Maldonado v. State, 2000-KA-00076-COA.

• Citation: 796 So.2d 247
• Decision Date: 24 July 2001
• Docket Number: No. 2000-KA-00076-COA.,2000-KA-00076-COA.
• Parties: Lilliana MALDONADO, Appellant v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Mississippi

796 So.2d 247

Lilliana MALDONADO, Appellant v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2000-KA-00076-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

July 24, 2001.

Rehearing Denied September 25, 2001.

Ross R. Barnett Jr., Jackson, for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Deirdre McCrory, for Appellee.

Before SOUTHWICK, P.J., BRIDGES, and LEE, JJ.

BRIDGES, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Lilliana Maldonado was indicted by a grand jury in Rankin County, Mississippi, for possession of more than thirty grams of cocaine in violation of Miss.Code Ann. § 41-29-139. Following a jury trial, Maldonado was convicted on the possession charge. She was subsequently sentenced to thirty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Maldonado filed a motion for new trial before the lower court, which was denied. She is now before this Court appealing from that judgment, citing the following issues for our consideration:

1. Whether the lower court erred in failing to suppress evidence seized as a result of an illegal stop, search and seizure?

2. Whether the lower court erred in disallowing the introduction into evidence of the contents of Maldonado's purse?

3. Whether the jury verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence?

4. Whether the lower court erred in allowing an alternate juror to deliberate with the other jurors at the completion of the trial?

5. Whether cumulative error requires reversal?

6. Whether the sentence of thirty years in prison was grossly disproportional and unconstitutional?

FACTS

¶ 2. On March 4, 1999, Rankin County Deputy Shannon Penn was sitting in his parked patrol car on Interstate 20, at approximately the sixty-three mile marker. Penn testified that he saw a white Dodge Intrepid pass by him and noticed that the driver was riding the brakes and continued to do so for approximately a mile. Penn cited this as strange behavior which prompted him to catch up to the car in his own vehicle. Penn further testified that he then observed the Intrepid, pulled in front of it and began to slow to approximately sixty-eight miles per hour, two miles per hour below the speed limit. According to Penn, the car would not pass him when he slowed down.

¶ 3. Penn stated that he then observed the Intrepid run over the shoulder of the road. Following that occurrence, Penn radioed in to the dispatcher to inquire about the vehicle and to inform the dispatcher that he would be involved in a traffic stop with this vehicle at the next available exit. He gave the dispatcher the license tag number on the Intrepid. The dispatcher informed him that the car was a rental car. At that time, Penn turned on his lights and pulled the Intrepid over citing "improper lane usage." After stopping the Intrepid, Penn got out of his patrol car and walked around to speak to the driver, Roy Esparza. Esparza informed Penn that he was handicapped and Penn noted that the rental car was equipped with handicap controls. The passenger riding with Esparza was Maldonado. ¶ 4. Penn warned Esparza about the manner in which he had seen him driving and asked Esparza for his license and registration. Esparza confirmed to Penn that he was driving a rental car and handed him the rental agreement. Penn testified that Esparza seemed very nervous and never made eye contact with Penn. Esparza told Penn that he was driving to Alabama to visit relatives. Penn stated that the situation appeared strange to him and he asked Esparza if he could search the car. Esparza agreed and Penn gave Esparza a search consent form to sign, stating that it was permissible with Esparza that Penn search the entire vehicle. Penn testified that he explained the consent form to Esparza before asking him to sign it and that he filled in some of the blanks on the form for Esparza, such as Esparza's name and the make of the vehicle. Penn then asked Esparza to execute the consent form at the bottom.

¶ 5. The consent form provided that Esparza could refuse a search of the car and also that, once Penn began the search, Esparza could stop him at any time. Esparza executed the form, allowing Penn to search the rental vehicle. The first place that Penn searched was the trunk of the car. Upon opening the trunk, he found that there was a wheel chair and other handicap equipment. In addition, Penn found two duffle bags which he proceeded to investigate. Penn found a substance in the bags that was later determined to be cocaine. Penn then radioed for back-up.

