Commonwealth v. Vega

Richard Vega was convicted by a jury of three counts of rape. In his appeal, Vega challenges the admissibility of evidence that DNA 1 in samples of his blood matched DNA in seminal fluid on the victim’s underwear. He also claims error in the denial of his motion for a required finding of not guilty, instructions to the jury defining sodomy, and the imposition of a successive sentence on the conviction of natural rape to follow the sentence served on the conviction of unnatural rape (nineteen and one-half to twenty years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution [M.C.I.], Cedar Junction).

Th…