Supreme Judicial Court upholds Easthampton man’s murder conviction
Updated May 14, 2021;
In a decision released Friday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld a 2014 murder conviction that sent an Easthampton man to prison for the rest of his life.
Attorneys for Ryan Welch, convicted in the slaying of his girlfriend Jessica Pripstein, argued that judges involved in the case allowed evidence that should have been withheld.
In its ruling, the SJC upheld rulings by judges C. Jeffrey Kinder and Daniel A. Ford and denied Welch a new trial.
“Finding no reversible error either in any issues raised by the defendant in our review under G.L.C. 276, we affirm the defendant’s conviction and the order denying his motion for a new trial,” the justices wrote in a 40-page decision.
SJC upholds murder conviction of Ryan Welch in killing of Jessica Pripstein
Ryan D. Welch during his arraignment in 2012. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
Published: 5/15/2021 9:13:59 AM
EASTHAMPTON The state’s highest court has ruled to uphold the first-degree murder conviction of an Easthampton man who killed his girlfriend in 2012.
The Supreme Judicial Court, or SJC, on Friday denied the request of Ryan Welch convicted in 2014 of the murder of Jessica Ann Pripstein in the couple’s Easthampton apartment for a new trial. The court upheld several rulings by Hampshire Superior Court judges C. Jeffrey Kinder and Daniel Ford. Welch had been sentenced to life in prison without parole.