Fuentes v. Moran

• Decision Date: 27 September 1983
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 82-0071S.
• Citation: 572 F. Supp. 1461
• Parties: Samuel FUENTES v. John MORAN, Director Department of Corrections.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Rhode Island

572 F. Supp. 1461

Samuel FUENTES v. John MORAN, Director Department of Corrections.

Civ. A. No. 82-0071S.

United States District Court, D. Rhode Island.

September 27, 1983.

William Reilly, Public Defender, Paula Rosin, Asst. Public Defender, Providence, R.I., for plaintiff.

Dennis J. Roberts II, Atty. Gen., by Margaret R. Levy, Anthony F. DelBonis, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Providence, R.I., for defendant.

OPINION

SELYA, District Judge.

This is an application for a writ of habeas corpus brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241 and 2254. The petitioner, Samuel Fuentes, is currently incarcerated at the Adult Correctional Institution, Cranston, Rhode Island. The defendant is the director of the state's department of corrections.

This proceeding arose out of a two-count indictment lodged against Fuentes in 1978, charging him with the first-degree murders of Helen Dias and Jane Dias (mother and daughter, respectively). The evidence of guilt can fairly be characterized as overpowering. The petitioner was convicted on all charges in Providence County Superior Court in October of 1978, after trial by jury. He was sentenced to serve two consecutive life terms. His appeal to the Rhode Island Supreme Court proved unavailing. State v. Fuentes, 433 A.2d 184 (R.I.1981). The instant application thereupon ensued.

The application was referred to a United States magistrate for consideration pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B), 28 U.S.C. § 2254 and Rule 10 thereunder. The magistrate, in a lengthy rescript filed on July 22, 1983 (the "Report"), recommended that the writ be granted because the petitioner's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights had been abridged. The state seasonably objected. Supplemental briefs were filed, and oral arguments were heard by the court on September 14, 1983. Decision was reserved.

I. The Factual Predicate

Collocation of the material facts is essential to an understanding of the issues presented. On or about February 21, 1978, both Jane Dias and her mother, Helen, mysteriously vanished. Providence police were alerted to this circumstance when friends of the family filed missing person reports. After some desultory preliminary investigation, questioning of Marta Carlos took place on March 2, 1978. Ms. Carlos related that Jane Dias had been romantically entangled with Fuentes. She also recounted the circumstances of an encounter which had occurred on February 21, as a result of which Ms. Dias had apparently been placed in fear of Fuentes. Such trepidation was heightened, in the context of this case, by the memory of an earlier vignette wherein Fuentes had allegedly assaulted and beaten Jane Dias.¹ The detectives in charge of the search (Springer and Mitchell) concluded that foul play might be afoot; and that Fuentes in any event ought to be interrogated.

Later that day, Springer and Mitchell accompanied Pawtucket police to a Pawtucket address reputed to be the petitioner's abode. Unable to run Fuentes to ground at that address, the Providence police retreated to their station (having first requested that their Pawtucket counterparts continue the effort to locate Fuentes). Upon their return, Mitchell called Attorney John Ruginski.² While Ruginski had represented petitioner in sundry legal matters, the call was placed to his home (not his law office); and the only sensible inference which can be drawn from the record is that Mitchell called Ruginski not in the latter's capacity as counsel for Fuentes, but because Ms. Carlos had informed the police that she had previously enlisted Ruginski's aid in trying to locate Jane Dias. Mitchell was hopeful that Ruginski might, via Fuentes, have unearthed some facts pertinent to the tandem disappearance.³ Mitchell inquired into the whereabouts of the petitioner and asked Ruginski "to locate Mr. Fuentes and have Mr. Fuentes come to the police station". T. 176.⁴ Mitchell did tell Ruginski that he was investigating the disappearance of the Dias women, and that he wanted to question Fuentes on this score. Ruginski replied, in substance, that he had asked the petitioner about the disappearance, but that Fuentes had disclaimed all knowledge. Ruginski stated that he would then accede to Mitchell's request if he (Ruginski) was successful in tracking down the petitioner.

The next morning (March 3, 1978), Pawtucket police located and arrested Fuentes, placing him in custody on a preexisting state district court bench warrant for nonpayment of a fine in an unrelated proceeding.⁵ Since the capias was returnable to the Sixth Division District Court in Providence, Springer was summoned. He went to Pawtucket police headquarters and returned to Providence with Fuentes in tow.

