Commonwealth v. Carter

The defendant, John J. Carter, was tried before a jury in Hampden County in September, 1992, on indictments charging murder in the first degree and murder for hire. The juiy returned a guilty verdict as to murder in the first degree, and acquitted as to the companion indictment.

We summarize the evidence and inferences the jury could have drawn from it. At approximately 6:30 p.m. on March 3, 1991, the defendant and Donald Vanhook drove in a blue Subaru automobile from an apartment where one Felicia Horace lived, to the “Rainville Hotel,” a building at 32 Byers Street in Springfield. Before the…