Malden Man's Murder Conviction Upheld In Death Of Stoneham Vet

MALDEN, MA — One of two men serving life in prison for the murder of an Army Ranger from Stoneham will not get a new trial. The state Supreme Judicial Court upheld the first degree murder conviction of Eugene Tate, who filed an appeal alleging prejudicial error on behalf of the prosecution.

Tate, who was 19 years old at the time of the murder in 2013, also argued his conviction should be reduced to murder in the second degree or voluntary manslaughter based on self-defense.

Tate, of Malden, and Jessie Williams, of Medford, were convicted of fatally shooting 27-year-old Joseph Puopolo in a home on Micah's Pond Way. Prosecutors said the pair aimed to rip off a drug dealer, who invited Puopolo to the home when he became concerned about the deal.

Tate's appeal claimed there was a racial element to the prosecution's argument, positing he and Williams as "urban" drug dealers preying on "suburban" dealers. The judge ruled at the time that Stoneham was no more a suburb than Medford, where Williams lived and Tate grew up, which satisfied the defense, according to court documents.

"There was no argument by either side that the prosecutor was making a race-based argument as opposed to a comparison of the different types of drug dealers," the SJC ruled.

The court found the attempted distinction between Stoneham and Medford was in response to the defense's closing arguments, in which the targeted dealer was referred to as the "drug kingpin of Stoneham" and the state's witnesses as "devious little drug dealers."

"The defendant's comments about suburban drug kingpins, and the prosecutor's response that
the defendants were more violent drug dealers determined to rip off 'kids from the suburbs,' were not interpreted by either counsel or the judge as such an offensive tactic, but rather as
attempts by both sides to portray the other as being aligned with worse drug dealers," the SJC wrote.

Tate also challenged the number of bullets fired, as the dealer who lived at the home was wounded in addition to Puopolo. The sole bullet admitted as ballistics evidence was the one recovered from Puopolo's body, and witnesses fleeing the scene said there was only one shot fired.

Though witnesses also identified Tate as the shooter, he claimed there was little evidence other than their testimony to support that he fired the fatal shot. The SJC conceded that the prosecution overstepped in its closing argument, inferring the type of damage the round could do without providing adequate testimony from the state's ballistics expert.

However, the jury's conclusions "did not hinge on whether one or two shots were fired, or whether the defendant fired the shot that killed Puopolo," the SJC ruled.

"The Commonwealth did not need to prove that the defendant actually shot Puopolo for the jury to convict him of murder in the first degree," the ruling continued. "The Commonwealth proceeded on a joint venture felony-murder theory with predicate offenses of armed robbery and armed assault in a dwelling."

Tate argued he was entitled to a manslaughter charge because the sale took place in an enclosed garage, there was a baseball bat nearby and he and Williams were outnumbered.

But the SJC found the pair were the aggressors, as they pulled guns to rob the group. While one witness attempted to knock the gun out of Williams's hand and the dealer tried to punch him, that happened after Williams and Tate escalated the situation.

"These actions, therefore, would not justify the use of deadly force," the SJC ruled.