Contact: Beth Stone 508 584-8120
BROCKTON –The Massachusetts Appeals Court has affirmed the conviction of a Wareham man who stabbed a person to death inside a convenience store, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz has announced.
On March 17, 2016, a jury convicted Demetrius Goshen, now 27, of Wareham, on one count of Voluntary Manslaughter, in connection with a homicide that occurred at the Cumberland Farms in Wareham in 2014. Brockton Superior Court Judge Richard Chin sentenced Goshen to serve 18-20 years in State Prison.
On October 8, 2014, police received a 911 call for a report of a stabbing at the Cumberland Farms in Wareham. Wareham Police and emergency personnel responded to the scene and found the victim suffering from eight stab wounds. The victim, who was identified as Dwayne Borges, 29, of Wareham, was taken to Tobey Hospital and medflighted to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The manager at the Cumberland Farms gave police descriptions of four men, including Goshen, that fled the store just after the incident. A clerk working the register at the time reported seeing four men fighting with the victim prior to the stabbing. After the four men fled, the clerk realized Borges had been stabbed and dialed 911. The clerk showed police store surveillance video of the attack. The police located the suspects a short distance away from the store and they were taken into custody.
At trial, the jury heard evidence that Goshen, then 18 years-old, had been armed with a knife prior to arriving at the store, and that the same knife was located in a bush near the store with Borges’ blood on the blade.
Goshen appealed his conviction to the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and filed a motion for new trial, or in the alternative, new sentencing hearing, based primarily on ineffective assistance of counsel.
Today, in an unpublished 28-page decision, the Appeals Court affirmed Goshen’s conviction and the denial of his motion for a new trial. The Court did allow Goshen’s motion for a new sentencing hearing.
Assistant District Attorney Jessica Elumba prosecuted the case, which was investigated by Massachusetts State Police assigned to the District Attorney’s Office and Wareham Police. Assistant District Attorney Arne Hantson handled the case on appeal.