¶ 6. While waiting for his back-up, Penn read Esparza and Maldonado their Miranda rights. After other officers arrived on the scene, Maldonado was taken into custody and Esparza was asked by the officers to follow Penn to the sheriff's department in the rental car. Upon arriving at the police station, officers with the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Assistance Program (HIDTA) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) were present. While Penn was retrieving the cocaine from the trunk of Esparza's rented vehicle, the officers from the HIDTA and the DEA were speaking with Esparza and Maldonado. After Esparza had been informed that he would be transported to the county jail, Esparza asked Penn if he would get some of his personal things from the rental car to take with him.

¶ 7. Esparza described a bag with his personal items to Penn and Penn agreed to get it for him. In looking through the rental car to find the bag Esparza had requested, Penn noticed five suitcases in the back seat of the car with two stuffed animals sitting on top of them. Penn tried to push one of the suitcases over in an effort to find the bag Esparza wanted and when he did so, he found the suitcase to be "tremendously heavy." Penn testified that he unzipped the suitcase to see if Esparza's bag was possibly inside and when he looked inside the suitcase, he found more of the substance later found to be cocaine. Penn then looked in the other suitcases and confirmed that they all contained large amounts of this substance. It was later determined that there was a total of 716 pounds of cocaine packed in the rental car.

¶ 8. Esparza admitted to knowingly trafficking the cocaine, stating that he was short on cash and needed the money. The State offered Esparza a plea bargain wherein the State would recommend a sentence of eleven years instead of thirty in exchange for Esparza's testimony in Maldonado's case. Esparza agreed to the plea bargain. He testified at Maldonado's trial that, while in a bar in Houston, Texas, he met a man known as "Maestro" who offered him the trafficking job. Esparza stated that he and Maestro then formed a plan wherein Esparza would meet Maestro at a certain location on March 2, 1999. Maestro provided Esparza with the rental car equipped with handicap controls and instructed him to check into a certain hotel. Maestro then promised to meet Esparza back at his hotel later that night.

¶ 9. Esparza testified that Maestro did, in fact, return to Esparza's hotel room late that night and that he brought Maldonado with him. Esparza stated that Maestro and Maldonado then proceeded to place the luggage containing the cocaine in the rental car, afterwards placing the two stuffed animals on top. Esparza testified that Maestro told him to listen to Maldonado's instructions because she had made the same trip before and she knew what to do. Maestro then checked Esparza out of the hotel while Esparza waited in the rental car, and Esparza and Maldonado departed on their journey.

¶ 10. Esparza and Maldonado traveled to Dallas where Esparza got onto Interstate 20 East. Esparza testified that, when the two stopped at a gas station, Maldonado pumped and paid for the gas, then she made a phone call to someone whom Esparza believed to be Maestro. According to Esparza, Maldonado told him that Maestro was on the same route, but far ahead of them and that her husband was also traveling the same route two to three hours ahead, supposedly looking out for any possible trouble with the police. Esparza stated that during the trip, Maldonado was instructing him as to what story they would tell the police if anything were to happen and they were to get caught. According to Esparza's testimony, Esparza was to say that he had picked Maldonado up in Houston and was giving her a ride to New York to look for her nephew.

¶ 11. In fact, that is exactly what Maldonado told the police when the two were apprehended by Penn. Maldonado still maintains that this version of the events which took place that day is the correct version and that she had never met Esparza before he picked her up in Houston. She further asserts that she has never known or had contact with anyone known by the name of Maestro. Maldonado's common law husband, Pablo Lozano, was called to the stand at Maldonado's trial as well. He testified that he had been living with Maldonado for eight or nine years and could verify that neither he nor Maldonado ever knew Maestro. Lozano also testified that Maldonado was not involved in the planning of any such drug trafficking scheme and had never done anything like this before. He also stated that, at the time that Esparza says Maldonado was at his hotel packing the rental car, she was actually at the bus station looking into a ride to New York to visit relatives.

¶ 12. Maldonado asserts that Esparza has made up his own version of the events implicating her in order to take the State's deal and lessen his prison sentence by telling them what they wanted to hear about her. She claims none of Esparza's story is true. Maldonado maintains that she needed a ride to New York and that Esparza offered her one, and that is the extent of what happened. She stated that she knew nothing about a plan to traffic the cocaine found in the rental car and that further, she had no idea that the cocaine was even in the car from the time she accepted the ride from Esparza until Penn found it upon searching the car.

¶ 13. After Esparza and Maldonado were arrested and...