Supreme Court Upholds Murder Conviction of Man Who Killed Roslindale Man

On Tuesday the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the 2008 murder conviction of a man who stabbed his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, Roslindale's Jeff Igbineweka, in the heart during a fight.

Hassaun Harris, 38, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2006 stabbing death of Igbineweka, 28, of Roslindale during a fight at a Cleary Square D’Angelo’s, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.  

Harris claimed he killed Igbineweka in self-defense during a fight after Harris approached his ex-girlfriend and the victim inside the restaurant. 

Harris appealed claiming the trial judge wrongly instructed jurors that “A person who provokes or initiates an assault ordinarily cannot claim the right of self-defense unless he withdraws in good faith from the conflict and announces his intention to retire,” according to a Suffolk County Districty Attorney's office press release. Harris argued "this instruction relieved prosecutors of the burden of proving that the defendant did not act in self-defense by conveying to jurors that a person cannot claim self-defense if they instigated a fight by words alone and not by violence or the threat thereof."

But the court felt otherwise, in a decision written by Chief Justice Roderick Ireland, the high court found that in her instructions to the jury, that the judge stated three times the Commonwealth bears the burden of proving that the defendant did not act in self-defense when he killed Igbineweka. And although Harris did make a derogatory statement to the victim, the justices stated in their decision "the evidence did not suggest that Harris’ words alone provoked the physical altercation." 

The justices also ruled a 911 call in which Igbineweka is heard stating three times, “I’ve been stabbed,” was properly admitted into evidence. Harris had argued it was not relevant to the trial, and improperly evoked sympathy from jurors. During the trial, Harris didn't deny stabbing the victim, but testified at trial that he did not remember doing so. He testified that no witnesses saw a weapon, and that the exit wound was not visible to the medical examiner because first responders cut through the wound during a procedure performed in hopes of saving Igbineweka’s life, according to DA's press release. 

“Thus, the recording bore on the fact that the victim’s deadly injury derived from a stabbing. The judge did not commit palpable error in admitting the recording,” said the decision.

The highest court in the Commonwealth also found the recording was properly used again by prosecutors in closing arguments. “As has been stated, the recording properly had been admitted in evidence, and the jurors were free to listen to it during their deliberations as a trial exhibit,” the high court wrote. “Playing the recording itself did not misrepresent the evidence. To the extent that the content of the recording was upsetting or inflammatory, that was inherent in the nature of the act (a stabbing) committed …. In the circumstances, we conclude that it was not improper for the prosecutor to play the recording for the jury during his closing argument and that in so doing the prosecutor did not improperly appeal to jury sympathy.”

Assistant District Attorney Donna Patalano of the DA’s Appellate Division argued the case on appeal. Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum prosecuted the case at trial. Harris was represented on appeal by Leslie W. O’Brien.