State v. Lawrence Clay

OPINION

Chief Justice SUTTELL,

for the Court.

A young girl’s decision to leave her grandparents’ home surreptitiously in the early-morning hours in order to rendezvous with her boyfriend resulted in consequences she did not foresee: her abduction in Middletown, an automobile ride to New Bedford during which she was concealed beneath a tarpaulin, and an alleged sexual assault in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The defendant, Lawrence Clay, appeals from a Superior Court judgment of conviction, having been found guilty by a jury of kidnapping of a minor and reckless driving, for which he was…