The two defendants were indicted, tried and found guilty of murder in the first degree of James B. O’Leary. The jury recommended that the death penalty not be imposed on Graves; no recommendation was made as to Johnson. On a separate indictment Johnson was found guilty of armed robbery, while masked, of Jacob Berman; Graves was found guilty of аrmed robbery of Berman. Both defendants were found guilty of assault and battery on Berman by means of a dangerous weapon. Johnson, in addition, was found guilty of unlawfully carrying a firearm, and unlawfully having a firearm under his control in a vehicle. The trial was held subject to G. L. c. 278, §§ 33A-33G, and the cases are here on appeal with assignments of error.
Thе trial commenced January 13, 1964, and was concluded January 25, 1964. The evidence showed that about 9 p.m. August 1, 1963, Berman was the sole employee then on duty at the Copley Wine and Liquor Company, Boylston Street, Boston. Johnson, wearing a mask and armed with a revolver, entered the store, struck Berman on the cheekbone with the revоlver, ordered two customers to lie on the *314 floor, and took money which he forced Berman to remove from the cash register. After Johnson left the store he was pursued by Berman and others via Exeter, Newbury and Fairfield streets to Commonwealth Avenue across the Mall. Boston Police Officer James B. O’Leary, who had joined the pursuit at the intersection of Exeter and New-bury streets, followed Johnson diagonally across Commonwealth Avenue. Johnson entered on the passenger side of a two-toned Buiek convertible which was stopped in the outbound lane on Commonwealth Avenue. The car was being driven by Graves, to whom Johnson had recently transfеrred ownership. Graves knew that Johnson had a gun and that he was going to hold up the liquor store. Graves expected to receive half of the money. He had remained in the car, which was parked around the corner from the store, while Johnson went into the store. When he saw the commotion near the store, he started thе car and drove outbound on Commonwealth Avenue. Graves stopped the car when Johnson came across the Mall on Commonwealth Avenue.
Officer O’Leary approached the car and ordered Graves out of the vehicle. O’Leary then proceeded to the passenger side of the vehicle. As he did so, two shots rang out. O’Leary, mortally wounded, fell to the street. Graves leaped from the driver’s side of the car and ran along Fair-field Street, then through an alley to Gloucester Street, where he hailed a taxi which took him to the place where Johnson lived in Roxbury. Johnson drove off in the car. Police officers, alertеd by the police alarm, saw Johnson in the Fenway and pursued him through several streets in the Fenway and Roxbury areas. In the course of the chase the car driven by Johnson struck a wall, hit four or five motor vehicles, and finally came to a halt after crashing into a bus. The front of the Buiclc was demolished. Johnson, limping, fled from the Buick and went over a fence. He was eventually apprehended under a back porch where he had sought concealment.
Officer O’Leary, in the meantime, had been taken to the Massachusetts General Hospital where, shortly before 3 a.m. *315 on August 2, 1963, he was pronounced dead of gunshot wounds. Ballistics evidence showed thаt the bullet removed from O’Leary’s body had been fired from the .38 calibre Smith & Wesson revolver which had been found beneath the Buick convertible after the collision with the MTA bus.
Johnson’s Assignments of Error.
1. We deal first with those assignments of error (6, 7, 12, 13) which relate to a statement amounting to a confession made to the police by Johnson after his arrest, at a time when he was not represented by counsel. The statement was stenographically taken and transcribed. When the statement was offered at the trial, Johnson objected to its admission in evidence. A voir dire was held.
At the voir dire a question asked by the defendant of a doctor called by him was excluded (assignment 6). There was no error. The doctor, who had seen Johnson for the first time on August 15, 1963, at the Boston City Hospital, made a diagnosis on August 16,1963, that Johnson was suffering from a subdural hematoma. The diagnosis was confirmed by an operation performed on August 17. In the opinion of the doctor the condition had existed for one or two weeks. The excluded question was whether the doctor had “an opinion as to the cause of this subdural hematoma.” There is no indication that the doctor was aware of any set of facts, hypothetical or otherwise, upon which he could predicate an opinion which would have relevance to Johnson’s physical condition on August 1 or 2, 1963. Despite the judge’s suggestion, no offer was made which would aid the judge in determining whether, if the witness had an opinion of the cause of Johnson’s condition on August 15,1963, it related to the events of August 1 or 2. Cf.
Commonwealth
v.
Banuchi,
There was no error in the judge’s ruling at the completion of the voir dire that Johnson’s statement to the police was admissible in evidence (assignment 7). -When thе statement was sought to be introduced at the trial, it was prima
*316
facie voluntary.
Commonwealth
v.
McCarty,
The defendant argues that there was error (assignment 13) in that the judge, after ruling that Johnson’s statement was admissible, did not instruct the jury to disregard it unless they found it was made voluntarily. No exception was saved at the trial. The defendant argues, however, that the “interests of justice” require that the assignment be considered and a new trial ordered. Although an assignment of error not based on an exception brings nothing to this court for review,
Commonwealth
v.
Chester,
We find no basis for disturbing the verdicts on the assigned ground. Although the judge may pass upon the voluntariness of a statement in the first instance, the final determination is one of fact for the jury.
Commonwealth
v.
Makarewicz,
It seems clear to us from the transcript that the defendant was content to let the issue of voluntariness rest on the ruling made by the judge in the absence of the jury. The alternative was to revive and emphasize the issue by having the judge instruct the jury that, having heard the evidence on the voir dire, he had determined that the statement was voluntarily made, and by the further instruction that the jury could find that it was involuntary if there was evidence presented to them which persuaded them to that conclusion, when in fact there was no such evidence before the jury. The defendant’s conduct of his cases indicates a deliberate decision not to press the issue of involuntariness when it could have been raised sеasonably before the jury. “It is well settled that a party cannot reserve for a motion for a new trial a point that he could have raised at the trial.”
