Commonwealth v. Fowler

The defendant, Jeffrey Fowler, was convicted of *31rape of a child with the use of force and of murder in the first degree on theories of extreme atrocity or cruelty, and felony-murder. The victim was the two year old daughter of the woman with whom he was living. He raises four issues on appeal, claiming that (1) the trial judge erred in denying the defendant’s motion for required findings of not guilty of rape and felony-murder because there was insufficient evidence of penetration to convict him of rape; (2) the clerk did not engage in a colloquy allowing each juror to express assent to the…