349mass126.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 22:56:40+00:00

Document:
COMMONWEALTH vs. LEONARD K. HOLIDAY.
At the trial of an indictment under G. L. c. 274, Section 4, charging the defendant with being an accessory after the fact by harboring an escapee from a penal institution, where there was evidence that the defendant and the escapee knew each other, that the escapee at a late hour one evening came to an inn at which the defendant worked and lived, and that they went to the defendant's room and were found in bed there by the police some four hours later, the jury were entitled to believe testimony by the defendant and the escapee that when they went to the room the escapee told the defendant that he had escaped from the penal institution, and to disbelieve further testimony by them that the defendant refused to allow the escapee to stay in the room but was forced to do so by the escapee by threatened use of a knife; and a finding that the defendant, knowing that the escapee had committed the felony of escaping, harbored him with intent that he should avoid arrest, and a verdict of guilty, were warranted.
INDICTMENT found and returned on September 11, 1963.
he did harbor Kelly with the intent that Kelly should avoid arrest. The defendant excepted to the judge's denial of his motion for a directed verdict. The sole question presented is whether the evidence sustains the verdict.
The defendant concedes that Kelly had in fact escaped from the institution, and had thereby committed a felony. The controversy centers on two elements of the offence charged: (1) whether the defendant, knowing that Kelly was an escapee, harbored him, and (2) whether the defendant harbored Kelly with intent that Kelly should avoid arrest. We state the evidence bearing on these issues. Both the defendant and Kelly had been inmates at the institution at the same time and knew one another. The defendant was released on parole on July 5, 1963. When he left the institution he told Kelly that he had a job at a named inn in Sudbury.
afraid of Kelly and allowed him to stay." No knife was found by the police in the search of the defendant's room or of the men's clothing.
Both the defendant and Kelly testified in substance that, upon returning to the defendant's room after having pushed the car (approximately a half hour or forty-five minutes after Kelly's arrival), Kelly told the defendant that he had escaped from the institution and wanted to stay overnight. The defendant refused, whereupon Kelly pulled a knife, put it to the defendant's throat, and said that he was going to stay until five o'clock. Kelly ordered the defendant to take off his clothes and go to bed. Both men fell asleep and were awakened when the police came into the room. Kelly testified that he was in the defendant's bedroom for five hours after he had told the defendant that he had escaped from the institution.
On the foregoing evidence the case was submitted to the jury. No exception was taken to the judge's charge. We accordingly conclude that it was complete and correct in all essentials.
The applicable law is clear. Where, as here, knowledge on the part of the defendant that Kelly was an escapee is an essential element of the offence charged, proof of that knowledge is a prerequisite to conviction. The knowledge of the defendant is personal to him and the statute recognizes no substitute. Commonwealth v. Horsfall, 213 Mass. 232, 236-237. Commonwealth v. Boris, 317 Mass. 309, 315-316, and cases cited. A person's knowledge, however, like his intent, is a matter of fact, which may not be susceptible of proof by direct evidence. In that event resort must be had, and frequently is had, to proof by inference from all the facts and circumstances developed at the trial. Commonwealth v. Devaney, 182 Mass. 33, 36. Commonwealth v. Boris, 317 Mass. 309, 315. Commonwealth v. Bonomi, 335 Mass. 327, 355-356.
and that thereupon he became Kelly's hostage and had no intent that Kelly should avoid arrest. On the other hand, the defendant contends that if the testimony of Kelly's disclosure to him of his escape is disbelieved, there is no basis for a finding that the defendant knew that he was sheltering an escapee. In effect, he argues that the jury must accept the testimony of what occurred in the bedroom in its entirety or not at all.
The Commonwealth need not accept the dilemma posed by the defendant. It is entitled, as is the defendant, to the verdict of the jury based upon all the evidence in the case. Commonwealth v. Hughes, 2 Allen 518. It is elementary that the acceptance or rejection of oral testimony, in whole or in part, is within the exclusive province of the jury. Commonwealth v. Davis, 284 Mass. 41, 51. Marquandt v. Boston Young Women's Christian Assn. 282 Mass. 28, 31. Limoges v. Limoges, 287 Mass. 260. We do not intimate that the evidence would be insufficient to convict if the jury had rejected in its entirety, as a complete fabrication, the disclosure and threat version given by the defendant and Kelly. See Commonwealth v. Grieco, 323 Mass. 639, 642. We need not dwell upon the effect of the evidence thus limited because the jury were not obliged to consider the evidence with the restriction argued by the defendant. The jury could reject, and doubtless did reject, the testimony that Kelly, by the threatened use of a knife, compelled the defendant to give him refuge. At the same time, they could take the defendant at his word that he knew from Kelly's own lips, at least on the night of August 2, 1963, that he was an escapee, and could find that with that knowledge, the defendant harbored Kelly in his room. The act of harboring coupled with the requisite knowledge afforded sufficient basis for an inference by the jury of the final essential element of the offence, namely, that the harboring was done with the intent that Kelly would avoid apprehension by the police.
[Note 1] So far as pertinent the statute provides: "Whoever, after the commission of a felony, harbors . . . the . . . felon . . . knowing that he has committed a felony . . . with intent that he shall avoid . . . arrest, trial or punishment, shall be an accessory after the fact, and . . . be punished . . .."
[Note 2] "A prisoner who escapes . . . from any penal institution . . . may be pursued and recaptured and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison . . . or . . . in a jail or house of correction . . .."

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.