Commonwealth v. Delacruz

A jury found the defendant guilty on two indictments charging armed assault with intent to rob based on evidence of his involvement, together with two accomplices, in the planning and execution of a robbery, on January 22, 2000. The defendant appealed from his convictions, contending, insofar as relevant here, that the prosecutor engaged in misconduct in his closing argument by improperly emphasizing and bolstering the credibility of one of the Commonwealth’s witnesses (James Forte, one of the accomplices) by reading verbatim portions of Forte’s testimony as transcribed at trial, *693and by…