Commonwealth v. Shellenberger

A jury convicted the defendant of one count of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation under G. L. c. 90, § 24G(h). On appeal, she contends that (1) a medical record, which contained only a vague reference to an unquantified amount of amphetamine in her system, was unfairly transformed, during trial, into a surprise theory of criminal liability; there was no foundation for the amphetamine evidence used to sup*71port this new theory; and, in arguing that theory in his closing, the prosecutor committed error by arguing that “speed kills”; (2) the instructions on causation were inadequate;…