BOSTON, March 24, 2017— A jury will be allowed to consider previously excluded evidence in the case against a Roxbury man charged with shooting a store clerk during an armed robbery, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today reversed lower court judge’s decision suppressing evidence in the case against JARRIS CHARLEY (D.O.B. 4/30/93) of Roxbury, who is charged with armed robbery while masked as a subsequent offense, armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm as a second offense, and carrying a loaded firearm in connection with the 2014 shooting that seriously injured a store clerk.

Charley was arrested Nov. 4, 2014, after he was identified as the alleged gunman who shot a clerk in a Dorchester Avenue convenience store.  An officer working a detail four blocks from the location heard the suspect’s description in a radio broadcast and shortly after the shooting observed Charley, who matched the description and was sweating profusely, as he walked from the direction of the non-fatal shooting.  Additional officers approached Charley outside a Savin Hill address and stated that they were investigating an “incident” nearby, to which Charley made an unprompted reference to the shooting, prosecutors said. 

A Suffolk Superior Court judge, in allowing Charley’s motion to suppress statements and other evidence, found that Charley’s knowledge of the shooting could have been gained through media reports and did not provide probable cause to support his arrest.  The Appeals Court, however, disagreed.

“The finding [that the defendant could have heard about the shooting from media reports] rests on speculation and conjecture rather than evidence, and is clearly erroneous,” the justices wrote. “In any event, even if it is possible that the defendant could before 8:30 P.M. have gained knowledge from news broadcasts that a shooting had occurred at the convenience store, [the officer] was not compelled to adopt that view of the defendant’s otherwise unprompted reference to a shooting in his assessment of its suspicious nature, particularly when the defendant’s state of agitation increased when [the officer] pointed out to the defendant that no one had said anything about a shooting.”

The decision will allow prosecutors to introduce at trial statements that Charley made during a post-Miranda interview with police as well as evidence taken from Charley – including a sweatshirt with distinctive bleach marks — and collected during the execution of search warrants of Charley’s backpack and an apartment in the building where he was arrested.

Assistant District Attorney Gregory Henning is the prosecutor assigned to the case.  Assistant District Attorney Zachary Hillman argued the case on appeal.  Charley is represented by Rebecca Kiley, Anne Rousseve, and Eric Brandt.

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