BOSTON, Nov. 23, 2015— The state’s highest court today affirmed the first-degree murder conviction of the man who killed 25-year-old mental health worker Stephanie Moulton in 2011, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

In an opinion authored by Justice Margot Botsford, the Supreme Judicial Court today upheld the conviction of DESHAWN JAMES CHAPPELL (D.O.B. 9/9/83), who is currently serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for stabbing Moulton to death in the Revere group home where she worked and Chappell resided.  Chappell was convicted of first-degree murder under the theory of deliberate premeditation at the conclusion of a 2013 trial in which he claimed he was not guilty by reason of insanity.

Among his arguments on appeal, Chappell claimed that the trial judge erred in barring an expert witness from testifying about information contained in Chappell’s medical records – despite the fact that the defendant didn’t seek to introduce those records as evidence.  The justices found that the judge’s decision not to allow the testimony was appropriate.

“There is no reason to apply an exception to our evidentiary rule in this case, particularly because, as the judge stated to the defendant’s trial counsel, he would have been able to elicit from the defense expert on direct examination the opinions and other information from the defendant’s medical records in which he was interested by first introducing those medical records in evidence,” the justices wrote.  “That counsel did not wish to follow this path for strategic reasons does not transform the generally applicable evidentiary requirement into an unconstitutional burden placed on the defendant.”

The justices likewise found no error in the introduction of testimony from a substitute DNA analyst or in certain jury instructions.

In particular, Chappell claims on appeal that the instructions regarding the consequences of a jury’s finding that a defendant lacked criminal responsibility were inadequate.  The justices ruled that the trial judge did not err in providing the standard jury instructions on the issue; however, they offered a new model for such instructions to be used in future cases.

At trial, prosecutors presented evidence and testimony to prove that Chappell understood the wrongfulness of his actions and was able to conform his conduct with the law when he killed Moulton at the Revere group home where Chappell lived and the victim worked on Jan. 20, 2011.

Evidence introduced during Chappell’s Suffolk Superior Court trial showed that the he and Moulton were alone in the group home operated by North Suffolk Mental Health Jan. 20, 2011, when Chappell attacked Moulton in a bedroom and repeatedly stabbed her, inflicting a fatal wound to her throat.  Chappell then dragged Moulton’s body to her vehicle and placed her body in its trunk. He attempted to mop up blood inside the home and set a fire in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence of the murder before he fled in Moulton’s vehicle, the evidence showed.

Moulton’s body was discovered in the parking lot of a church in Lynn.

After the murder, Chappell contacted family members in an attempt to obtain money or a place to stay.  He was arrested by Revere Police and troopers assigned to the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit at his grandmother’s house.

In addition to physical and forensic evidence linking Chappell to Moulton’s murder, prosecutors introduced testimony from mental health experts showing that Chappell understood the wrongfulness of his actions and was able to conform his conduct with the requirements of the law when he killed Moulton.

“The jury were entitled to reject the testimony and opinions of the defendant’s witnesses and instead credit the contrary evidence, including the opinion of the Commonwealth’s expert, and to conclude that the defendant was criminally responsible,” the justices concluded.

Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin, chief of the DA’s Homicide Unit, prosecuted the case at trial.  Assistant District Attorney Matthew Sears of the DA’s Appellate Unit argued the case on appeal.  Katherine Moran was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate.  Chappell was represented on appeal by Stephen Neyman.

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