Commonwealth v. Magri, 968 N.E.2d 876

Pittsfield experienced a series of daytime burglaries and auto break-ins in summer 2007 with items including jewelry, electronics, and credit cards.
Defendant was indicted on 32 charges; he was convicted of 23 offenses in 2009; Appeals Court affirmed all but one conviction in an unpublished memorandum.
Commonwealth theory: defendant stole to fund a drug habit; co-conspirators testified to his use of crack cocaine and involvement in trading stolen goods for drugs.
Evidence showed defendant traded/stole items to finance drug purchases and used stolen credit cards for purchases later exchanged for drugs.
Defendant moved to sever the 32 offenses; trial judge declined, joining all charges for a single trial.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether joinder of offenses was proper	Magri contends related offenses should be severed due to disparate times/locations.	Duffly argues joinder risked unfair prejudice and severance was required.	Joinder proper; offenses were related by common scheme and pattern.
Whether evidence found in bags during a warrantless search was admissible	Commonwealth asserts consent to search Barnes’s apartment extended to defendant’s bags.	Duffly contends no authority to search the bags; search violated Fourth Amendment/ art. 14.	Search of defendant’s bags should have been suppressed; consent did not extend to his belongings.
Whether the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt	Evidence from bags reinforced guilt beyond other testimony.	Erroneous admission could have affected the verdicts.	Error not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt; retrial on affected charges required.

Commonwealth v. Montanez, 410 Mass. 290 (1991) (joinder discretion; related offenses presumptively joinable)
Commonwealth v. Delaney, 425 Mass. 587 (1997) (factors for determining related offenses and joinder)
Commonwealth v. Feijoo, 419 Mass. 486 (1995) (evidence admissibility in related prosecutions; 404(b) considerations)
Commonwealth v. Sullivan, 436 Mass. 799 (2002) (common plan or scheme in determining related offenses)
Commonwealth v. Linton, 456 Mass. 534 (2010) (host-guest privacy expectations; scope of consent to search)
Commonwealth v. Porter P., 456 Mass. 254 (2010) (consent to search in shared dwelling does not extend to personal containers)
Commonwealth v. Sinnott, 399 Mass. 863 (1987) (harmless-error standard and evaluating prejudice)
Commonwealth v. Dagraca, 447 Mass. 546 (2006) (harmless-error review in the context of improperly admitted evidence)
Commonwealth v. Mallory, 56 Mass. App. Ct. 153 (2002) (host-guest privacy/relevance in search scenarios)
Commonwealth v. Montanez, 410 Mass. 290 (1991) (see above (duplicate for emphasis in context))