Commonwealth v. Carney, 33 N.E.3d 1234

Defendant lived as a boarder with Kenneth Fontaine and Kenneth’s mother, Elizabeth (the victim); defendant owed substantial back rent and received prescription opioids from Kenneth and Elizabeth.
On October 4, 2009 the defendant took a shotgun (previously stolen from Kenneth), sawed part of the barrel, brought it downstairs, aimed at Elizabeth and fired; she died from skull/brain injuries.
Defendant left a note to Kenneth explaining he killed Elizabeth to relieve Kenneth of burdens and later told a friend and Kenneth that he had shot her; he turned himself in and waived his right to testify.
Trial evidence included an autopsy photograph, a BB gun and ammunition seized from a closet used only by defendant, and testimony about prescription-pill sharing and the defendant’s mental state.
Defense theory at trial emphasized accident and drug-induced confusion; Commonwealth argued deliberate premeditation. Jury convicted the defendant of deliberate premeditated murder; conviction affirmed on appeal.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility of autopsy photograph	Photo was highly relevant to premeditation and inconsistency with accident theory	Photo was inflammatory and unfairly prejudicial	Admitted—judge did not abuse discretion; probative value outweighed prejudice
Admissibility of BB gun/ammunition recovered from defendant’s closet	Shows familiarity/access to firearms; relevant to accidental-discharge theory	Items unrelated to killing and prejudicial	Admitted—properly limited to capacity/familiarity with guns; no abuse of discretion
Prosecutor’s closing argument (appeal to sympathy, facts not in evidence, personal opinion)	Argument largely based on evidence; invited permissible inferences	Improper emotional appeals, speculation about victim’s thoughts, and personal opinion	Some comments were improper (emotion/speculation) but not likely to cause miscarriage of justice given overall strong evidence and curative instructions; no new trial
Post-trial review under G. L. c. 278, § 33E	N/A (Commonwealth)	Defendant sought relief/reduction of guilt	Review denied; conviction affirmed

Commonwealth v. Flebotte, 417 Mass. 348 (standard for reviewing preserved evidentiary objections)
Commonwealth v. Pena, 455 Mass. 1 (trial judge’s discretion on inflammatory photographs)
Commonwealth v. Berry, 420 Mass. 95 (burden to show abuse of discretion on evidentiary rulings)
Commonwealth v. Haith, 452 Mass. 409 (photographs of fatal wounds admissible on premeditation)
Commonwealth v. McGee, 467 Mass. 141 (admission of other weapons to show access/knowledge)
Commonwealth v. Toro, 395 Mass. 354 (distinguishing relevance of other-weapon evidence where defendant denied commission)
Commonwealth v. Santiago, 425 Mass. 491 (improper appeals to emotion/sympathy in closing)
Commonwealth v. Coren, 437 Mass. 723 (prosecutor may not argue facts not in evidence)
Commonwealth v. Bizanowicz, 459 Mass. 400 (harmlessness analysis for improper argument)
Commonwealth v. Espada, 450 Mass. 687 (use of first-person pronoun does not by itself create improper personal opinion)