The state’s Appeals Court yesterday declined to order a new trial for a Cambridge man convicted of firearm charges in 2014, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

STEVEN BELIZAIRE (D.O.B. 1/27/87) appealed his 2014 conviction on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and carrying a loaded firearm, arguing that certain evidence should not have been presented during his trial.  In an unpublished decision issued today, the justices of the Appeals Court disagreed.

Specifically, Belizaire claimed that a lower court judge erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence, arguing that Boston Police officers unlawfully seized him, leading to the discovery of a firearm in the vehicle he was found in.  The justices ruled that the judge properly denied his motion, finding that police had probable cause to stop Belizaire based on articulable facts after discovering him standing over an unconscious man lying on the sidewalk when officers responded to a call for a fight.  Belizaire was familiar with one responding officer, whom he was previously convicted of attacking with a knife, and fled to the nearby vehicle upon making eye contact.  He then ordered the vehicle’s operator to drive away as officers attempted to remove him from the vehicle.

Belizaire further argued that testimony regarding fingerprints found on the gun should not have been allowed at trial, and that the evidence presented to jurors was not sufficient to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.  The justices rejected both arguments.

“Two fingerprints on the magazine inside the gun were ‘individualized’ to the defendant. The gun was located close to where the defendant was seated and his access to it was unobstructed. The firearm’s handle was pointing towards the defendant. There was extremely strong consciousness of guilt evidence emanating from the defendant’s flight and instructions to the driver to ‘go, go, go,’ even at the risk of injuring the officer, who had grabbed onto him through the car door,” the justices wrote.

During the course of a three-day trial in the Suffolk County Gun Court, prosecutors presented evidence and testimony to prove that Belizaire was in control and possession of the a loaded Ruger .38 caliber semiautomatic handgun when he was taken in to custody in the early morning hours of June 18, 2011.  The evidence proved that Belizaire was among a group of people who fled from police toward a Chevrolet as Boston Police responded to the area of 10 Park Plaza for a report of a fight.  Belizaire, however, then fled from the Chevy and entered the rear passenger seat of a nearby Ford Taurus.

Officers attempted to remove Belizaire from the vehicle.  Belizaire ordered the driver to go, pulling an officer several feet as he held onto the car’s open door.

Additional officers blocked Stuart Street with a cruiser and successfully stopped the Ford Taurus.  Belizaire and four other people were removed from the vehicle, and the loaded handgun was found under the front passenger’s seat – directly in front of where Belizaire had been seated.  Criminalists from the Boston Police Crime Laboratory’s Latent Print Section were able to match two prints found on the firearm to Belizaire’s right thumb and right ring finger.

The driver of the Ford Taurus was charged with negligent operation of a motor vehicle but died while his case was pending.

Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Leary of the DA’s Appellate Unit argued the case on appeal.  Assistant District Attorney Caitlin Grasso, currently assigned to the DA’s Major Felony Bureau, prosecuted the case at trial in the Suffolk County Gun Court.  Belizaire was represented on appeal by James Gardner Long.

–30–

All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.