Commonwealth v. Molina

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree by reason of extreme atrocity or cruelty of the victim, who was stabbed, strangled, and run over by a van. The defendant appealed, arguing that he was denied his Federal and State constitutional rights where (1) trial counsel did not learn until the fourth day of trial that a key prosecution witness was a confidential police informant; (2) the judge failed to exclude that witness’s testimony; (3) trial counsel did not have the proper copy of a forensic expert’s report for his cross-examination; and (4) a witness was allowed to testify…