Commonwealth v. Masonoff

After a joint jury trial with a codefendant, James DeCosta, in Superior Court, the defendant, Christopher Ma-sonoff, was convicted of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon (a knife); possession of a controlled substance (PCP); and rape, a lesser included offense of aggravated rape.1 The verdicts were returned on July 26, 1982, and the defendant took no further action with regard to his convictions until fifteen years later. On October 27, 1997, he filed a motion for a free *163transcript. Eventually, on December 4, 2001, those portions of the trial transcript that were still…