BOSTON — The Massachusetts Court of Appeals has declined to grant a new trial to a South Carolina man convicted two years ago of raping a woman in Northampton, rejecting his claims that errors by the prosecution led his being wrongly convicted.
The court ruled on Monday that it found no basis to grant Christopher F. Hoime, 55, a new trial.
Hoime, a resident of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, was convicted of rape on Jan. 25, 2019 in Hampshire Superior Court, in connection with a 2014 assault in a Northampton hotel room. He was sentenced to 4 to 6 years in state prison.
Prosecutors charged that he drugged a woman during a night out, brought her back to his hotel room and raped her.
In his appeal, Hoime said it was an error by the presiding judge, Richard J. Carey, to allow the testimony of an toxicologist on the effects of gamma hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, sometimes called a “date rape drug.” He charged that prosecutors did not present evidence that GHB was used, and the testimony from the toxicologist improperly boosted the prosecution’s case.
He also charged that there were flaws in the prosecutor’s closing argument that harmed the defense.
The ruling, made by Chief Justice Mark V. Green and justices Sookyoung Shin and Mary Thomas Sullivan and authored by Sullivan, found no grounds to overturn the conviction and grant a new trial.
The testimony by the expert on the symptoms of GHB on a person was properly admitted and did not prejudice Hoime’s case, and the closing argument by the prosecution was “within appropriate bounds.”
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