Commonwealth v. John Joyce – Dedham District Court

RANDOLPH DRUG DEALER FOUND NOT GUILTY IN FATAL OVERDOSE AFTER THE NOONAN DEFENSE TEAM CONVINCES JURY THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE TO PROVE THAT THEIR CLIENT SOLD THE DRUGS THAT CAUSED THE VICTIM’S OVERDOSE DEATH

The Commonwealth alleged that the Defendant sold Heroin and Fentanyl to a Stoughton man who then took the drugs and died of an overdose. The Commonwealth charged the Defendant with 2 counts of Distribution of Heroin and Fentanyl for allegedly selling the drugs that killed the overdose victim. After an investigation, the Commonwealth charged the Defendant with 2 additional counts of Possession with Intent to Distribute Heroin and Fentanyl. On September 1, 2016, Stoughton Police were called to the residence of the male victim who they found dead on the floor of an apparent drug overdose. Police found drugs on the male victim. Police found a rolled up $20 bill with brown powder on the tip of it, which tested positive for Heroin and Fentanyl. Police also found a folded up lottery ticket, which contained a powdery substance that tested positive for Heroin and Fentanyl. The police searched the victim’s phone and saw text messages between the victim and the Defendant from the night before where they both agreed to meet each other. Police then began to text the Defendant from the victim’s phone and, posing as the victim, police set up a drug transaction with the Defendant. When the Defendant showed up for the drug deal, police arrested him and found a folded lottery ticket containing Heroin and Fentanyl, which resulted in the two additional counts of Possession with Intent to Distribute Heroin and Fentanyl.

Result:

The Noonan Defense Team attacked the government’s case that the Defendant sold the Heroin and Fentanyl to the male victim, which caused his fatal overdose. Attorney Patrick J. Noonan got the lead investigator to admit on cross-examination that he did have any evidence that the Defendant met with the male victim or distributed the drugs that killed him. Attorney Noonan attacked the government’s handling of the male victim’s cell phone. The police searched the victim’s phone and generated an Extraction Report of the data on the phone. For some strange reason, the extraction report only contained one-month of data on the victim’s phone. Attorney Noonan pointed out that the software used by police had a default setting, which automatically extracted all available data on the phone, but the government only produced one-month of data, which begged the question: What happened to all the other data? There were 1,500 contacts on the phone but only one-month of data. Attorney Noonan introduced the entirety of the call logs and text messages on the victim’s phone to show that there was no evidence of any drug transactions with the Defendant, or even a discussion about drugs. Attorney Noonan introduced a text message in which an identified contact offered to provide drugs to the victim. Attorney Noonan highlighted all the people that the victim had been in communication with on the night in question and any of these people could have been the person who provided the drugs to the victim, but those persons were not investigated. The prosecution argued that the Defendant sold the drugs to the victim because the drugs found in the victim’s possession were packaged in a lottery ticket, and when police arrested the Defendant they found drugs packaged in a lottery ticket. However, Attorney Noonan introduced text messages on the victim’s phone showing that the victim was a regular purchaser of lottery tickets, and the victim was talking about picking up lottery tickets a few days before his overdose. Attorney Noonan presented evidence showing that the victim could have been the seller of the drugs that were found on his person. Lastly, Attorney Noonan argued that this was a rushed investigation where the police started with a conclusion (that the Defendant was the drug dealer) and police only looked for evidence that would support their conclusion and ignored any evidence to the contrary.

Click on the Link for Enterprise News Coverage of the Case: “Randolph man acquitted in fatal Stoughton overdose, but guilty of possession.”