Judge denies motion to move trial of man charged in Worcester FF’s death

Tom Matthews
masslive.com

WORCESTER, Mass. — Worcester Superior Court Judge Daniel M. Wrenn ruled Monday to deny a motion for a change in venue in the trial of Momoh Kamara, the man charged with murder after authorities said he started the fire that killed Worcester Firefighter Christopher Roy in December 2019.

Wrenn denied the motion Monday, and wrote that the court will reevaluate the issue if needed during the course of empanelment should it become apparent that the possibility to pick a fair and impartial jury in Worcester County is imparied.

In a memorandum, Wrenn wrote, “Prejudice is presumed only in the most extreme case in truly extraordinary circumstances where the trial atmosphere is ‘utterly corrupted’ by media coverage.”

Wrenn acknowledged the media coverage of the fire and the loss of Roy, but concluded that press coverage and the substance of the coverage peaked in 2019.

“... Such that it is not likely to be in the forefront of potential juror’s minds at empanelment in March 2022,” Wrenn wrote.

The court will be using a questionnaire followed by individual voir dire to effectively pre-screen the issue of “pretrial publicity” during empanelment.

On Jan. 26, Attorney Blake J. Rubin filed a motion on Kamara’s behalf on Jan. 26 for a change of venue to transfer the defendant’s case to another county for trial, or alternatively, draw the jury venire, or pool, from another county and then conduct the trial in Worcester County.

As part of the motion, Rubin included a report prepared by private investigator Daniel Collins who cites at least 86 videos and articles from MassLive, the Telegram & Gazette and other local and national media outlets that reference Kamara’s case and fundraisers and benefits for the Roy family.

Included in the report are previous articles covering prior arrests of Kamara, one of which Rubin referred to as “particularly troubling” as it detailed an arrest where Kamara was charged with assaulting the mother of his child. Those charges were dropped, but could be refiled, the article noted.

The report, Rubin writes in the motion, captures the “pattern of deep and bitter prejudice throughout Worcester County against Mr. Kamara.”

The motion cited coverage of the case including articles and videos of a press conference the Chief of the Worcester Fire Department held detailing the fire that took the life of Roy, the funeral ceremony and a press conference that was held by Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. in the courtroom ahead of Kamara’s arraignment.

In the motion, Rubin argued Early’s words, which praised the police and fire departments for working together, biased potential jurors in Worcester County and may prevent Kamara from a fair trial.

“In summary, before this case began, before Mr. Kamara was charged, the pre-trial publicity surrounding it was enormous,” Rubin wrote. “The death of a firefighter in the line of duty is newsworthy, especially in Worcester where there unfortunately has been a history of this.”

The city’s history of firefighter deaths makes residents sensitive to the issue, Rubin argued in the motion, and that regardless of who was charged, the case needed to go to a jurisdiction where the public is not aware of the issues and not as sensitive to them as they are in Worcester, he wrote.

The motion stated that if a change of venue is not possible, then the defense would accept a draw of the jury venire, or pool, from another county and move forward with conducting the trial in Worcester County.

“Ensuring the venire is from outside Worcester County, where the likelihood of hearing those comments is diminished, would allow Mr. Kamara to receive a fair trial,” the motion reads.

In court last week, the commonwealth asked for Judge Daniel M. Wrenn to deny the motion for change of venue and argued that the media’s coverage of the case has been typical and factual and not of a sensationalist nature.

In the state’s opposition, which was issued Feb. 3, Assistant District Attorney Jane A. Sullivan wrote, “the defendant has not demonstrated the extraordinary circumstances necessary to apply a community-wide presumption of prejudice to the entire Worcester County jury pool such that venue should be changed.”

Sullivan told Wrenn last week that the defense has produced evidence that the case has captured the attention of local and national media, but not that the coverage has been inflammatory.

In the opposition, Sullivan wrote, “Fundamentally the defendant’s motion overlooks the well-established principle that substantial media coverage, in and of itself, is not sufficient to apply a presumption of prejudice to a jury venire.”

Sullivan argued that the defendant is required to make a showing that the publicity is both extensive and sensational.

“He has done neither,” she wrote.

Sullivan adds that, “Despite many high-profile trials, the commonwealth is aware of no Massachusetts case that has found a venire to be presumptively prejudiced.”

Prosecutors argued last week that the crimes Kamara is accused of occurred in December 2018 and that many of the articles that were cited by the defendant were published in 2019 and that the passage of time has “likely softened any community response to the crime.”

Citing a Connecticut case, and noting that Worcester County has a population of 862,000, Sullivan wrote in the motion, “Just like New Haven County, Worcester County is large and diverse, with urban and rural areas, and the ability to select an impartial jury is highly probable.”

On March 15, 2019, a Worcester County Grand Jury indicted Kamara, of 157 Hartwell St. in West Boylston, on charges of second-degree murder, arson of a dwelling, armed burglary and malicious destruction of a motor vehicle.

The indictment came several months after the 5-7 Lowell St. blaze claimed the life of Roy, a 36-year-old father of a 9-year-old girl who worked as a firefighter in Worcester for two and a half years.

Kamara is accused of heading to the Lowell Street three-story building, where he lived for a short period of time, and setting fires in the basement in the early morning hours of Dec. 9, 2019.

Prosecutors said he had disagreements with former roommates.

Roy became trapped on the second floor of the six-unit building as firefighters battled the blaze. Other firefighters were able to escape, but Roy’s air tank ran low and he couldn’t get out.

After fellow firefighters pulled Roy out of the burning building, he succumbed to his injuries.

©2022 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit masslive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.