Judge tracker

Judge William F. Sullivan's record in serious criminal cases

About the judge

Associate Justice, Massachusetts Superior Court, presiding over Commonwealth v. Clancy

William F. Sullivan is a Massachusetts Superior Court judge presiding over Lindsay Clancy's murder case in Plymouth County. Gov. Deval Patrick appointed him in 2014. He is a former prosecutor and longtime defense lawyer. Massachusetts judges must retire at 70.

Appointed by the governor; on the bench since 2014

Full profile

Bench Watch Brief · What the data shows

Bench Watch logs decisions by Judge William F. Sullivan of the Massachusetts Superior Court in serious criminal cases, from court records, the Plymouth County DA's releases and news reports. It isn't a complete record. In the four cases where prosecutors' sentencing requests were reported, he sentenced below them three times and matched the request once.

15 entries · select a column to sort

						Source
2026	Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy	Motion to dismiss (double jeopardy)	Denied, finding the jury's deadlock made the mistrial necessary; also denied the defense's requests to question the holdout juror and obtain the juror's records	Defense asked to dismiss the murder charges; prosecutors opposed		SourceCase file
2026	Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy	Gag order	Denied the prosecution's request to limit lawyers' public statements	Prosecution asked for the order; the defense opposed it		SourceCase file
2026	Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy	Required finding	Denied the defense motion for a required finding of not guilty			SourceCase file
2026	Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy	Mistrial	Declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked; refused to remove the holdout juror	Defense asked to remove the holdout juror		SourceCase file
2025	Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy	Ruling: psychiatric examinations after an insanity defense was announced	Allowed examinations by experts chosen by the prosecution			Source
2024	Commonwealth v. Jack Callahan	Sentence (involuntary manslaughter, jury)	4 to 6 years	Prosecution: 9 to 15 years	Below the prosecution's request	Source
2024	Commonwealth v. Dvante Bly-Mollenthiel	Sentence: voluntary manslaughter and gun charges (guilty plea)	12 to 15 years	Prosecution: 12 to 15 years	Matched the prosecution's recommendation	Source
2023	Commonwealth v. Shannon Squires	Sentence (manslaughter, kidnapping; plea)	8 to 10 years, plus 5 years' probation			Source
2023	Commonwealth v. Kirstin Smith	Sentence (voluntary manslaughter, jury)	5 to 6 years	Prosecution: 13 to 14 years	Below the prosecution's request	Source
2023	Commonwealth v. Kenston Scott	Sentence (manslaughter, armed home invasion; plea)	18 to 20 years			Source
2023	Commonwealth v. Jonathan and Lucnalie Jironvil	Sentence (attempted murder and related charges, jury)	8 to 10 years each	Prosecution: 14 to 16 years	Below the prosecution's request	Source
2023	Commonwealth v. Takari Elliot	Sentence (manslaughter; plea)	3 to 5 years, plus 2 years' probation			Source
2023	Commonwealth v. Robert Savignano	Sentence (manslaughter; plea)	7 to 10 years			Source
2022	Commonwealth v. Latarsha Sanders	Sentence (first-degree murder, jury)	Two life terms without parole, plus 9 to 10 years concurrent; the SJC vacated the murder convictions and ordered a new trial (2026)		Mandatory for first-degree murder	Source
2021	Commonwealth v. Donta Hood	Sentence (involuntary manslaughter, gun charges; plea)	9 years to 9 years and a day			Source

How we built this

This tracker counts Judge Sullivan's sentences and key rulings in serious criminal cases, meaning homicide, sex crimes and other violent felonies, and major federal crimes, plus rulings in cases Bench Watch follows. The goal is to cover the judge's whole time on the bench, so we log the most recent five years first, then work back, and the “Covers” line shows the years logged so far. Each row links to its source, whether a court record, an appeals opinion, an official release or a news report.

This is not a complete record. Massachusetts doesn't publish sentencing data by judge; many rows come from the Plymouth County District Attorney's press releases, which give the prosecution's account, and defense requests were rarely reported. Bench Watch adds decisions as it confirms them.

We leave “What each side asked” blank when the source didn't report it. “Compared with the options” sets the decision against what the law allowed, the sentencing guidelines and any joint recommendation, as reported in the source. We don't name victims. When naming a defendant would identify a child victim, we withhold the name.