Commonwealth v. Castillo

The practice of judges allowing criminal trials to be conducted on stipulated evidence has long been disfavored because “[i]t invites appeals of the most hair-splitting sort and cannot be justified to save court time.” Commonwealth v. Babcock, 25 Mass. App. Ct. 688, 691 (1988). Commonwealth v. McDowell, 62 Mass. App. Ct. 15, 15 n.l (2004).

Once again, we are called upon to consider a challenge to a judge’s decision to allow the parties to proceed in a criminal matter by stipulating to the evidence. Once again, we must reverse because a judge failed to inquire of the defendant if he had agreed…