Friday, December 16, 2016

Don't Do The Crime

Soknang Chham arraigned before Judge Ross for murder

Eastern Hampshire District Court this afternoon hosted more police officers than I have ever seen including representatives from Belchertown, Amherst, State and a few extra bailiffs for good measure.

 State and local PD stood in the Courtroom

And midway through the arraignment of Soknang Chham for the shooting death of Jose "Joselito" Rodriguez after an outburst from a couple spectators you understand what the extra security was all about.

Crowd of friends and family 

The entire proceedings took perhaps 45 minutes but the actual time in the Court Room for Judge Ross was probably no more than 10 minutes, although he quickly left the room briefly after the outburst and then returned for the second arraignment.

 Click to enlarge/read

 Soksot Chham arraigned for accessory after the fact to murder

The court room was packed with about three dozen friends and family of the deceased.  The actual murder trial will probably take place in Northampton Superior Court since Eastern Hampshire District Court does not deal with full blown murder trials.




16 comments:

Dr. Ed said...

No, if the DA has an IQ above 12, the actual trial will take place in Barnstable or Dukes County, some place far away where jurors won't be intimidated.

And do people still wish to challenge my statement that Amherst has a serious gaang problem????

Anonymous said...

Yes ed....we do challenge it you nit-wit!

Rebecca Casa said...

There are gangs here or people tied to gangs been a problem for a long time in the 2007 middle school yearbook they printed a runner up cover picture that had 7 latin king symbols in it.

Anonymous said...

Da Lowell boys teachin lessons 💯🈯️🚼

Anonymous said...

The prosecutor in Massachusetts does not select the venue for trial.

Rich Morse

Anonymous said...

This article seems to be missing information. It seems it would be hard to understand the fundamentals of what is at play without looking for information elsewhere.

Please post the rest of the subject matter if you have it.

Larry Kelley said...

I try to keep it simple.

The arraignment is a mere formality, the first step towards a full blown trial. As is standard procedure both had pleas of "not guilty" entered in their behalf.

The alleged shooter was held without bail and his brother had bail set at $250K cash, which will be pretty hard to meet. Thus they will both stay behind bars until their next Court appearance on January 25.

Nina Koch said...

Larry, I think the comment at 12:07 is from a bot. I guess they have learned how to identify storefronts.

Larry Kelley said...

Could be but they usually have a hot link back to their snake oil website, which that one did not.

Anonymous said...

Lol. ...which is proving too much for me. I'd much rather select the street signs.

Anonymous said...

I assumed it was the guy who had the long argument on your facebook page about why you're not a reporter.

Anonymous said...

I've seen that fake comment too many times. It has nothing to do with commenting on your post. It's just spam.

Larry Kelley said...

But spam usually tries to sell you something.

Anonymous said...

With reference to your comment on bail, Larry, and there's no way for you to know this:

District Court bails, including the outcome of dangerousness hearings, are subject to Superior Court review, which occurs in a separate proceeding. As the former helpless witness to this, I can say that District Court bails are often reduced by Superior Court judges. Once in a blue moon, or perhaps less than that, they are increased in that process. So what you see in a District Court courtroom is not always what you get.

Rich Morse

Larry Kelley said...

I'm not as concerned with the brother since he was not involved in the actual shooting.

So a Superior Court judge could take a chance on him and reduce his bail to where he could actually pay it. But if he flew the coop or committed another crime while on bail there would be hell to pay.

Thus I seriously doubt a judge would overrule a District Court judge and allow bail for the one that actually pulled the trigger (apparently many, many times).

Dr. Ed said...

Larry, two words: Jason Vassell.

I wouldn't be surprised to see both brothers walk free if they scream 'racism' loud enough, and threaten enough violence.

What I'm wondering about is the basis for the accessory charge against the brother, and I noticed he's being held in Greenfield. I'm thinking (hoping) it's more than just going on a trip to Texas with him.

As an aside, I think it is unprofessional for State Troopers to wear hats in court.
Even if they got called in on short notice, they should have taken them off.