Jamil Sahle was sentenced yesterday to 90 days in prison.
(ERIK JACOBS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)
By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | September 21, 2007
Prosecutors sometimes go to great lengths and expense to compel a witness to testify in a murder trial.
In the case of Jamil Sahle, along with his subpoena, they bought him a round-trip ticket from Oakland, Calif., to Boston, put him up in a hotel, and granted him immunity from an accessory-to-murder charge. In exchange, they expected him to tell a Suffolk Superior Court jury that a childhood friend had showed up at his California apartment four years ago and confessed to killing a man in Dorchester.
But when Sahle took the stand Monday to testify against John Gomes, 30, he refused to speak, not because he feared retribution, but because he did not want to betray an old friend, prosecutors said.
Even though a jury convicted Gomes of murder Wednesday, prosecutors were not finished with Sahle. In a highly unusual move, they asked a judge yesterday to hold Sahle on criminal charges of contempt.
In a city where law enforcement officials struggle to find witnesses to killings and shootings, prosecutors said they wanted to send a message and sought a year in jail. Letting Sahle go, they contended, would have a chilling effect on witness cooperation in future homicide cases.
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