Commonwealth v. Elangwe

After a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant, Manfred Elangwe, was convicted of rape (Mary Smith),1 assault and battery as a lesser included offense (Susan Jones), and accosting and annoying a person of the opposite sex (Jones).2 This is a consolidated appeal from the convictions and the denial of the defendant’s motion for new trial.3 We affirm.

Background. The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. The victims lived at the Hildebrand Family Self-Help Center, a shelter in Cambridge, during the summer of 2004. The shelter had one “house manager” on site at any one…