Commonwealth v. Bonnett

The victim, Vincent Gaskins, was shot and killed in a parking lot across the street from a nightclub in Lynn. The shooting came on the heels of an argument between the victim and Brandon Payne, a friend of the defendant. A Superior Court jury convicted the defendant of murder in the first degree on a theory of deliberate premeditation. The trial judge subsequently denied the defendant’s motion for a new trial. On appeal from his conviction and from the denial of his motion for a new trial, the defendant claims that (a) his trial counsel rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance; and…