Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley this week reported that the Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld a murder conviction against Victor Moran, 27, a Chelsea resident. Seven years prior, Moran fatally stabbed Juan Diego Marchante, a 40-year-old father of three from Lynn, during a confrontation at the Garden Fresh Salad Company in Chelsea on Oct. 7, 2002. Originally charged with first-degree murder, Moran was convicted of second-degree murder. “We investigate, prepare, and try these cases not merely for convictions,” Conley said. “We do it to ensure that the convictions are just and stand up on appeal. We could not bring Juan Marchante back to his family, but we could ensure that his killer’s sentence stands.”
The appellate challenge hinged on statements Moran had made in Spanish to his sister, which a bilingual Chelsea Police detective overheard while entering and exiting the interview room after Moran received his Miranda rights. Later, in the company of the same bilingual detective, Moran provided additional statements to State Police detectives. At the appellate level, Moran contested the voluntariness of both statements under Massachusetts law. The Appeals Court disagreed with this argument. Justice Charlotte Perretta’s 10-page decision found the statements admissible. “There is an absence of evidence to support the defendant’s suggestion that the police intentionally placed [his sister] in the room to deliberately monitor the defendant’s statements to her or to break down his capacity to resist their questions,” she wrote. “Nor is there anything in the record to show that [the sister] was acting as an agent of the police…Thus, this case does not present the question that might otherwise be presented as to the police practice of placing a friend or relative in a room with the defendant in order to surreptitiously monitor their conversation or to evoke an inculpatory emotional response.” Regarding Moran’s police statements more specifically, “the evidence shows, and the judge properly found, that the defendant was twice read his Miranda rights in Spanish; he readily responded in the affirmative each time when asked if he understood those rights; he indicated on each occasion that he wished to speak to the police; and each time he signed the Miranda form, printed in Spanish, provided to him.”
On appeal, Moran also disputed the trial prosecutor’s closing remarks, which he argued improperly laid out the path to a first-degree conviction based on deliberate premeditation. The prosecutor had stated: “How long,” the prosecutor asked jurors rhetorically, “does it take to conceive of a plan to kill somebody? You’ll be instructed on premeditated murder, murder in the first degree. Seconds…He retrieves the knife. More time to contemplate. ‘What am I going to do with that knife? I’m going to take that knife, and I’m going to kill him’…Instead of going to a boss, instead of going to his sister, instead of going to his friends, he decides to arm himself with a knife and use that knife.” “Although the prosecutor’s suggestion that the defendant grabbed the knife intending to kill the victim is only a possible inference to be drawn from the evidence, it is not an unreasonable inference,” the court wrote. “[T]he prosecutor’s argument referred to what the defendant might have been thinking based upon an inference reasonably drawn from his own statements and actions…” Additionally, the court emphasized that throughout the trial, the judge repeatedly reminded jurors that closing arguments do not constitute evidence and that jurors must rely on their own recollection rather than attorneys’ statements when reaching a verdict.
At the original trial, testimony established that Moran and Marchante had quarreled earlier that day and clashed again near the close of their shifts on the loading dock. The evidence demonstrated that Moran broke free, obtained a kitchen knife, drove it into Marchante’s chest, discarded the blade in a dumpster, and left. A stab wound piercing Marchante’s lung and pulmonary artery caused his death. Witnesses immediately notified Chelsea Police of Moran’s identity, and State Police homicide detectives working with Conley’s office arrested him within two days. The prosecution was handled by Assistant District Attorney Paul Treseler at trial, with Assistant District Attorney Macy Lee presenting arguments on appeal. Marisela Ramirez served as the victim witness advocate. Attorney Richard Shea represents Moran.