Commonwealth v. Housewright, 470 Mass. 665

Commonwealth charged Housewright after a May 11, 2010 incident where he fired a gun from a moving truck at a second-floor window.
Doris Williams provided prior testimony at a pretrial detention hearing and was the key identification witness.
Sivertsen and Tobia were eyewitnesses who could not positively identify at the pretrial stage but later identified at trial or in-court proceedings.
The Commonwealth sought to admit Williams's prior recorded testimony under the unavailable witness hearsay exception, relying on a doctor’s letter.
The defense challenged unavailability proof and objected to photographs of a similar firearm and to the sufficiency of evidence for unlawful carrying of a firearm.
Convictions were entered in the District Court, and on direct appellate review the Supreme Judicial Court vacated the convictions and remanded for a new trial due to the unavailability ruling and its impact on confrontation rights.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Williams was unavailable for trial for purposes of the prior-recorded-testimony exception	Housewright contends unavailability was not proven.	Commonwealth asserts illness/infirmity rendered Williams unavailable.	Unavailability not proven; error not harmless.
Whether the trial court properly admitted photographs showing a similar firearm	Exemplars sufficiently illustrate the weapon; not misleading.	Photographs were not the actual weapon and lacked proper limiting instructions.	Admissible; no abuse of discretion.
Whether the evidence supported unlawful carrying of a firearm beyond a reasonable doubt	Testimony showed weapon capable of discharge; sufficient for conviction.	No evidence of capability to discharge a bullet without the actual gun or ballistic proof.	Sufficient to support conviction.

Commonwealth v. Hurley, 455 Mass. 53 (Mass. 2009) (framework for evaluating witness unavailability and importance of cross-examination)
Commonwealth v. Roberio, 440 Mass. 245 (Mass. 2003) (necessity rule for confrontation and unavailability)
Commonwealth v. Bohannon, 385 Mass. 733 (Mass. 1992) (burden to show current unavailability; admissibility based on reliable information)
Sena, 441 Mass. 822 (Mass. 2004) (good faith effort to produce witness; location search defense)
United States v. Donaldson, 978 F.2d 381 (7th Cir. 1992) (court may order additional information or a deposition to determine unavailability)
United States v. Gabrion, 648 F.3d 307 (6th Cir. 2011) (doctor's letter sufficient when detailed about illness and risk of testifying)