On May 31, 2021 West Brookfield police responded to a 911 call on Wheeler Road. When police arrived they encountered 27-year-old Jamie Daniels. Jamie was on the floor in the corner of her bedroom crying. At the opposite side of the room, police saw Jamie’s boyfriend Cleaven Gordon, 32.
According to the police report,
Jamie stated that Cleaven grabbed her mother’s urn and smashed it on the floor, then splattered her ashes all over the ground…She stated they both had been drinking all night and he got angry and smashed her mother’s urn….Cleaven showed no remorse as to grabbing the urn smashing it on the floor then ripping the bag containing the actual ashes disseminating the ashes on the floor. Jamie stated she had residue of the ashes on her hair.
Police arrested Cleaven and charged him with wanton destruction of property over $1,200, a felony under M.G.L. c. 266, Sec. 127.
The case was tried before a jury in East Brookfield District. During the trial, prosecutors presented no evidence regarding the actual value of the broken urn. Nevertheless, the jury found Cleaven guilty of the felony.
He appealed the case and the Appeals Court reversed the decision.
A conviction for wanton destruction of property requires proof that the defendant destroyed the personal property of another, did so wantonly, and the value of the damage inflicted was greater than $1,200. G. L. c. 266, § 127. In the present case, the Commonwealth concedes that the trial record contains no evidence regarding the value of the urn. “Because the Commonwealth introduced no evidence to that effect, it failed to prove an essential element of the . . . crime of [wanton] destruction of property over $[1,200], under G. L. c. 266, § 127.
Accordingly, the Appeals Court reversed the felony conviction and, in its place, entered a conviction for wanton destruction of property under $1,200 which is only a misdemeanor.
The full text of the opinion is attached below.