BOSTON — The highest court in Massachusetts has overturned the 2021 murder conviction of a Rhode Island man sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole after he was convicted of renting an SUV that was used as the getaway car in a fatal Boston shooting.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Wednesday that Dewane Tse of Providence, Rhode Island, should not have been convicted of first-degree murder and armed assault with intent to murder in the August 2018 killing of Yashua Amado.
The court declared Tse not guilty instead of ordering a new trial.
“The evidence in this case did not support a reasonable inference, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant acted with the knowledge and shared lethal intent required for a conviction of murder in the first degree under the theory of deliberate premeditation as a joint venturer,” the court ruled. “Accordingly, the defendant’s conviction must be reversed.”
The investigation found that Tse had rented a red GMC Acadia two days before the shooting, prosecutors said. Surveillance video showed the same Acadia in the vicinity of the shooting, a gunman getting out and approaching the victim’s vehicle, and firing multiple shots, prosecutors said. The gunman then returned to the Acadia, which left the area.
Security camera video captured Tse returning the rented vehicle about an hour after Amado was shot, prosecutors said.
