Commonwealth v. C.B.

C.B was arrested for First Degree Murder and related charges after a shooting incident that left one man dead and resulted in serious permanent injuries to another. Four eyewitnesses provided statements identifying C.B. as the shooter, and video surveillance tied C.B. to the car involved in the shooting. The video depicted C.B. firing multiple shots into a car occupied the victims. Police arrived 5 minutes later and declared the driver dead. They did not find a weapon in the car belonging to the deceased. After remaining in fugitive status for approximately one year, C.B. was arrested and held without bail. C.B. rejected an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a 35-70 year sentence. At trial, despite the fact that no firearm was recovered from the vehicle, the defense successfully argued that the shooting was justified and that the decedent had pointed a gun at C.B. prior to the shooting, arguing that a third occupant of the car fled before police arrived and discarded a firearm. Each witness was cross-examined and caught in multiple lies/inconsistencies. A jury was not persuaded that any of the Commonwealth witnesses were telling the truth and found C.B. not guilty of all charges except those relating to possessing an illegal firearm, which C.B. admitted to.