People v. Rodriguez
| Citation | 794 P.2d 965 |
| Decision Date | 29 May 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 87SA48,87SA48 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Frank D. RODRIGUEZ, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Colorado |
Duane Woodard, Atty. Gen., John D. Dailey, Deputy Atty. Gen., Appellate Section, Robert M. Petrusak, Asst. Atty. Gen., Joan C. White, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for plaintiff-appellee.
David F. Vela, State Public Defender, Michael J. Heher, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, for defendant-appellant.
This is a capital case where the jury imposed the death penalty after an extended trial. The defendant, Frank D. Rodriguez, does not seek review of the jury's determination of guilt, but only seeks to set aside the death penalty imposed by the jury. The only issue on appeal is whether errors in the penalty phase of the trial require that the death penalty be set aside and that the defendant be resentenced to life imprisonment. We affirm the judgment and sentence of death.
On November 14, 1984, at about 4:00 p.m., the defendant, his younger brother Chris Rodriguez, and David Martinez and his girlfriend Patricia Thomas, kidnapped Lorraine Martelli as she was walking from her place of work to her Chevrolet Monte Carlo near downtown Denver. The defendant and his compatriots forced the victim into her own car, and the defendant drove away. Over a period of hours, Lorraine Martelli was driven around the Denver area, and as far west as Lookout Mountain, in her automobile. The defendant stopped and purchased beer during the drive with Lorraine Martelli's money.
The testimony at trial established that Chris Rodriguez sexually assaulted the victim first. Then the defendant raped, beat, and sodomized Lorraine Martelli in the backseat of her Monte Carlo. During the drive, the victim asked what would become of her, and Chris Rodriguez told her that they would probably let her go. The defendant said that she had seen their faces and they had to kill her.
Lorraine Martelli was eventually driven to a deserted dead-end near some warehouses in Denver. She tried to plead for her life with Patricia Thomas, but the defendant called her stupid. He then proceeded to stab her approximately twenty-eight times with a folding knife. Some of the knife cuts around her neck were shallow Afterwards, the defendant and his compatriots placed the victim's body in the trunk of the Monte Carlo and proceeded to drive around town. They drove to a friend's apartment house, where the defendant handed the knife to a two-year-old child. The child's mother took the knife away and ultimately gave it to the police. The defendant then drove away in the Monte Carlo in search of more beer.
and indicate that it was the killer's intention to torture her before she died.
There had been an eyewitness to the victim's abduction, and the Denver police were looking for the Monte Carlo. The police spotted the defendant and gave chase in their vehicles, and later on foot. The defendant, Chris Rodriguez, and the two others were arrested that night.
Chris Rodriguez was tried first for the capital murder of Lorraine Martelli, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. People v. Rodriguez, 786 P.2d 472 (Colo.App.1989). David Martinez pleaded guilty to second-degree kidnapping and received a twenty-year sentence. Patricia Thomas was given immunity in exchange for her testimony for the prosecution. Before the capital murder trial of Frank Rodriguez commenced, it was the subject of an original proceeding which reviewed a number of pretrial motions. Rodriguez v. District Court, 719 P.2d 699 (Colo.1986). A substantial number of other motions were addressed by this court prior to the announcement of this opinion.
The defendant's capital murder trial began on November 21, 1986 with jury selection. The jury was sworn on December 2, 1986 and the guilt phase commenced. Among other evidence of the defendant's guilt, Patricia Thomas testified that the defendant raped and sodomized the victim, and then killed her. The prosecution also introduced letters written by the defendant while he was in jail awaiting trial to his girlfriend Margie Marquez, another prisoner at the jail. In the letters the defendant admitted that he killed Lorraine Martelli.
The defense position at trial, during both the guilt and sentencing phases of the trial, was that the circumstantial evidence made it likely that David Martinez, not the defendant, was the actual killer. Through Marquez, defense counsel attempted to establish that the defendant wrote the letters to her for the express purpose of having the letters turned over to the district attorney, so that she could seek reduction of the charges which had been made against her.
The jury retired to deliberate in the guilt phase on December 11, 1986 and returned with guilty verdicts on December 12, 1986. The jury found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder after deliberation, § 18-3-102(1)(a), 8B C.R.S. (1986), and first-degree felony murder, § 18-3-102(1)(b). The jury also found the defendant guilty of seven other felonies. 1
The capital sentencing phase began on December 15, 1986. The capital sentencing statute in effect on the date of the offense, November 14, 1984, was section 16-11-103, 8 C.R.S. (1978 & 1984 Supp.). The relevant parts of the statute are set out in Appendix A to this opinion. Unless otherwise noted, references to section 16-11-103 are to the 1984 version of the statute.
