Commonwealth v. Kneram4/29/2005
Essex.
December 15, 2004
Alcoholic Liquors. Statute, Construction. Practice, Criminal , Post-conviction relief.
Complaint received and sworn to in the Newburyport Division of the District Court Department on January 15, 2003.
A plea of guilty was accepted by Peter F. Doyle, J., and a motion for post-conviction relief was heard by him.
In this tragic case, we hold that "whoever," as used in G. L. c. 138, § 34 (furnishing alcohol to a person under twenty-one), means precisely that. As such, the defendant, a young college student with no criminal record, will serve a jail sentence, the sadness of which is overshadowed by the death of a sixteen year old child struck by another to whom the defendant furnished alcohol.
Background
The defendant pleaded guilty to one count of violating G. L. c. 138, § 34, for furnishing alcoholic beverages to a person under twenty-one years of age, and was sentenced to one year imprisonment, six months to be served and the balance suspended. On appeal, the defendant argues (1) that his conviction must be reversed because the statute does not apply to persons under twenty-one years old; and (2) that the trial court erred when it accepted a plea to a crime that did not apply to him.
Facts
On January 7, 2003, the defendant, a nineteen year old freshman at Syracuse University, was spending his winter break at his parent's home in Newburyport. His parents were not home that evening, and after collecting money from three friends, each also nineteen years old, he drove to Seabrook, New Hampshire, and purchased a case of beer from a convenience store. The defendant returned to Newburyport, and he and his friends drank the beer until the defendant's mother phoned, telling him of her imminent arrival. The group prepared to meet elsewhere.
The defendant had anticipated driving and had therefore not consumed as much alcohol as the others. As they prepared to leave, he noticed that his friend, William White, was too drunk to drive and offered to drive him. White had drunk eight to ten beers at the defendant's house in addition to red wine that he had earlier consumed. Refusing to heed the defendant's warnings that he should not drive, White drove off alone. Soon after, he hit two pedestrians, sixteen year old Trista Zinck and seventeen year old Neil Bornstein, killing her and seriously injuring him. A week later, the defendant was charged with a violation of G. L. c. 138, § 34. He pleaded guilty to that charge on August 1, 2003.
On August 8, 2003, the defendant, now with new counsel, filed a motion for post-conviction relief under Mass.R.Crim.P. 30, as appearing in 435 Mass. 1501 (2001), seeking release from imprisonment and/or a new trial. He argued that the guilty plea was constitutionally invalid because he did not know that the statute under which he was charged did not apply to him. The judge denied the motion in a memorandum of decision, finding:
"The plain language of the statute is clear. Section 34 states that 'whoever' engages in the proscribed conduct shall be punished. Whoever is defined as 'whatever person' or 'whoever.' The defendant certainly falls into that category. There is no indication in the statute that it applies only to individuals 21 or over. Had the legislature intended that the statute appl only to individuals 21 or over, the statute could very easily have been worded in that precise language."
We agree with that assessment.
The law. General Laws c. 138, § 34, is a patchwork of several related, but distinct, provisions. At issue in this appeal is the so-called "furnishing" provisio
Page 1 2 3 4 Massachusetts DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|