Appeals court hears argument over who bore burden to prove residency in Gill gun-licensing plea

The Massachusetts Appeals Court heard competing arguments Oct. 1 over whether the Commonwealth had to prove that a defendant was a Massachusetts resident at the time of a 2018 arrest as part of a guilty plea in Commonwealth v. Jared Gill. Attorney Kim Peterson, representing Jared Gill, asked the court to vacate the convictions or, at minimum, grant a new trial because, she said, the record presented at the plea hearing and at a later evidentiary hearing contained documentary material that did not reliably show Gill was a Massachusetts resident at the time of the offense. “It is the Commonwealth's obligation, your honor, to set forth the facts in a plea hearing, and it's their burden to show that all the elements are met,” Peterson told the panel. Why it matters: the case implicates recent appellate decisions about whether residency is an element the Commonwealth must prove at plea hearings and what remedy follows when…