Opinion ID: 2517672
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Boyd Had Previously Committed Several Assaults with a Knife

Text: Petitioner alleges that, had trial counsel conducted a reasonable investigation, he would have discovered that Boyd, on numerous occasions, threatened various people with a knife and admitted having stabbed people in the past. Thus, petitioner alleges, Boyd several times threatened his wife, Arzetta Harvey, with a knife. This allegation is supported by Harvey's testimony admitting Boyd threatened her with a knife and that he once put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. Harvey's son testified that Boyd, during an argument, brandished a knife, chased Harvey and threw a knife at her. Raynall Burney described a different incident; he saw Boyd arguing with Harvey and then point the knife at her side in a threatening manner. The record also supports petitioner's further allegations that Boyd once brandished a knife at Raynall Burney, as well as at a group of people gathered around the swimming pool at the Vose Street apartments, including Michael Small and others, and that Boyd bragged he previously had cut someone's throat. Although Boyd denied these incidents, the referee ruled generally in petitioner's favor on this point. Respondent does not specifically deny that any of these events occurred but contends that because the victims were killed with a two-bladed knife, the testimony recounting incidents in which Boyd threatened Burney, Harvey and Small with a knife was irrelevant and immaterial. Respondent also takes exception to the referee's findings, arguing they are incorrect and based on inadmissible evidence, being merely evidence of Boyd's bad character. Respondent did not object on these grounds at the reference hearing and thus failed to preserve the issue for review in this court. Accordingly, we overrule respondent's exception to these latter statements. There being substantial evidence (in the form of testimony by Harvey, her son, Burney, and Small) to support the referee's finding that Boyd threatened people with, and brandished, a knife on several occasions, and because respondent forfeited the evidentiary objections he now presents, we adopt the referee's conclusions.