Commonwealth v. N.D.

90 minutes after the report of a corner-store robbery by a masked man, police investigate a car that matched the description of the getaway vehicle. ND was the back seat passenger in the car, and a witness was brought to the scene who identified him as having run into the car about a block from the robbery. Next to ND (there were two other occupants in the car) was a sweatshirt allegedly matching that which was worn by the culprit in the robbery, which police had observed on surveillance video. ND was also wearing blue pants similar to the person depicted in the v video. A similar firearm was recovered in the trunk of the car. At the preliminary hearing, the defense highlighted certain subtle differences between the suspect in the video and ND: the suspect walked with a limp/ND did not; suspect had a rubber band on his wrist/ND did not; $350 was taken in the robbery/only $233 was recovered from the car; ND had a tattoo on his hand/suspect in video didn’t appear to. A judge found insufficient evidence to hold the case for trial and the case was dismissed.