Prieto v. Dretke
| Decision Date | 07 July 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. SA-01-CA-1145-OG.,SA-01-CA-1145-OG. |
| Citation | 386 F.Supp.2d 767 |
| Parties | Arnold PRIETO, TDCJ No. 999149, Petitioner, v. Douglas DRETKE, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Texas |
J. Scott Sullivan, Attorney at Law, Richard Emil Langlois, Langlois & Snyder, San Antonio, TX, for Petitioner.
Edward L. Marshall, Assistant Attorney General, Austin, TX, for Respondent.
Petitioner Arnold Prieto filed this federal habeas corpus action pursuant to Title 28 U.S.C. Section 2254 challenging his March, 1995, Bexar County capital murder conviction and sentence of death. For the reasons set forth below, petitioner is not entitled to federal habeas corpus relief but is entitled to a Certificate of Appealability on a pair of legal issues.
There is no genuine dispute as to the operative facts concerning petitioner's offense. On Sunday afternoon, September 12, 1993, Maria Luisa Rodriguez visited the home of her mother-in-law and father-in-law, Virginia and Rodolfo Rodriguez, where she discovered the bloody, lifeless, bodies of both her elderly in-laws, along with the body of their houseguest, ninety-year-old Paula "Lupita" Moran.1 Autopsies revealed that each victim had been stabbed numerous times and had received multiple, potentially fatal, injuries.2 Examination of the crime scene yielded no sign of forced entry but clear indications that a padlock on a front bedroom closet door had been opened by force.3
Acting in response to a series of anonymous tips from a female Crime Stoppers caller in the months following the murders, on March 3, 1994, law enforcement officers interviewed Jesse Hernandez, the great-nephew of Virginia Hernandez, in Carrollton, Texas.4 Based on information they obtained during that interview, law enforcement officers obtained warrants for the arrest of petitioner and Jesse Hernandez's older brother Guadalupe.5
Petitioner was arrested during the early morning hours of March 4, 1995.6 After being warned of his Miranda rights both orally and in writing, petitioner agreed to be interviewed by law enforcement officers in connection with the murders.7
At the conclusion of his interview, petitioner executed a five-page voluntary statement in which he admitted, in pertinent part, that (1) in the weeks prior to the murders, Guadalupe "Lupe" Hernandez, who often furnished petitioner with cocaine, had made several comments to petitioner that he had an uncle in San Antonio who kept a large sum of money in a closet and that he (Lupe Hernandez) wanted to "get the money"; (2) on the night in question, he, Lupe Hernandez, and Lupe's brother, Jesse Hernandez, left Carrollton, Texas for San Antonio; (3) petitioner agreed to go along initially because Lupe was furnishing him with cocaine and drove his own vehicle from, Carrollton to Waco, at which point, Lupe took over driving; (4) Lupe parked the car along the curb at his uncle's house and crudely ordered petitioner to get out of the car; (5) Lupe knocked on the door and, when a female voice asked who it was, Lupe responded in Spanish "It's me aunt"; (6) a lady in her nightgown opened the door and let them in; (7) the lady offered them food and then prepared them breakfast; (8) after petitioner ate, Jesse called him into a bedroom where Lupe's uncle was sitting on the bed; (9) petitioner sat on the bed next to the uncle and then heard the lady who had cooked them breakfast scream; (10) petitioner looked into the kitchen and saw Lupe stabbing his aunt with some long object that looked like a screwdriver; (11) the lady fell to the floor between the refrigerator and table; (12) when the uncle attempted to get up, petitioner pushed and held him down; (13) Jesse then handed petitioner a screwdriver and petitioner stabbed the man "a lot of times"; (14) after petitioner stopped stabbing him, the man was the bed face down; (15) Lupe told petitioner to "move"; (16) petitioner went into the kitchen and observed the aunt laying between the kitchen and another room while Jesse entered the living room; (17) petitioner then heard a loud "pop" come from the living room; (18) petitioner then observed an old lady in a nightgown in the living room with her head propped against a wall; (19) petitioner stood in the doorway and observed as Jesse pried open a closet door with his hands, began ransacking the closet, and repeatedly yelled profanities; (20) petitioner told Jesse "let's go" and ran past the old lady in the living room, who moved; (21) petitioner then saw Jesse stab the old woman a lot of times; (22) when petitioner approached Jesse, he was cut on the hand; (23) petitioner then observed Lupe exit the bedroom where petitioner had stabbed the old man; (24) Lupe was carrying a colored purse and screwdriver; (25) during their drive to San Antonio, Lupe directed the others to put socks on their hands so as to avoid leaving fingerprints; (26) Lupe then drove then back to Carrollton while petitioner threw up and continued to use cocaine; (27) when they arrived back in Carrollton, they divided up the money and jewelry they had obtained; (28) petitioner received about a hundred dollars cash and a gold nugget ring containing a coin which bore the image of a deer on top and a gold chain with a crucifix; (29) months later, petitioner gave the gold nugget ring to a friend named Andy Nunez; (30) petitioner gave the gold chain to Andy's stepson; and (31) a few days after the murders, petitioner asked Lupe for money and Lupe gave petitioner several pieces of jewelry which petitioner pawned.8
