Statement of District Attorney Rachael Rollins on the Supreme Judicial Court’s Decision in Commonwealth v. Colas

BOSTON, February 23, 2021—The Supreme Judicial Court yesterday vacated the first-degree murder conviction of Wesson Colas.  Mr. Colas and Keith Williams were convicted in the 2014 fatal shooting of 26-year-old Dawnn Jaffier and the nonfatal shooting of a second woman as the victims stood among crowds of revelers attending Boston’s Caribbean Festival parade.  The court upheld Mr. Colas’ conviction on a count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the August 23, 2014, incident.  In the decision written by Justice Frank Gaziano, the SJC found that Mr. Colas’ act of pointing a firearm at Mr. Williams, leading Mr. Williams to respond by firing his own gun and striking the uninvolved victims, was not sufficient to prove the requisite intent to support a conviction of first-degree murder or assault with intent to murder.  The justices found, however, that “a reasonable juror could have concluded from the evidence introduced at trial that the act of pointing a firearm at a rival, on a crowded street, likely would provoke a deadly response, thereby demonstrating an indifference to human life.”  As such, they remanded the case to Suffolk Superior Court for potential retrial on a charge of second-degree murder.

It is my Office’s position that the entirety of the evidence presented at trial – including Mr. Colas’ actions during an encounter with the same rivals inside a convenience store, his decision to arm himself and return to the location, then follow those rivals and raise a gun, precipitating the fatal shooting – was sufficient to prove Mr. Colas’ lethal intent.  In light of the Court’s decision, however, we are considering the options available to us with regard to a retrial.  We will be speaking with the Jaffier family and the victim who survived the shooting to pass along the SJC’s decision.

The impact of this decision ripples far beyond the legal proceedings against Mr. Colas.  Dawnn Jaffier’s life was stolen as the result of a feud in which she took no part.  Legal nuances and “close calls” offer no solace nor fill the enormous void left after Dawnn’s murder and the life forever altered of the shooting victim who survived.  Dawnn’s family, her loved ones, the communities she devoted her brief life to empowering and the surviving victim of this act of gun violence are all left with unanswered questions and reopened wounds as the case against Mr. Colas enters this new chapter.  Our attention today turns exclusively to their needs, as the victims in this case, as they try to process the profound disappointment of the SJC’s decision.  My Victim Witness Assistance Program will provide information, resources and support to Dawnn’s grieving loved ones as well as the victim who survived, as they do for all homicide survivors and gun violence victims.  Our attention is focused exclusively on them now, as it should be.

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins’ office serves the communities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop, Mass. The office handles over 25,000 cases a year. More than 160 attorneys in the office practice in nine district and municipal courts, Suffolk Superior Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court, and the Boston Juvenile Courts. The office employs some 300 people and offers a wide range of services and programs to serve anyone who comes in contact with the criminal justice system. This office is committed to educating the public about the services we provide, our commitment