Government of Virgin Islands v. Martinez

• Decision Date: 11 September 1986
• Docket Number: Crim. No. 1984/26.
• Citation: 642 F. Supp. 1571
• Parties: GOVERNMENT OF the VIRGIN ISLANDS, Plaintiff, v. Juan MARTINEZ, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Virgin Islands

642 F. Supp. 1571

GOVERNMENT OF the VIRGIN ISLANDS, Plaintiff, v. Juan MARTINEZ, Defendant.

Crim. No. 1984/26.

District Court, Virgin Islands, D. St. Croix.

September 11, 1986.

Andrew J. Reich, Asst. U.S. Atty., Office of U.S. Atty., Christiansted, St. Croix, V.I., for Government.

Michael Joseph, Christiansted, St. Croix, V.I., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DAVID V. O'BRIEN, District Judge.

This case presents a novel question under the rule of Brady v. Maryland: does a defendant who deliberately concealed from his lawyer a confession that he gave to the police vitiate an otherwise valid Brady claim. Under the circumstances of this case, our answer is yes.

I. FACTS

The underlying facts were extensively detailed by the Third Circuit and do not warrant repeating here.¹ Briefly, however, defendant Juan Martinez was convicted of first degree murder by a jury after unsuccessfully staging an alibi defense. During his sentencing proceeding, Martinez revealed that he had confessed to a police officer four days before the trial, maintaining however, that he had acted in self defense. That officer, Oscar Vigo, later stated in an affidavit that he reported the confession to both the prosecutor, Frederick Jones, and detective, Steve Brown, assigned to the case. Jones subsequently denied knowledge of this confession.

Martinez's statement was not disclosed to defense counsel despite a discovery request for "all oral confessions or statements, subsequently reduced to writing, summarized in police reports, made by the defendant" and he never told his lawyer about the confession. After receiving a life sentence, without parole, Martinez moved for a new trial, arguing that the nondisclosure violated his right to a fair trial under Brady v. Maryland, and our denial of this motion was appealed.

The Third Circuit found that the Brady claim could not be decided until several factual issues were resolved. Government of the Virgin Islands v. Martinez, 780 F.2d 302 (3d Cir.1985). The case was remanded and, on June 18, 1986, an evidentiary hearing was held. The testimony provided answers to all of the Third Circuit's questions. We address the questions and the salient testimony seriatim.

A) Was Martinez's confession reduced to writing by Officer Vigo, either contemporaneously or in any subsequent reports or memorandum? Was it reduced to a writing in any form by any of the prosecution's agents?

The answer to both questions, according to the sworn testimony of the prosecution team, is no.

On direct examination, Vigo testified as follows:

Q Did you ever write down in any kind of statement, report, or any kind of writing whatsoever, did you write down what Mr. Martinez told you?

A No, I never wrote anything down.

Q Did you ever make any written memorandum at all of what Mr. Martinez told you?

A No, I never wrote anything down.

Q Did you ever make any written memorandum at all of what Mr. Martinez told you?

A No, I didn't.

(Tr. 12)

Vigo reiterated this testimony on cross examination:

Q And, when Mr. Martinez gave you that statement, did you write that down?

A I didn't have—I didn't write it down. I didn't have nothing to write it on. So, my response to Mr. Martinez was that I will talk to my partner, Officer—Detective Brown. And, I will see that he— they both get together and he can give his statement to Mr. Brown. But, the statement could be taken down and he could sign for it.

(Tr. 18)

Detective Brown testified as follows:

Q ... Now, after that information was conveyed to you, did you put down in writing what Vigo told you?

A No, sir.

Q Did you ever make any written memorandum of any nature concerning what that confession was about?

A No, sir, I did not.

Q At any time, did you make any written memorandum?

A No, sir.

(Tr. 34-35)

Jones, the prosecutor, denied any pretrial knowledge of the confession and testified further that he has never seen a written account of Martinez's statement:

Q At any time prior to the sentencing proceeding, had you ever received any information that the defendant had confessed to the killing?

A No.

Q Had you received any such information from Oscar Vigo?

A No.

Q Had you received any such information from Detective Steve Brown?

A No.

Q Or, from any other officer?

A No.

Q Had you seen any written document of any nature whatsoever which contained either a police report or written confession from the defendant, Juan Martinez?

A No.

(Tr. 66)

On the basis of this undisputed testimony, we find that Martinez's confession was never reduced to writing and thus, was not specifically demanded by the defense.

B) What is the extent of the information conveyed by Martinez? Did the government obtain other exculpatory evidence that was not disclosed to the defense?