Law enforcement officer later obtained a gold nugget-Kruggerand ring from Andy Nunez, which was admitted into evidence at trial as State Exhibit no. 81 and identified by members of the victims' family as belonging to Rodolfo Rodriguez.9 Nunez advised law enforcement officers that petitioner had given him the ring in question.10
On January 26, 1995, a Bexar County grand jury indicted petitioner in cause no. 95-CR-0425B in a one-Count, three-paragraph, indictment charging petitioner with having (1) intentionally and knowingly caused the deaths of both Rodolfo Rodriguez and Paula Moran during the same criminal transaction by cutting and stabbing them with a knife, screwdriver, or a weapon unknown, (2) intentionally and knowingly caused the deaths of both Rodolfo Rodriguez and Victoria Rodriguez during the same criminal transaction by cutting and stabbing them with a knife, screwdriver, or a weapon unknown, and (3) intentionally and knowingly caused the death of Rodolfo Rodriguez while in the course of committing and attempting to commit the robbery of Rodolfo Rodriguez by cutting and stabbing him with a knife, screwdriver, or a weapon unknown.11
The guilt-innocence phase of petitioner's trial commenced on March 20, 1995. After the prosecution presented the evidence outlined above, petitioner called only one witness, who testified to having seen two men whom he could not identify in a gray-primer pickup truck stop at, and enter, the Rodriguez residence shortly before midnight the night of the murders and then hurriedly leave the neighborhood about fifteen-to-twenty minutes later.12 On March 27, 1995, after deliberating less than four hours, the jury returned its verdict, finding the petitioner guilty of capital murder.13
The punishment phase of petitioner's capital murder trial commenced on March 28, 1995.
The prosecution presented several witnesses who testified that petitioner had been involved with several other persons in a theft of more than $670,000 worth of laptop computers from the warehouse of his employer in January, 1994.14 A classification officer from the Bexar County Adult Detention Center ("BCADC") testified that (1) petitioner had incurred ten disciplinary infractions during petitioner's period of pretrial detention at that facility, from March, 1994 until March, 1995, (2) petitioner's disciplinary infractions included multiple instances of possession of contraband (a torn tee shirt sleeve and food), multiple instances of refusing to obey oral orders (going upstairs when directed not to do so, conversing with others on the opposite side of the POD) and multiple instances of failing to comply with posted rules (repeatedly placing items over the light fixture in his cell, engaging in loud or boisterous behavior, entering the day room in only his under garments), (3) none of petitioner's disciplinary infractions involved violent conduct or threats of violence and all were considered minor infractions, (4) upon his admission to the BCADC, petitioner admitted to weekly cocaine use but declined to participate in a substance abuse program, (5) petitioner denied any gang affiliation, (6) the only reason petitioner was listed as a "high security" inmate was the charge against him, (7) petitioner had agreed to most of the disciplinary sanctions imposed upon him for his disciplinary infractions, and (8) petitioner had not engaged in any assaultive behavior during detention.15
However, a BCADC guard did testify about an incident on January 7, 1995 in which (1) the guard entered petitioner's cell to remove contraband, i.e., milk cartons and oranges, (2) petitioner confronted the guard as he was attempting to exit petitioner's cell and seized one of the oranges from the guard's hand, (3) petitioner then went into the day room and ate the orange, declaring to other inmates and the guard that no disciplinary case would be brought against him...
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Martinez v. Dretke
...v. Dretke, No. Civ. SA-03-CA-1084-XR, 2005 WL 1959074, at *16-18 (W.D.Tex. Aug. 16, 2005) (holding the same); Prieto v. Dretke, 386 F.Supp.2d 767, 815-16 (W.D.Tex.2005) (recognizing the constitutionally mandated narrowing function is performed at the guilt-innocence phase of a Texas capital......