Galicia v. State
| Decision Date | 14 January 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 3358,No. 3350,3350,3358 |
| Parties | RONY GALICIA v. STATE OF MARYLAND EDGAR GARCIA-GAONA v. STATE OF MARYLAND |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Circuit Court for Montgomery County
UNREPORTED
Meredith,* Wells, Eyler, Deborah S., JJ. Senior Judge, Specially Assigned JJ.
Opinion by Eyler, Deborah S., J.
*Meredith, Timothy E., J., now retired, participated in the hearing of this case as an active member of this Court, and after being recalled pursuant to the Constitution, Article IV, Section 3A, he also participated in this decision and the preparation of this opinion.
*This is an unreported opinion and therefore may not be cited either as precedent or as persuasive authority in any paper, brief, motion, or other document filed in this Court or any other Maryland court. Md. Rule 1-104.
A jury in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County convicted Rony Galicia and Edgar Garcia-Gaona, the appellants, of the first-degree murders of Shadi Najjar, age 17, and Artem Ziberov, age 18; conspiracy to murder Shadi; two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony; and armed robbery of Shadi.1 The court sentenced each defendant to consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders; a concurrent term of life in prison for conspiracy to murder; and 60 years, collectively, for the firearm and armed robbery counts.
The appellants noted separate appeals, which were consolidated for oral argument. We are issuing one opinion resolving both appeals. The appellants present five questions for review, which we have rephrased and combined into four, as follows:
For the reasons explained, we shall affirm the judgments against Edgar, reverse the judgments against Rony, and remand in part for further proceedings, not inconsistent with this opinion, on the charges against Rony.
At 10:30 p.m. on June 5, 2017, Shadi and Artem were murdered as they sat in Shadi's Honda Civic on Gallery Court, a cul-de-sac in Montgomery Village. Shadi was shot three times in the head at close range and once in the left thigh. Artem sustained ten gunshot wounds to his neck, chest, back, left arm, and right arm. They died immediately. The two friends were set to graduate from Northwest High School in Germantown the next day. The murders received widespread media coverage in the Montgomery County area.
On June 17, 2017, Edgar and his half-brother Roger Garcia (also known as Johann) were arrested for the murders of Shadi and Artem and related crimes. Jose Ovilson Canales-Yanez, who was Edgar's best friend, was arrested for the same crimeslater that day. During the ride to the station house, Edgar told Roger not to "say anything." Edgar said, "we did good," "O doesn't say anything," and that he did not think they would be convicted.
In July 2017, the State obtained an indictment against Edgar and Roger and moved to join them for trial.2
Rony was close friends with Edgar and Roger. He was arrested on November 16, 2017 on unrelated charges. Then, on December 1, 2017, he was charged with the same crimes. Thereafter, the State obtained an indictment against Edgar, Roger, and Rony, dismissed the first indictment, and moved to join Rony with Edgar and Roger for trial. Rony opposed joinder. The court held a hearing during which Edgar moved to sever. The court granted the motion for joinder and denied the motion to sever.
Trial began on October 22, 2018. Evidence was presented over ten days. The State called 41 witnesses in its case-in-chief and introduced over 500 exhibits. At the outset of the fifth day of evidence, the court declared a mistrial in the case against Roger because his attorney became medically unable to participate.3 The trial continued againstRony and Edgar. In his case, Rony called ten witnesses. Edgar did not call any witnesses. The State called two rebuttal witnesses.
The State's theory of prosecution was that the murders were committed by Ovilson, Edgar, Roger, and Rony and that Shadi was the target. According to the State, the four men conspired to kill Shadi in retaliation for his robbing and injuring Kara Yanez, Ovilson's wife, on December 14, 2016. That day, Shadi had arranged to buy marijuana from Kara. He drove his Honda Civic to a prearranged meeting place, drove up next to Kara, reached out the window, grabbed the bag of drugs she was holding, and sped off. As he did so, his car ran over Kara's foot, injuring her. Ovilson was present and witnessed his wife being robbed and injured. Cell phone records revealed that, after the robbery, Ovilson placed three calls to Shadi's cell phone, none of which were answered.
