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Convicted murderer loses bid to have earlier conviction for resisting arrest thrown out

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld Trevon Mason's conviction for resisting arrest in an armed-holdup investigation in 2008 - roughly four months before he was arrested for fatally shooting a man in the lobby of a Stanwood Street apartment building and injuring the woman whom the victim was shielding with his body.

Mason had originally been arrested on a variety of charges for a September, 2008 incident in which a pizza-delivery man was held up, allegedly at gunpoint.

Before his trial on the robbery began, Suffolk County prosecutors withdrew the charges of armed robbery and assault with a dangerous weapon and a judge dismissed the charge of illegal gun possession. Mason was acquitted on two charges of assault and battery on a police officer but convicted on a charge of resisting arrest.

Mason's attorney argued, among other things, that that conviction should be tossed because prosecutors dismissed two potential jurors who were black and because a search of his apartment and subsequent arrest were unconstitutional.

The court, however, said the potential jurors were dismissed because of their past contact with the criminal system - one was a graduate of the Maine state police academy, the other had incarcerated family members - not because they were black. And:

Assuming, without deciding, that the search of the defendant's apartment and the seizure of the defendant's person were unconstitutional, this conclusion does not avail the defendant as he was convicted only of resisting arrest and was acquitted of the remaining charges.

Four months after the robbery arrest, Mason and a pal were busy were arrested on murder charges for the death of Tyrone Smith.

Mason pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2011, which meant a sentence of life, but with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

His accomplce pleaded guilty to manslaughter

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