High court hears appeal alleging defense failed to obtain mental‑health records in murder trial

Attorney Sultan, representing the defendant in Commonwealth v. Nagora, told the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday that the court had properly remanded the case for an evidentiary hearing and that the new evidence “crystallized the issues” raised by the defendant’s new‑trial motion. Sultan said trial counsel failed to obtain multiple sets of records — including Social Security disability files, military records, hospital records and 18 months of Suffolk County Jail records — that would have corroborated the defendant’s testimony about longstanding mental illness.

Sultan argued those missing records meant defense counsel negligently “put his client on the stand” and “hung his client out to dry” by eliciting psychiatric history without documentary support, leaving the defendant vulnerable to a damaging cross‑examination that undermined credibility. “He exposed his client to withering cross examination needlessly,” Sultan told the court.

Sultan said two retained experts — Dr. Eric Brown and another…