Commonwealth v. Boodoosingh

Baliram Boodoosingh (defendant) approached Luis Lizardo with a baseball bat in his hand. Nancy Lizardo, Luis’s mother, jumped between Boodoosingh and Luis and told them that they should not use weapons if they were going to fight. Boodoosingh refused to drop his bat and yelled a threat at Luis. Boodoosingh then lifted his hand to try to hit Luis with the bat, but Nancy pushed Boodoosingh away. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts (plaintiff) charged Boodoosingh with crimes including assault by means of a dangerous weapon. At the parties’ request during trial, the court used the Massachusetts Superior Court’s jury instruction on assault under an attempted-battery theory and told the jury that to convict Boodoosingh, the jury had to find that Boodoosingh intended to physically harm Luis, committed an act toward that end, and had the actual or apparent ability to inflict bodily harm. The trial court used the Superior Court’s instruction instead of the Massachusetts District Court’s jury instruction on assault under an attempted-battery theory, which provided that to convict the defendant, the jury had to find that the defendant came reasonably close to committing the battery. The jury found Boodoosingh guilty, and he appealed to the Massachusetts Appeals Court. On appeal, Boodoosingh argued that the trial court’s jury instruction was improper because it did not include the reasonably-close language.