Law360 (June 9, 2026, 5:25 PM EDT) -- The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed on Tuesday that a high court justice had the discretion to deny bail to three men charged with first-degree murder, despite the fact that they had been incarcerated without a guilty verdict since 2021.

The state's high court said in a unanimous opinion that Billoeum Phan, Billy Phan and Channa Phan, who were indicted in January 2021 over the September 2020 killing of Tyrone Phet, could remain jailed, despite the fact that a trial court judge had sought to release them each on $25,000 bail.

"We agree with the single justice that the trial judge abused his discretion by assigning too much weight to the length of the defendants' detention and what he deemed to be the equities of the case," the panel wrote, explaining that although the three relatives had been jailed for a long time, only some of that time was attributable to the state, and the facts of the case against them remained the same.

The evidence against them included that, "Channa attempted to evade detection by selling a vehicle used during the alleged murder two days after it occurred, that Billoeum fled to New Hampshire, and that Billy left his house on the day of his arrest at 5:30 A.M. with his family and $20,000 in cash," the high court said.

The trio had been tried for Phet's killing in 2024, and that resulted in a mistrial, according to the high court. Separately, Billy Phan was found not guilty of witness intimidation, the court added.

The judge who initially decided not to grant bail to the trio "noted their ties to the community" but didn't "set bail due to the strength of the Commonwealth's case," the high court said.

The second trial was derailed in early 2026, after prosecutors disclosed that State Police Sgt. Scott Quigley, a lead investigator and witness at the first trial, may have been intoxicated during a fatal on-duty crash in December 2023, prompting discovery disputes and continuances while related investigations unfolded, the high court explained.

After the case was indefinitely continued, the trial judge held a new bail hearing, and on March 16 ordered each defendant released on $25,000 cash bail with home confinement, passport restrictions, no-contact orders and a weapons ban, reasoning in part that they had spent more than five years in pretrial detention and that the latest delay was attributable to the prosecution.

However, following a petition from the commonwealth, a single justice of the high court vacated this order, disagreeing with the trial court's reasoning. In denying bail, she wrote that "the reasons underlying the defendants' detention have not changed and overwhelmingly suggest that the defendants present a risk of flight as much today as they did when they were initially ordered detained in 2021."

The three defendants appealed the decision, but the high court agreed with that justice, writing that most of the delay in the Phan family's case was not attributable to the state, and "the single justice did not abuse her discretion in allowing the Commonwealth's petition and in vacating the trial judge's order admitting the defendants to bail."

Representatives for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

The commonwealth is represented by Casey E. Silvia and Jamie Michael Charles of the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.

The defendants are represented by Mark Wester, Adriana Contartese of the Law Office of Adriana Contartese, William J. Dolan of Law Offices of William J. Dolan and Lorenzo Perez of the Law Office of Lorenzo Perez PC.

The case is Commonwealth vs. Billoeum Phan et al., case number SJC-13924, in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

--Editing by Nicole Bleier.

For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.