It was mid-day when Fuentes was brought to the police station in Providence. At that time, or shortly thereafter, Springer and Mitchell informed the petitioner that he was a suspect vis-a-vis the disappearance of Ms. Dias and her mother, and properly advised him of his rights as required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The detectives did not discuss the Mitchell-Ruginski dialogue with Fuentes, nor mention any such conversation to him. Likewise, neither Mitchell nor Springer contacted Ruginski to advise him that Fuentes was in custody.

The initial interrogation of the petitioner was not especially fruitful. Petitioner, having waived his Miranda rights, disavowed any knowledge of the whereabouts of the Dias women. When Springer suggested that Fuentes had "done away with them", T. 22, Fuentes replied: "You have no proof. You have no corpus delicti". Id. With little useful information forthcoming, the Providence police made good-faith efforts to schedule a hearing on the capias at the state district court.⁶ Such a session could not then be held, however, due to the vagaries of nature, both climatological and human: it was a Friday afternoon, a snowstorm had been predicted, and the district court was unmanned. Inasmuch as the police were unable to locate a judge, the petitioner remained in custody on the capias. At approximately 3:25 p.m. on March 3, 1978, the petitioner assented to a search of both his car and his apartment. The police could not find the automobile, but did explore the residence.

On the following morning, the police again tried to obtain a hearing on the capias and were again thwarted by inclement weather. Fuentes remained in custody. On that same morning (March 4, 1978), the police went to the victims' home; shortly after noontime, they discovered the bodies of the Dias women buried in the earthen floor of a room adjacent to their basement apartment.

While this activity was taking place, Ruginski called the Providence police department at approximately 3:20 p.m. Both Springer and Mitchell were at the scene of the crime; in their absence, Ruginski apparently spoke with detective Ethier. While Ethier did not testify, Ruginski stated that he inquired as to whether or not the petitioner was in custody. He received an affirmative answer and was told that Fuentes was being held pursuant to a capias. Ruginski asked whether the capias had originated from the district or superior court. Ethier, after checking with a source or sources unknown, told Ruginski that the capias had been issued by a state district court judge. Ethier did not inform Ruginski of the petitioner's involvement in the ongoing murder investigation; indeed, there is nothing in the record which indicates that Ethier was aware of this twist.⁷ Ruginski then asked about arranging for the petitioner's release; Ethier informed him to discuss this subject with one of the officers on the case. Since neither officer was on the premises and since Ruginski felt no sense of urgency anent Fuentes's plight, the attorney decided to attend to other business which he deemed more pressing, and to follow up on the Fuentes matter at a more convenient time.

Springer and Mitchell returned to the Providence police station approximately one-half hour after this telephone call. They brought photographs of the bodies. Fuentes was transferred to an interrogation room and was again read his Miranda rights. He was not informed of Ruginski's call; indeed, the record is devoid of any evidence that the investigating officers were so informed upon their return to the station. Fuentes signed a waiver form and police questioning commenced. At no time during the interrogation did the petitioner stop answering questions or demand that his lawyer be present. Eventually, the police obtained a parol confession.⁸ During the transcription of this confession, the police again warned Fuentes of his rights. A further waiver was embodied within the inculpatory statement and was duly signed.

Some four hours subsequent to his mid-afternoon call (and after the confession had been signed, sealed and delivered), Ruginski telephoned the police station once more. Mitchell informed Ruginski that the petitioner was being held on twin charges of murder in the first degree, and that Fuentes had confessed to the commission of the crimes. Ruginski, nonplussed by this untoward turn of events, raced to the station house. Upon arrival, he was taken immediately to the petitioner. Charges were preferred, and formal criminal proceedings thereupon ensued.

Prior to trial, the defense moved to suppress the confession. After a plenary hearing, the trial justice found that Fuentes's command of English was sufficient for him to comprehend his rights, that there was no credible evidence of any beating, and that the petitioner voluntarily, intentionally, and knowingly relinquished his right against self-incrimination. T. 366-86. The jury trial and the convictions followed. On appeal, the petitioner contested the denial of his suppression motion. He claimed that the confession had been euchred from him in violation of (i) his right against self-incrimination, (ii) his right to counsel, and (iii) his right to due process of law. The Rhode Island Supreme...