Commonwealth v. O'Kane

A six-person jury in Fitchburg District Court found the defendant, Casey O’Kane, guilty of assault and battery on his girlfriend, April Lepage. He appeals from the judgment of conviction.

The defendant defended at the trial by urging that he lacked criminal intent, that what the Commonwealth characterized as his intentional punch to April’s face was in fact his slapping her cheeks in an attempt to bring her to consciousness from what he took to be an overdose of drugs. The jury by their verdict rejected the defendant’s version. The defendant did not request *467a jury instruction on a defense of…