The State's evidence showed that Roger's Snapchat account, named "Rogerloudpack," was used to lure Shadi to the location where he and Artem were killed. On May 31, 2017, Roger added Shadi's Snapchat account as a "friend." Shadi reciprocated, making the two accounts mutual friends who could communicate by the Snapchat direct messaging "chat" function.
On June 5, 2017, the day of the murders, Shadi posted on Snapchat that he was selling an extra ticket to the June 6, 2017 Northwest High School graduation ceremony. At 8:16 p.m., Roger, who had attended that high school, reached out to Shadi via the Snapchat chat function and asked whether the ticket was still available. At 9:46 p.m.,Roger arranged to meet Shadi near "East Village" at "Gallery C[our]t, Montgomery Village[,] 2C, MD 20886" to buy the ticket. At 10:00 p.m., Shadi messaged Roger, "Here[.]" Roger responded that he was at an ATM machine and would be there in less than 10 minutes. At 10:25 p.m., Roger asked Shadi for a description of his car. Shadi immediately responded, "Blue," to which Roger replied, "Alright[.]" At 10:29 p.m., Shadi sent a chat message to another Snapchat user. That was the last activity on Shadi's Snapchat account. The police never found Shadi's cell phone.
That night, home security cameras belonging to Gordon Gipe, a resident of Gallery Court, recorded the sounds of multiple gunshots at 10:30 p.m. Gipe furnished the police with the recordings, which were moved into evidence at trial. Barbara Covington was sitting on the front porch of her sister's house on Gallery Court when the shootings happened. She testified that she saw an old gray van enter the cul-de-sac "very, very slowly[,]" drive around the cul-de-sac, and begin to exit, still driving extremely slowly. As it did so, "red and blue flares c[ame] out of the driver's side of the vehicle" and there were sounds like firecrackers. She went inside and upstairs to look out the window. From there, she saw another vehicle "parked on the side as you would enter the cul-de-sac and the lights were still on . . . but it was at a standstill."
Two former girlfriends of defendants testified for the State: Victoria Kuria was Roger's girlfriend at the time of the murders, and Luz DaSilva was Edgar's girlfriend and the mother of one of his children at that time. On the evening of the murders, Victoria had been at a trailer in Germantown ("the trailer") where Roger was living with membersof his extended family. She testified about the men she saw at the trailer that night and what they were doing. Luz had been at home on the night of the murders, at a townhouse she shared with Edgar, and had seen Edgar being dropped off around midnight from a car she knew Ovilson drove. She testified about incriminating information Edgar gave her. We shall address the testimony of both these witnesses in detail in our discussion of the issues.
The State called FBI Special Agent Richard Fennern as an expert in historical cell site analysis. He identified the locations of the cell towers that interacted with the four suspects' cell phones on June 5, 2017. A cell phone linked to Rony pinged off a tower close to the trailer at 8:09 p.m. and, at 9:00 p.m., pinged off a tower at a location consistent with Rony's being at a townhouse on Appledowre Way in Germantown, where he was living at the time. There was no further activity associated with Rony's cell phone until after midnight on June 6, 2017, when it again connected to cell towers near Appledowre Way. Activity linked to Edgar's and Roger's cell phones placed them at the trailer between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Ovilson's cell phone activity showed that he arrived at the trailer closer to 9:30 p.m. At 9:53 p.m., Edgar received an incoming call from a phone that pinged off a tower northwest of the trailer, in the same tower segment as Appledowre Way. Over objection by Rony's counsel, Special Agent Fennern testified that this ping was consistent with Edgar's having been at the Appledowre Way townhouse where Rony was living. There was no further cell activity associated with Edgar's phone until the following day.
Special Agent Fennern further testified that Ovilson's cell phone activity after 10:00 p.m. on June 5 was consistent with his cell phone's moving toward the location of the murders. And, at 10:31 p.m., Roger's cell phone pinged off a cell tower near Gallery Place. After that ping, Roger's phone either was turned off or was out of range of any AT&T tower, as numerous incoming calls were routed straight to voicemail. After the murders, at 10:44 p.m., and again at 11:41 p.m., Ovilson's cell phone pinged off towers near the trailer.
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