LYNN, Mass. (WHDH) — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the conviction of a former Lynn man found guilty of murdering the mother of his two children.
Patrick Waweru, 39, lost his bid to have his murder conviction overturned, reduced or to win a new trial.
Waweru was convicted of breaking into an apartment in 2007 before striking the mother of his children once with a two-by-four piece of lumber and stabbing her 24 times.
He was found guilty of first degree murder on the theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty. He was also convicted of armed home invasion, armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, and reckless endangerment of a child.
During his appeal, Waweru argued error as to the motion judge’s refusal to suppress statements he made to a psychiatrist who interviewed him in the presence of police at the hospital the day after the murder; the jury instructions regarding the presumption of sanity, the consequences of finding the defendant not guilty by reason of insanity, the failure to take prescribed medications and reasonable doubt; and the denial of his request for a jury waived trial.
The court ruled that there was no basis to set aside or reduce the verdict, or to order a new trial.
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