by The state’s highest court overturned a first degree murder conviction and ordered a new trial, ruling that the translation for a deaf witness was insufficient.
Sammy Lozada was found guilty of murder in Hampden Superior Court and sentenced to life in prison in 2019, according to court documents. He was accused of stabbing Carlos Ramos in 2017 in a Holyoke apartment owned by Maria Samot, the deaf witness, according to the new decision from the Supreme Judicial Court.
Associate Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt agreed with the judge in a lower court that the translation services for Samot, who is “deaf, illiterate, and severely language deprived,” were not in compliance with a statute mandating that “‘no testimony shall be admitted as evidence until’ the trial judge determines that an interpreter can communicate accurately with, and translate to and from, a deaf witness,” Wendlandt wrote.
During the trial, Samot was the prosecution’s “key identification witness” who allegedly witnessed the murder. She testified through two certified deaf interpreters and two ASL interpreters, but the judge did not make a ruling approving those interpreters.
“Samot communicates using idiosyncratic gestures grounded in her Hispanic cultural background,” the decision reads.
A lower court judge heard from experts during a four-day panel who “opined that the team of interpreters provided to Samot at trial often were unable to communicate with Samot,” according to the decision.
“This lapse proved especially problematic during Samot’s testimony on cross-examination when trial counsel asked her questions that elicited dozens of nonresponsive answers repeatedly stating that the defendant stabbed the victim,” Wendlandt wrote.
The Hampden County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Lozada, did not return a request for comment.
What happened at the trial?
Lozada allegedly kicked down the door to the apartment on Maple Street, and a witness, who was involved with a “a cooperation agreement with the prosecution,” said he saw Lozada holding a black-handled knife, the decision said. He also saw Samot in the room and heard the victim asking “Sammy” not to stab him again, “because, in his words, he was ‘already dying,’” the decision said.
Ramos was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to court documents. Samot was interviewed by the same interpreters at the police station who would be present at the trial; Wendlandt also wrote that one expert thought this was conflict of interest. Samot identified photographs of Lozada at the police station, according to the decision.
At the scene, an officer found another woman hiding inside a closet, who led police to find the black-handled knife that had DNA consistent with Ramos’s, but “no forensic evidence tied the black-handled knife to the defendant.”
During the trial, Samot testified that she saw the crime, through various attempts by the interpreters to communicate with Samot, including “the use of photographs, gestures, and miming certain actions, such as the thrusting of a knife,” the decision said. Samot repeatedly said that Lozada had stabbed Ramos.
Wendlandt agreed with the judge to order a new trial.
“Despite the use of some props and the interpreters’ efforts, Samot’s answers to several of the prosecutor’s questions were nonresponsive,” the decision said. “The moments of disconnection that occurred during Samot’s direct examination paled in comparison to what transpired on cross-examination by trial counsel.”
Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
