Guilty Verdict Vacated In Nantucket Drug Trafficking Case, New Trial Expected
David Creed •
Former island resident Netria S. Haywood, 57, had a guilty verdict on a felony drug trafficking charge vacated this month and her motion for a new trial granted by Superior Court Judge Diane Freniere following a recent court decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in a separate case. That SJC ruling gave credence to Haywood’s defense team’s argument that her Sixth Amendment right was violated during her jury trial in 2022.
Haywood’s request for a new trial on an October 2019 felony charge of trafficking 200 grams or more of cocaine was granted by Freniere during a court hearing in Norfolk Superior Court last Friday, and the case has been reopened.
In 2022, Haywood was ordered to serve 13 years in state prison after a 12-person Nantucket jury found her guilty on the trafficking charge. She has been committed to the Framingham Correctional Facility since that time, but was transferred to the Barnstable House of Corrections on December 15th and is currently being held on $25,000 cash bail, $250,000 surety.
The vacated verdict stems from an issue with the crime lab chemist who weighed and analyzed the drugs in question for the trial. The chemist was not available to testify during Haywood’s trial, so a substitute chemist testified in their place to provide validity to the results, despite not being the person who directly reviewed and weighed the drugs involved.
A motion for a new trial was filed by Haywood’s defense team on October 7th, 2024. She is listed as being represented by Rob Moriarty and Sharon Sullivan-Puccini in the state’s court database. The process played out through July when Freniere initially denied the request for a new trial.
Just weeks after Freniere’s decision, however, the Massachusetts SJC made a decision in a separate case that proved quite relevant to Haywood’s legal challenge, and it changed Freniere’s view of her defense team's motion for a new trial.
“Commonwealth v. Gordon,” involves a former defense lawyer named Elana Gordon, who was accused of delivering 61 orange strips containing Suboxone to an inmate at the Plymouth County House of Correction. The delivery was disguised as legal paperwork, following instructions from another inmate. The strips were confiscated by officers who suspected they were Suboxone, and forensic testing was performed by a crime lab analyst named Kimberly Dunlap, who concluded the strips contained Suboxone.
Dunlap proceeded to document – in detail – her procedures and the lab results in her notes, but was no longer employed at the crime lab at the time of Gordon’s trial. In her place, a supervisor named Carrie LaBelle, who had not participated in or observed the drug testing, reviewed Dunlap’s work and testified as a substitute expert in the trial, sharing Dunlap’s notes and offering her own opinion based on the case file.
Gordon was found guilty by a Plymouth jury in 2021 and was sentenced to six months in jail by Judge Thomas MacGuire. However, in September of 2025, the Massachusetts SJC overturned the conviction and said that the trial violated Gordon’s Sixth Amendment right to confront accusers and/or witnesses.
Once this case was determined by the Massachusetts SJC, a motion by Haywood’s defense team asking Freniere to reconsider her ruling on the prior motion for a new trial was filed in October. On December 12th, a hearing was held in Norfolk Superior Court with Freniere presiding. The judgment was vacated by Freniere, the guilty verdict was set aside, and the case was remanded to the Nantucket Superior Court to allow the state to retry Haywood if it chooses to do so.
Danielle Whitney, the Director of Public Relations for the Cape & Islands’ District Attorney’s Office, told the Current Tuesday afternoon that while Haywood’s prosecution and trial were handled by the previous administration, their office anticipates they will be able to proceed with another trial at this time.
“We will confirm with both the defense counsel and the court on the next scheduled date in January,” she concluded.
A status hearing was scheduled for January 23rd. Given the age of Haywood’s case, it is possible a new trial could be scheduled for the May Superior Court session.
According to a Nantucket Police press release from 2019, Haywood and another individual were arrested at the same Hummock Pond Road residence in the early morning hours of October 27, 2019 by the Nantucket Police SWAT Team and Detective Unit after they executed a search warrant they received amidst suspicion that Haywood and Grant violated the Controlled Substances Act. Following the search, authorities seized drugs with an estimated street value of $57,000.