People v. Morales
| Decision Date | 11 June 2019 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 1-16-0225 & 1-16-0323 (cons.),s. 1-16-0225 & 1-16-0323 (cons.) |
| Citation | 2019 IL App (1st) 160225,164 N.E.3d 1,444 Ill.Dec. 376 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ismael MORALES, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
James E. Chadd, Patricia Mysza, and Jonathan Yeasting, of State Appellate Defender's Office, of Chicago, for appellant.
Kimberly M. Foxx, State's Attorney, of Chicago (Alan J. Spellberg, Annette Collins, and Whitney Bond, Assistant State's Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.
¶ 1 Ismael Morales was convicted, along with five codefendants, of the 2007 murder and robbery of Francisco Reyes. We have decided a number of appeals involving this offense. See People v. Roman , 2016 IL App (1st) 141740, 409 Ill.Dec. 532, 67 N.E.3d 987 (); In re Omar M. , 2014 IL App (1st) 100866-B, 383 Ill.Dec. 466, 14 N.E.3d 1077 (); People v. Lopez , 2014 IL App (1st) 102938-B, 383 Ill.Dec. 512, 14 N.E.3d 1123 (); People v. Roman , 2013 IL App (1st) 102853, 371 Ill.Dec. 608, 990 N.E.2d 796 (); People v. Roman , 2013 IL App (1st) 110882, 376 Ill.Dec. 840, 1 N.E.3d 552 (); People v. Morales , 2012 IL App (1st) 101911, 359 Ill.Dec. 160, 966 N.E.2d 481 (). Here, we are concerned with Morales's appeal from the circuit court's first-stage dismissal of his postconviction petition.
¶ 2 In that petition, Morales claimed that the State violated Brady v. Maryland , 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), by failing to disclose the existence of an agreement between the State and its main witness, Francisco Garcia, for the State's assistance in Garcia's immigration matters in exchange for his trial testimony. The petition also raises a claim of actual innocence based on the affidavit of Victor Redding, who claimed to have witnessed the attack on Reyes and claimed to know that Morales was not one of the participants.
¶ 3 We find the petition makes an arguable claim of a Brady violation. We reverse the first-stage dismissal of Morales's postconviction petition and remand for second-stage proceedings consistent with the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (Act) ( 725 ILCS 5/122-1 et seq. (West 2016)).
¶ 5 Our decision in Morales's direct appeal (and the appeals in his codefendants' cases) sets out the details of the offense and the case history in detail. Morales , 2012 IL App (1st) 101911, ¶¶ 3-15, 359 Ill.Dec. 160, 966 N.E.2d 481. We reiterate only the facts necessary to understand the claims in Morales's postconviction petition.
¶ 6 At trial, Garcia and his wife, Sylvia Ortiz, testified that, in the early morning hours of December 23, 2007, they saw Morales, Daniel Roman, Martin Roman, Omar M., and Carlos Lopez congregate beneath their second-story apartment window. They watched as the group went across the street to the parking lot of a tortilla factory where the victim was driving a forklift.
¶ 7 Garcia and Ortiz saw several members of the group pull the victim off the forklift. All five of the assailants started to kick and punch the victim. During the attack, a sixth person, known to Garcia only as "Menace," arrived and joined the group. Eventually, they took the victim's billfold from his pocket.
¶ 8 Garcia testified that Martin Roman then went across the street and picked up a concrete rock and brought it back to the parking lot of the tortilla factory. He saw Martin Roman drop the rock on the victim the first time, but could not tell who did it the second time "because there are three who have [a] similar slim build." On cross-examination, Garcia described a prior statement he had given to an assistant state's attorney, asserting that Carlos dropped the rock on the victim one time and Morales dropped it another time. He also explained his involvement in Omar M.'s trial where he had testified that "[i]t was Carlos and another one [who hit the victim with the rock] which I can't identify because they were all skinny."
¶ 9 In November 2015, Morales filed this postconviction petition, claiming a violation of Brady v. Maryland , 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), for the State's failure to disclose an agreement with Garcia that the state's attorney's office would assist him in his immigration matters if he testified in the prosecutions against Morales and his codefendants. In support of his claim, Morales attached two documents: a letter from the state's attorney's office to the Immigration and Nationality Service (INS) and a transcribed voicemail from Garcia to the state's attorney's office.
¶ 10 The letter from the State to the INS reads, in its entirety:
The letter is signed by Assistant State's Attorney Andrew Varga and dated July 22, 2010.
¶ 11 The State had included the transcription of Garcia's voicemail in a January 31, 2011, supplemental answer to discovery in codefendants Martin Roman's and Adolfo Zuniga's cases. After brief prefatory language, it reads:
The transcription of the voicemail was provided by an official interpreter.
¶ 12 Morales's petition also raises a claim of actual innocence predicated on the affidavit of Victor Redding. His affidavit states that he was driving by the tortilla factory on December 23, 2007, when he saw "six young Latino males beating an older Latino male beside a forklift." Redding claimed that, as he drove by, he was able to see the faces of the assailants. In January of 2015, a jailhouse lawyer approached Redding about the case and "asked [him] to look at three or four Latinos" to see if they were the assailants. Redding averred that he was "sure that Mr. Ismael Morales was not involved in the murder/robbery." Redding's affidavit concludes by stating that he did not come forward sooner both because he was afraid of police retaliation and because he did not know Morales.
¶ 13 The circuit court summarily dismissed Morales's petition on November 15, 2015, finding the Brady claim frivolous because the jury "knew that these people were in the country illegally." As to the actual innocence claim, the court found the affidavit not "in any way compelling" and lacking credibility. Morales filed a notice of appeal. Due to some confusion about the pendency of the petition, the trial court entered an order summarily dismissing the petition again about a month later. Morales filed another notice of appeal. We granted Morales's motion to consolidate the appeals.
¶ 15 Morales contends that the letter to INS and Garcia's voicemail are evidence of an agreement for immigration assistance and that, because Morales's conviction hinged exclusively on eyewitness testimony, evidence of this deal would have been both favorable and material to his case. The State responds that the INS letter and the voicemail reveal no "deal" and that, regardless, the evidence against Morales was overwhelming. As a result, according to the State, even if a deal existed, it would not have been material to Morales's conviction.
¶ 17 The Act provides a procedure to criminal defendants to raise constitutional claims about their trial or sentencing that were not and could not have been raised on direct appeal. People v. Allen , 2015 IL 113135, ¶ 20, 392 Ill.Dec. 307, 32 N.E.3d 615. Proceedings under the Act advance through three stages. Id. ¶ 21. At the first stage, the circuit court evaluates the petition to determine...
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