Commonwealth v. Tejeda

Sanders, Janet L., J.

This case arises from a robbery gone awry. As the Commonwealth’s evidence at trial showed, the defendant Robinson Tejeda and two others planned to hold up a drug dealer, only to have the target of the robbery kill one of the robbers, Christopher Pichardo. The defendant and the other surviving accomplice, Stephane Etienne, were both charged (among other things) with armed robbery and *427with the murder of Pichardo, the Commonwealth proceeding under the felony murder rule. The two cases were severed for trial, and the case against Tejeda proceeded to a jury trial first before…