Hayden announces he will not seek new trial for Milton Jones, convicted in 1975 Boston murder and robbery
BOSTON, December 12, 2022 — Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden today announced his office will not seek to retry MILTON JONES, sent to prison for second-degree murder in 1976, after new information undermined the justness of the original conviction.
Jones was convicted in the shooting death of Albert Dunn during a robbery at the Golden Café bar in Boston in 1975.
“We have given this case a thorough review and have determined that the quality of evidence, the flaws in the original investigation and prosecution, and the passage of time renders a new trial a futile endeavor that would not be in the interest of justice,” Hayden said.
Based on an extensive review of the case, the Suffolk County DA Integrity Review Bureau concluded that justice was not done due to the combination of unreliable eyewitness identifications, the absence of any other evidence implicating Jones, and the apparent failure of the Commonwealth to provide Jones with important Grand Jury testimony and witness statements prior to trial.
An examination of the record reveals that the identification procedures in the case resulted in flawed and questionable identifications – identifications which comprised the only evidence linking Jones to the shooting. There was no physical or forensic evidence in the case. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, an eyewitness described the shooter as 5’6” (Jones is over six feet tall) to the first officer at the scene, but later changed her description after talking to the two other eyewitnesses and a different police officer. The first time Jones was identified took place three weeks after the shooting when the initial eyewitness picked him out of a photographic array. Neither of the remaining two eyewitnesses was able to identify Jones until he was standing alone in the defendant’s dock at his probable cause hearing.
In addition, the Commonwealth’s review established that Grand Jury testimony that the taller of the two robbers was called “Larry” by the shorter man with the gun was never turned over to the defense attorney despite a specific request for the discovery. The Commonwealth’s failure to disclose the material was highly prejudicial to Jones’ defense at trial.
“The facts of this case call into question not only the justness of the conviction, but whether Mr. Jones should have been charged in this incident at all. We must ever be mindful and vigilant that our responsibility to use facts to question convictions is as important as our responsibility to use facts to secure them,” Hayden said.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
The Trial Court Department
SUFFOLK, ss Nos. 7584CR95364
7584CR95795, -796, -797
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
v.
MILTON JONES
Defendant
NOLLE PROSEQUI
Now comes the Commonwealth and, pursuant to Rule 16(a) of the Massachusetts Rules of Criminal Procedure, hereby files a nolle prosequi on the above-captioned matter. As reasons therefore, the Commonwealth states that after a review of all the facts in the above-captioned case, the Commonwealth has determined that it is in the interest of justice to file this nolle prosequi.
Respectfully submitted
For The Commonwealth,
KEVIN R. HAYDEN
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
____________________________
David Lewis
Assistant District Attorney
BBO# 566089
One Bulfinch Place
Boston, MA 02114
david.a.f.lewis@mass.gov
December 12, 2022 (617) 619-4000
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that the foregoing was served upon counsel for the defendant via email, addressed as follows:
Charlotte Whitmore, Esq.
charlotte.whitmore@bc.edu
Sharon Beckman, Esq.
beckmans@bc.edu
__________________________
David Lewis
December 12, 2022 Assistant District Attorney
James Borghesani, Chief of Communications