Commonwealth v. Stone

Opinion of the Court by

Justice VENTERS.

Appellee, Michael Stone, and four co-defendants, Matthew Deck, Jeremy Ursry, Eddie Ursry, and Richard Holbeck, were charged with the murder of Lamartez Griffin. Appellee was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and tampering with physical evidence 1 while the other defendants were acquitted. For these crimes, Appellee was sentenced to a term of eighteen years’ imprisonment. The Court of Appeals reversed Appellee’s manslaughter conviction on the grounds that the trial court had improperly admitted into evidence out-of-court statements from a…