People v. Madrigal
| Docket Number | H046577 |
| Decision Date | 06 July 2023 |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. JOEL MADRIGAL, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Santa Clara County Super. Ct. No. C1359219 Trial Judges: The Honorable Griffin M. J. Bonini The Honorable Helen E Williams The Honorable Eric S. Geffon
Attorneys for Defendant and Appellant JOEL MADRIGAL: Cliff Gardner, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, and Daniel Buffington for Defendant and Appellant
Attorneys for Plaintiff and Respondent THE PEOPLE: Rob Bonta Attorney General of California, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Pulos and Joseph Christian Anagnos, Deputy Attorneys General
Defendant Joel Madrigal was among a group of four or five males who got out of a van and attacked a man on a sidewalk. The attackers beat the man, robbed him, and returned to the van for their escape. One of the attackers stabbed the victim with a knife multiple times during the attack, and he died soon thereafter. A jury found Madrigal guilty of first degree murder and second degree robbery but acquitted him of participation in a criminal street gang and found gang allegations not true. The trial court imposed an aggregate term of 100 years to life consecutive to 12 years in prison.
Among other claims, Madrigal contends the retroactive application of Senate Bill No. 1437, which added elements to the definition of felony murder, requires us to reverse the first degree murder conviction. Madrigal further contends that after defense counsel subpoenaed audio recordings of the van driver's jailhouse phone calls, the trial court erred by refusing to review the calls or release them to the defense.
For the reasons below, we conclude these claims are meritorious. We will reverse the judgment, vacate the first degree murder conviction, conditionally reverse the robbery conviction, and remand for further proceedings.
In January 2013, Madrigal and three or four other men got out of a van and attacked Donald Harvey on the sidewalk. One of the attackers stabbed Harvey multiple times, killing him. The men stole $25 to $30 from Harvey and returned to the van for their escape. Alicia Pacheco, Madrigal's girlfriend at the time, was driving the van. The prosecution alleged Madrigal and the other attackers were active participants in the Norteno criminal street gang.
Harvey's body, surrounded by blood, was found on the side of Southside Drive in a residential area of San Jose. Victor Vazquez witnessed the attack from his property across the street. He was standing outside with a friend when he heard some yelling and screaming from across the street. Vazquez saw a group of four or five men hitting and kicking a man while holding him against the front grill of a vehicle parked on the street. It looked to Vazquez like all four or five of the attackers were kicking and throwing punches at the man. Some of them took turns holding the man. The man was screaming and trying to get away from them. Vazquez never saw any weapons.
Vazquez and his friend started to approach the attackers while yelling, "Hey," to move them away from the man being attacked. The attackers ran away, and the man, who had been leaning against the front of the parked vehicle, dropped to the ground. Vazquez asked the man if he was okay, but the man did not respond. When Vazquez saw blood on the ground, he called 911. Vazquez then saw a van driving away from the area. He did not recognize any of the attackers, and he could not see their faces well enough to describe them to the police.
Two of Harvey's friends testified that they were drinking with him at a nearby liquor store shortly before the attack. Harvey, who had some cupcakes and a drink with him, left on foot to drop the items off somewhere while the two friends stayed at the liquor store. Five or ten minutes later, one of the two friends spotted four men beating up Harvey down the street about a block and a half away. The two friends ran down the street to defend Harvey, but the attackers ran away before the friends could get there. They stayed with Harvey and tried to talk to him while another man called 911. One of the two friends saw a green van driving by. Someone inside the van opened a door, four men hopped into it, and the van drove away. The friend heard the attackers yell "Norte" twice as the van was driving away. The friend testified that Harvey had had money on him. The friend testified that he did not see any of the attackers going through Harvey's pants pockets, but two pockets were "sticking out" or "looked into."
When the police arrived, Harvey was lying on the sidewalk, and he was unresponsive with a large amount of blood coming from his body. Police found a screwdriver and a cord lock on the ground, and crime scene photos showed four or five coins lying in the gutter.
Various maps showed the surrounding area. The southwest end of Southside Drive stops at Monterey Street in a T-shaped intersection. From there, Southside Drive continues northeast in a straight line and intersects with Hope Street. Harvey's body was found on the side of Southside Drive near the intersection of Hope Street. Continuing another block northeast, Southside Drive intersects with Water Street.
After canvassing residences in the area for video cameras, police obtained two videos recorded at the time of the assault. A video with a time stamp around the time of the attack showed a van consistent with Pacheco's van pausing momentarily on Water Street at an intersection south of Southside Drive before proceeding south. A second video with a time stamp beginning just prior to the time of the attack was recorded from two cameras at a guard shack on Southside Drive across from Hope Street. The video images were too dark to show the details of the vehicles that appear in them, but the lights from various vehicles could be seen as the vehicles drove back and forth on Southside Drive. One portion of the video showed a set of vehicle lights traveling eastbound on Southside Street. A detective testified that the shape of that vehicle was "consistent with the shape or silhouette of a van" and that it had "lighting configurations consistent with" Pacheco's van. The video also showed the silhouettes of four persons walking westbound on Southside Drive, followed by the silhouette of at least one person running eastbound on Southside Drive about 40 seconds later. One set of vehicle lights in the video was consistent with a vehicle turning into Hope Street and waiting for about a minute before turning back onto Southside Drive, but the video images were obscured by headlight glare from one or more vehicles.
As the prosecution played the videos for the jury, a detective described their contents. The detective testified that "based on the interviews" of the witnesses he had done, the videos show a van turning onto Hope Street, making a U-turn, waiting for some time, and then driving eastbound down Southside Drive. As to the vehicle turning onto Hope Street, the detective testified, The videos were not detailed or accurate enough to identify any of the persons walking or running by. On cross-examination, the detective conceded that the quality of the video taken from the guard shack on Southside Drive was "not the best."
An autopsy of Harvey's body showed he had suffered five stab wounds, as well as multiple abrasions on the face resulting from blunt force. A forensic pathologist for the prosecution testified that Harvey died as the result of blood loss through a stab wound in the back of his left thigh severing the femoral artery. The fatal wound was five and a half inches deep, an inch and a half long, and the artery was completely severed. The wound was "oblique, linear, had a sharp upper end, it had a wide, blunt lower end." None of the five stab wounds could have been inflicted by the screwdriver that was found at the scene. The forensic pathologist testified it was possible that all five wounds were inflicted with the same knife, and while it was likely that four of them were inflicted with the same knife, one of the wounds (not the fatal wound) was an "odd duck" that was "very different" from the others. As to whether it was likely the same knife was used to inflict that wound, he testified that the wound was "too different." He added, "I can't say it's impossible, but it's a very different wound." A forensic pathologist for the defense testified that she could not determine whether the wounds were caused by more than one knife.
In May 2013, Madrigal told the police he had information about the attack. In a video recorded interview, Madrigal stated he was in the van with several other people when four males got out to rob someone. Madrigal described the person who did the stabbing as a 16- or 17-year-old "little kid" who went to Andrew Hill High School.[1] He was about five feet and eight inches tall with long dark hair, and he weighed about 140 or 150 pounds. The stabber was bragging about it.
Madrigal identified two of the other males as "Temper" (later identified as Alex Barrientos) and "Boogie" (later identified as Ceasar Torres). He could not recall the name of the third male, but he thought it was something like "Enrique", "Enrico", or "Emilio" (later identified as Enrique Martinez). Madrigal said some of the males were "associated with" a Northerner gang called Feldspar. The males "cliqued up with Feldspar" or "chill...
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