Commonwealth
v.
Doyle,
Assignment of error 12 relates to the denial of the defendant’s motion for a new trial. The motion was made by newly engaged counsel eight months after the verdicts of guilty and wаs based upon
Escobedo
v.
Illinois,
The defendant’s first argument is that the principle in
Miranda
v.
Arizona,
The defendant’s second argument is that the judge failed to consider important factors on the question of voluntariness which would call for a determination that Johnson’s statement was involuntary. These include the failure to warn Johnson of his rights, the mentality of the accused, and Johnson’s physical condition at the time he gave his statement to the рolice. The factors which the defendant now points to could have been raised at the trial. It was incumbent upon the defendant to do so. The failure to raise them during the voir dire, coupled with the fact that the issue of voluntariness was not thereafter pursued at the trial, leads us to conclude that there was no error.
Commonwealth
v.
Doyle,
Wе note further, however, that the factors to which the defendant now points as bearing upon the voluntariness of Johnson’s statement were considered and passed upon by the judge during the hearing on the motion for a new trial. In addition to the evidence introduced, the judge had full opportunity to observe Johnson’s mental capabilities. He was also aware of Johnson’s physical condition at the time the statement was given to the police. The judge’s extensive findings of fact show that he was not required, as matter of law, to conclude that the statement was involuntarily
*319
given. See
Commonwealth
v.
Lundin,
2. Assignment 3 is based upon Johnson’s exception to the question asked of one Gannon regarding the identity of the gunman in the store. Gannon had testified that he was a customer in the store when the man, whose face was partly concealed by a dark blue bandanna handkerchief, “rushed through the store,” gun in one hand, bag in the other, and demanded money of Berman; that the man struck Berman on the head with the gun and ordered Gannon to lie on the floor. Gannon also described the build and appearance and apparel worn by a man whom he had seen outside the store just before Gannon entered the store. During a rapid series of questions, objections, rulings and comments by court and counsel relating to whether the gunman was the same man, Gannon was asked by the judge, “Can you say that you saw the same man?” Gannon answered, “I cannоt say it was the same man.” Later in his testimony Gannon testified that he had identified Johnson in a police lineup as the man he saw in the store. Toward the close of his testimony on direct examination Gannon was asked: ‘ ‘ [W] as the man that you saw outside the store or on the sidewalk a few doors from the liquor store, to the best of your knowledge, belief and recollection, the man that you saw rush by you in the store and approach Mr. Berman and do what you described?” Over objection and exception, Gannon answered, “Yes.” The defendant argues that the question was objectionable as a “leading and catchall question.” The question was within the wide discretion which as matter of practical necessity we have recognized must be left to the trial judge,
Guiffre
v.
Carapezza,
We see no merit whatever in assignment 5 which is based on Johnson’s exceptions to brief testimony relative to the place where Officer O’Leary fell, the posture of his body, the surgical efforts to save his life and the course of the bullets through his body. It was incumbent upon the Commonwealth to prove that the officer died as the result of a gunshot wound caused by a bullet from a weapon fired by Johnson. The testimony objected to provided important links in the prosecution’s chain of proof and was properly admitted.
In support of the indictment charging robbery the Commonwealth introduced evidence through the testimony of an automobile salesman (assignments 8, 9,10). The salesman had three conversations with Johnson, two on July 31, 1963, and onе on August 1,1963, regarding the purchase by Johnson of an automobile for $1,695. On July 31 Johnson said he would turn in his 1955 Buick, together with an amount of cash to make a total down payment of $300. He stated then that he had “no visible means of support. ’’ He gave the salesman a credit statement. On August 1, 1963, the salesman informed Johnson that the finance company wanted a larger down payment. Johnson replied “that he was getting more money that night,” that “he would have a substantial amount” of money, and would “be in [to the agency] on the following day and settle up on the automobile.” There was no error in admitting this evidence, which tended to establish a motive for the crime. Although motive is not an essеntial element of a crime, and proof of it is not required, evidence tending to show motive
*321
is always competent because, if clearly shown, it may help to confirm the conclusion reached from all the other evidence that the defendant is guilty of the crime charged.
Commonwealth
v.
Simpson,
The remaining assignment of error (14) argued by Johnson is that he should be granted a new trial separate from that of Graves because of the prejudicial effect of the admission of Graves’ statement, amounting to a confession, in evidence. Johnson was given and exercised the opportunity before trial to examine the statement incriminating him which Graves had given to the police. He made no motion that the trial be severed from that of Graves. He took no exception to the admission of Graves ’ statement in evidence at the trial. The judge correctly instructed the jury of the limited effect of the statement
(Commonwealth
v.
Millen,
Graves’ Assignments op Error.
There was no error in leaving to the jury the question whether Graves was guilty of murder in the first dеgree (assignment 4). It is conceded in Graves’ brief that he was engaged with Johnson in the joint enterprise to commit armed robbery, that Graves drove the getaway car from the scene of the robbery to the point where Officer O’Leary, while in fresh pursuit of Johnson, was killed. Graves argues, however, that before the killing he had “completely ‘detached’ ” himself from the enterprise by submitting to arrest at the order of Officer O’Leary. The issue was one of fact as to which the judge gave full and correct instructions to which no exceptions were taken. See
Commonwealth
v.
Green,
Graves’ assignments of error 5 (no severance of trials) and 6 (admission of Johnson’s confession) are disposed of by applying to them what we have said regarding the corresponding contentions of Johnson in his assignment of error 14.
Judgments affirmed.