Commonwealth v. Caswell

On August 13, 2003, Matthew Cote, the victim, was stabbed to death. His body was discovered several days later in the rear seat of his pickup truck in a remote area of the town of Carver. The truck had been set afire, and the victim’s body was severely burned and unrecognizable. More than six years later, Darren Caswell, the defendant, was indicted on a charge of murder in the first degree of the victim, and at trial, the Commonwealth proceeded against him on theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty, based on his knowing participation in the commission of the…