Court rules guy convicted of stabbing South Boston man in error got a fair trial, gets to stay in prison

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld Timothy Shruhan's conviction for nearly killing somebody in a case of mistaken identity outside the old Quencher Tavern in South Boston in 2006.

Shruhan and pal Robert Glavin had a beef with some guy over a stolen Xbox. When they drove past the Quencher on Sept. 11, 2006, Glavin pointed out a man who'd just left the bar - with a takeout cheeseburger - Shruhan yelled "Hey, Joey!" and got out and stabbed him in the stomach.

The man, a worker at a nearby community center whose name was not Joey, ran back into the Quencher, where several patrons, including an off-duty Boston firefighter, managed to stanch the bleeding until EMTs arrived.

In 2011, Glavin pleaded guilty and admitted he mistook the man for Joey.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Shruhan in 2012 of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was sentenced to 14 to 15 years in state prison, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

In its ruling, the appeals court said Shruhan got a fair trial. The court discounted criticism of testimony from family members and witnesses about their horror at the victim's injuries, noting that Shruhan's lawyer started and ended his case by trying to persuade the jury to discount that testimony. Besides, the court continued, that testimony only served to highlight the seriousness of the injuries and did not point any specific blame at Shruhan - and if Shruhan's lawyer really objected to the testimony, he should have done so while it was being given, which the court said he didn't.

And while the Suffolk County prosecutor in the case may have been a bit overzealous in bringing up 9/11 - the stabbing happened on its fifth anniversary - in his closing, that was hardly something that would have prejudiced the jury against Shruhan, the court said.