Moorish sovereign citizen from Dorchester demands state drop murder charges because state has no jurisdiction over him; state's highest court rules it does

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that Nickoyan Wallace has to stand trial on charges he shot a man to death on Park Street in Dorchester in 2021.

The state's highest court rejected a request by Wallace, 49, who know goes by the name of "Szyon Nkrumah, Al © All Rights Reserved," to dismiss the case because he is an "Indigenous, Free Sovereign and Private Great Seal Moor, in propria persona, sui juris (not pro se or colorable)" and so not bound by the laws of the Commonwealth.

The justices did not deal directly with the sovereignty issues Wallace raised in his "writ of quo warranto" (an ancient legal writ used to question the authority of rulers), because in Massachusetts, appeals of denials of motions to dismiss can normally only be filed after a verdict has been rendered in a criminal case, and Wallace has yet to come to trial on charges he gunned down Ivanildo Barros at 590 Park St. on May 28, 2021. The court said it can only hear such pre-verdict motions in rare cases, such as in potential cases of double jeopardy, which is not at issue in Wallace's case.

Wallace's trial on murder and gun charges is currently scheduled for Jan. 23 in Suffolk Superior Court. At a hearing last week, Wallace, who is acting as his own attorney, but with a "stand by" lawyer appointed by the court, objected to "the entirety of the proceeding," court records show.

This will not be the first time that Wallace has faced a murder charge. In 2000, Wallace and one of his brothers were charged with murdering a third brother, allegedly over drugs, and based in part on testimony from a fourth brother.

Prosecutors decided to try both brothers together, but Wallace's brother fled. The SJC eventually ordered the dismissal of the murder charge against Wallace because he was deprived of his right to a speedy trial as police hunted the brother - who was convicted in 2017 on second-degree murder charges.

Both brothers were charged in federal court for robbing a Providence gun store at gunpoint several months after their brother's murder. Wallace was convicted and served a ten-year sentence in federal prison.

Innocent, etc.