According to the testimony of Brown and Jones, who officially represented the government, the details of Martinez's confession were never pursued. Vigo, a long-time acquaintance of Martinez, was barred from working on the case. (Tr. 37-38). Nevertheless, he conducted a brief and fruitless investigation.

He testified as follows:

Q Now, based upon the information that Mr. Martinez told you, based on this confession which he gave to you, did you conduct any additional investigation based on his confession to you?

A No, the only thing I did after I told Brown—we had so many cases. And, he told me that he believed that the deceased's brother had the sawed off shot-gun.

Q Who told you this?

A Mr. Martinez.

Q What?

A That the deceased's brother had the sawed off shotgun. So, I went to the deceased's brother and I spoke to him and he said he don't have no notice of the gun.

Q Did Mr. Martinez tell you that he thought the deceased's brother had the shotgun during the same conversation when he made this confession to you?

A That's correct, yes.

Q And you went and spoke to the brother?

A That's correct.

Q And, the brother said he knows nothing about the shotgun?

A That is also correct.

Q Other than that, did you conduct any other investigation based upon what he told you?

A No, I didn't conduct no investigation.

(Tr. 13-14).

Brown testified that Vigo's account of the confession was essentially ignored:

Q Now, after Officer Vigo gave you that information about the confession, did you conduct any subsequent investigation based on that information that Vigo gave to you?

A No, Sir.

....

THE COURT: Did you direct anyone else to do any investigation?

THE WITNESS: I discussed the case with two other officers who were assigned to the murder with me, Officer Zurita and Officer Calito Rodriquez. They were both assisting me. I discussed the information with them.

Q Did you request either of them to make any investigation based on that confession?

A No, sir.

Q You're saying you don't know or they did not?

A I don't know.

Q Were you the case agent in charge of this case?

A Yes, sir.

Q As the case agent, if there is any investigation, are you the one that would be advised of that investigation?

A Yes, sir, if we received information that we consider authentic information, we will conduct an investigation into it.

THE COURT: Well—excuse me. As the case agent, would it be improbable or probable that having told Zurita and Rodriquez about it that they would do something on their own without any direction from you?

THE WITNESS: That would be improbable, sir.

BY MR. REICH:

Q Did Zurita or Rodriquez ever come back to you and say they ever did additional investigation of what you told them?

A They got back to me, if I remember, within a day or two and they thought the information was erroneous.

Q Do you know whether or not they had conducted an investigation based on that information?

A No, sir, I don't know. I think this is just during the discussion or it was tossing it around. And, we all left stating that we'd think about it and later on, they came back to me and said they thought the information was erroneous. And, I did, too, at the time.

THE COURT: What information are you speaking about, Gomez's shotgun?

THE WITNESS: No, the information obtained from Officer Vigo himself.

THE COURT: You thought Vigo was giving you bad information?

THE WITNESS: Yes, sir.²

(Tr. 35-37)

Jones testified to the same effect:

Q And, are you aware of any investigation that was conducted based on the confession that was supposedly given to Oscar Vigo? Are you aware of any investigation that was done based upon that confession?

A At the time I was not aware that anything had been done. The only thing I found out recently is Officer Vigo said he did talk to the brother of the deceased and asked him about a shotgun and was told that he had no shotgun.

Q And, when did you acquire that information?

A Yesterday, I believe.

Q Other than that, are you aware of any other investigation that was conducted based on the alleged statement that Martinez made to Vigo?

A No, I'm not aware of any.

(Tr. 66-67)

We conclude that the prosecution derived no exculpatory evidence from the confession.

C) What was the extent of the prosecutor's knowledge of the confession ?

It is undisputed that Brown first told Jones about the confession after Martinez was sentenced. Vigo testified:

Q Now, after Mr. Martinez—and, you said this was four days before the trial that he gave this information to you?

A Yes. That's correct. Four days prior to the trial.

Q Did you ever convey this information to anybody else?

A I told Detective Brown— at the time that was my partner, who was in charge of investigation, that Mr. Martinez has confessed to me about the incident and he would like to talk with him because he want to enter a plea bargain.

Q Okay. Did you tell Detective Brown the details of what Mr. Martinez told you?

A The following morning I told Mr. Brown about the confession that Mr. Martinez had made to me.

Q Did you tell him the details that Mr. Martinez told you?

A Every detail.

Q Did you ever tell anyone else about Mr. Martinez's confession?

A No, just Mr.—Detective Brown.

Q Did you ever tell— are you

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