SJC: Cape man should stay in prison for killing social worker
By Globe Staff
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that an Eastham man must stay in prison for the 1996 shooting death of Linda Silva, a Department of Social Services social worker who had played a role in the man's child custody case.
Writing for the unanimous court, Justice Roderick Ireland said Paul P. Dubois was properly convicted of first-degree murder by a Barnstable County jury in 2004. Dubois is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
"We have read the entire record ... and discern no reason to reduce the verdict or grant the defendant a new trial,'' Ireland wrote.
The court, however, did permit Dubois to push Barnstable prosecutors to try to locate what Dubois contends is a missing tape recording. He says State Police recorded a 1997 conversation in which he incriminated himself, but prosecutors have said they are not sure the tape exists. The SJC said Dubois can insist prosecutors redouble their search.
Silva testified against Dubois in Probate and Family Court in 1996, leading a judge to end Dubois' shared legal custody of his two children with his former wife. Silva was shot in the head in the parking lot of a Provincetown convenience store.