In addition to the evidence adduced at the guilt phase, the prosecution introduced evidence that the defendant and his brother Chris Rodriguez raped and sodomized a woman in 1978, which resulted in a substantial term in prison for the defendant. The testimony showed that the defendant and his brother considered killing the victim in 1978. The defendant was in favor of killing her because the victim could identify The prosecution also called George Stapleton to testify that the defendant shot him at point blank range while Stapleton sat in his car ten days before Lorraine Martelli was murdered. The court permitted the introduction of these prior criminal episodes for the sole purpose of establishing that the defendant killed Lorraine Martelli to prevent her from being a witness against him, a statutory aggravating factor. The defendant introduced evidence in mitigation at the trial, including a document called "Frank Rodriguez--A Life History," that detailed the defendant's unhappy childhood and his growing up in a poor broken family.
them, but Chris Rodriguez just wanted to drop her off, and the defendant acquiesced.
After lengthy deliberation, the jury found that six statutory aggravating factors existed beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the mitigating factors did not outweigh the aggravating factors. The jury concluded that death was the appropriate punishment, and the trial court sentenced the defendant to death. The death sentence was stayed pending appeal, which is a direct appeal by the defendant from the sentencing phase, and an automatic appeal of the death sentence under section 16-11-103(7) and C.A.R. 4(e). 2
On this appeal, the defendant has been assisted by counsel who has asserted a myriad of reasons for setting aside the death penalty. The errors alleged on appeal question the conduct of the trial court and openly charge the prosecution with conduct that was overzealous and resulted in the denial of the defendant's rights to due process and a fair trial. Defense counsel, in multiple appearances on behalf of the defendant in both the trial court and on appeal, has asserted grounds to delay the resolution of this case by filing numerous requests for extensions of time and only filed a partial opening brief when we refused to grant defense counsel additional time to prepare a brief. C.A.R. 31(a) provides for forty days to file an opening brief after the record is filed. In addition to a number of extensions of time to file the record and supplement the record, defense counsel was granted four extensions to file an opening brief. Defense counsel filed a 138 page so-called partial opening brief with a protest that a complete brief could not be filed unless additional time was granted. Defense counsel's opening brief was filed nearly two years after the case was docketed in this court. The prosecution's answer brief encompassed 104 pages, and the defendant's "partial" reply brief was 93 pages in length. 3
Subsequently, defense counsel attempted to file an additional brief and has now set forth a number of additional grounds for reversal.
Every case should be determined on appeal within a reasonable time. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial, but not a perfect trial. The record in this case encompasses more than forty volumes. The trial extended over three weeks. Defense counsel has claimed that a number of rights guaranteed to the defendant by the United States and Colorado Constitutions have been violated. Accordingly, we address the issues that have been preserved for appeal at some length.
The defendant contends that the closing arguments of the prosecutors during the penalty phase of the trial violated the Due Process Clauses of the federal and Colorado Constitutions, 4 the constitutional right an error or defect in trial proceedings to which an accused fails to make a contemporaneous objection will not be the basis for reversal unless it casts serious doubt upon the basic fairness of the trial itself.... [W]e believe the appropriate standard for plain-error review is whether an appellate court, after reviewing the entire record, can say with fair assurance that the error so undermined the fundamental fairness of the trial itself as to cast serious doubt on the reliability of the judgment of conviction.
to trial by jury, 5 and the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. 6 In particular, he refers to twenty-three...To continue reading
Request your trial
-
People v. Harlan, No. 95SA298.
...death sentence nonetheless was fairly and reliably imposed. See also White, 870 P.2d at 448; Davis, 794 P.2d at 179; People v. Rodriguez, 794 P.2d 965, 983 (Colo.1990). Clemons established that this analysis may be conducted in at least three possible ways. An appellate court may: (1) indep......
-
Mayes v. State
...nothing to prove the jurors misunderstood the law. Therefore, we find no error. Stiles, 829 P.2d at 997. See also People v. Rodriguez, 794 P.2d 965, 980-81 (Colo.1990) (arriving at same conclusion as this Court: no constitutional requirement for instruction telling jury its findings concern......
-
People v. White, 91SA248
...in People v. Davis, 794 P.2d 159 (Colo.1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1018, 111 S.Ct. 662, 112 L.Ed.2d 656 (1991), and in People v. Rodriguez, 794 P.2d 965 (Colo.1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1055, 111 S.Ct. 770, 112 L.Ed.2d 789 (1991). In both of those cases, we considered whether the statu......
-
Wilcher v. State, s. 03-DP-0032
...to allow or require the imposition of the death penalty under [these hypothetical] circumstances...." Id. at 374, 108 S.Ct. at 1865. 794 P.2d at 980. In the case sub judice, the jury was required by statute to be specifically instructed that it must take its deliberation by steps. The first......