Commonwealth v. Estep

After a jury trial in 1990, the defendant was convicted of murder in the second degree for killing his girl friend, Leisha "Lee" Sanford. He comes before this court for a fourth time, arguing that he is entitled to a new trial because the trial judge's instructions to the jury on the third prong of malice were erroneous and because counsel was ineffective. The motion judge denied the motion. Although we agree that the instructions were erroneous, we affirm nonetheless because we are persuaded that the error did not create a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice, nor was counsel…