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Man pleads guilty to reduced charges in cop slaying
By Denise Lavoie
Wednesday, February 8, 2006



BOSTON -- A man awaiting a second trial in the 1993 slaying of a Boston police detective pleaded guilty yesterday to reduced charges, including manslaughter and armed robbery, and will be freed early this summer.


Prosecutors charged that Terry Patterson was present when Sean Ellis fatally shot Detective John Mulligan in September 1993 after both plotted to steal Mulligan’s gun.


Patterson, 32, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995, but his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Judicial Court, which said his defense attorney was ineffective.


Patterson yesterday acknowledged his guilt on the reduced charges and answered "Yes," when asked by Judge Margaret Hinkle if he was a "knowing and willing participant" in the plan to steal Mulligan’s gun.


Hinkle later sentenced Patterson to 22 years in prison for armed robbery, the charge that carried the longest possible sentence, life in prison. Under the sentencing structure in affect at the time of the killing, before "truth in sentencing" guidelines were passed, inmates were only required to serve about two-thirds of their sentences.


Patterson has already served about 12 1/2 years and will be freed this summer because of time off for good behavior.


Hinkle said in deciding to accept the plea, she considered Patterson’s decision to accept responsibility for his role in the crime, as well as the SJC’s ruling, which invalidated key fingerprint evidence against Patterson.


"Without that evidence, the chances of conviction ... were likely to be sharply reduced," she said.


Ellis was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of first-degree murder.


After the hearing, Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole said that the plea deal was discussed with Mulligan’s family beforehand.


"I think that it was the right decision," O’Toole said. "The shooter is in jail for the rest of his life. As long as the family was satisfied with the decision, we think justice was served."


Prosecutor David Meier had asked that Patterson serve additional prison time, but didn’t recommend a specific sentence. During a victim impact statement, Mulligan’s sister, Shelia Mulligan Donovan, said Patterson should spend the rest of his life in prison, and added "there is never closure" for the families of officers killed on duty.
"John was a good, honest, hardworking man," she said. "His loss to us is so great."
Patterson’s attorney, John Cunha Jr., asked Hinkle to sentence Patterson to time served, meaning he would have been released immediately. Cunha said Patterson had already served more the maximum sentence recommended by state guidelines on all charges.
He said Patterson "deeply regrets the loss of life" and pain caused to Mulligan’s family and friends.
Patterson did not speak when given an opportunity by the judge.
Meier said evidence during Patterson’s 1995 trial showed that he and Ellis together planned to steal Mulligan’s gun as he slept in a Walgreen’s parking lot on a paid security detail.
Meier said that during the robbery, Ellis shot Mulligan several times with Ellis’ handgun. He said Patterson and Ellis then fled in Patterson’s car, taking Ellis’ gun and Mulligan’s gun.
Patterson’s case took on broader implications during his appeal, when his lawyers argued prosecutors had failed to use a reliable method to match Patterson’s fingerprints to the scene of Mulligan’s slaying. They asked the court to ban the use of all fingerprint evidence until it could be shown to be scientifically reliable.
In December, the SJC rejected Patterson’s bid to suspend the use of fingerprint evidence, but ruled that prosecutors failed to use a reliable method to match Patterson’s prints to the scene of Mulligan’s killing.
The high court cited testimony from a police sergeant, who said four latent fingerprints found on the driver’s side window of Mulligan’s vehicle belonged to Patterson. The sergeant said he identified the print as Patterson’s by adding up matching ridge characteristics from three different fingers.

But on cross-examination, the sergeant conceded that the standard for matching a latent print to a full print was eight points of similarity, SJC Justice Robert Cordy wrote in the court’s opinion

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