Quintana v. People
| Decision Date | 20 September 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 21103,21103 |
| Parties | Alfred QUINTANA, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Defendant in Error. |
| Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
H. Malcolm Mackay, William A. Black, Denver, for plaintiff in error.
Duke W. Dunbar, Atty. Gen., Frank E. Hickey, Deputy Atty. Gen., Aurel M. Kelly, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for defendant in error.
Plaintiff in error, who will hereinafter be referred to as the defendant or Quintana, was convicted in the Denver District Court of aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery. He was sentenced from fifty to sixty years on the robbery charge, with a concurrent sentence of three to six years imposed on the conspiracy count.
The defendant was jointly charged with another person, Raymond Crespin, whose case was disposed of before Quintana's trial. Crespin, after pleading guilty, was sentenced to fifteen to thirty years in the penitentiary for his part in the robbery and conspiracy.
The testimony showed that the two men held up a grocery store. One of them was wearing a white trench coat and the other a brown tweed coat. Both men wore nylon stockings over their faces so that identification of their features was impossible, but the police were given descriptions of their wearing apparel, with the additional information that one of the holdup men--the one in the white trench coat--was 'a tall thin fellow.' A few minutes after the robbery, about four blocks from the grocery store, the police engaged in a gun battle with two men whose descriptions allegedly fitted the defendant and his alleged co-conspirator. The one wearing a white trench coat was claimed to be the defendant Quintana. He was apprehended at the scene of the shooting affray where a shot fired by one of the policemen creased his skull and where he was run over by a patrol wagon which had been called to the scene. Some articles taken from the persons of the robbery victims were found on Quintana. A policeman driving the patrol wagon testified that as he drove toward Quintana to try to cut off his escape, Quintana shot him in the head.
Quintana's defense, offered through other witnesses, was mistaken identity and a contention that he had physical infirmities which would have made it impossible for him to have committed the robbery. But he elected not to testify in his own behalf, thus precluding the possibility of any testimonial evidence getting before the jury as to the fact that he had been previously convicted of a felony. The disposition of the case against the co-conspirator Crespin was also not disclosed to the jury by any testimonial evidence during the trial. These two facts are important for a discussion of one point of error which we determine warrants reversal of the judgment.
After the jury had brought in a verdict of guilty and had been discharged, and prior to the date set for argument on the motion for new trial, counsel for defendant was apprised of the fact that on the morning before the jury had assembled to receive instructions from the court and hear final arguments of counsel, one of the jurors had read a newspaper article which contained two facts not in evidence. The lead paragraph of the article stated: 'An ex-convict could not possibly have robbed a Denver grocery store, shooting a police officer in the process, his attorney said Wednesday.' The article concluded with the paragraph: 'A co-defendant, Raymond Crespin, 22, is serving a 15 to 30 year sentence for his part in the robbery.' The article was not a factual report of the trial the day involved. The attorney had not 'on Wednesday' or any time described his client as an 'ex-convict.' Such evidence was neither offered nor received by the court and both statements were inadmissible as evidence.
Based on the foregoing, the defendant urged in his motion for a new trial and here, error because of prejudicial and inadmissible evidence within the knowledge of at least one juror during the deliberations by reason of the newspaper article. He argues inability to cure the prejudice by motion for mistrial or to otherwise free the trial from taint because of the information coming to the defendant's attention after conclusion of the trial and separation of the jury.
The matter of newspaper articles containing factual data which was obtained outside of any information revealed in the course of the trial and which was not admissible in evidence, has given rise to increasing concern by appellate courts throughout the nation.
The question has come before this court on other occasions, but not precisely under the same factual situation as disclosed by this record. But the United States Supreme Court has met the problem squarely and offers a guide to our determination. In Marshall v. United States, 360 U.S. 310, 79 S.Ct. 1171, 3 L.Ed.2d 1250, the court said:
In the Marshall case the trial judge, on learning that the news accounts had reached the jurors, summoned them into his chambers one by one and inquired of them about the article. Each of the seven jurors assured the trial judge that he would not be influenced by the three articles and that he would decide the case only on the evidence in the record and that he felt no prejudice against the petitioner as a result of the articles. The trial judge ruled that there was no prejudice to the petitioner.
Therefore, the Supreme Court, in reversing that case and ordering a new trial, has made it clear that if the article deals with information which would warrant a reversal of the case if it had been directly offered in evidence, a new trial is mandatory.
In McPhee v. People, 108 Colo. 530, 120 P.2d 814, the cause was remanded to the trial court to conduct a hearing and to determine from the facts as a matter of law what...
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Harper v. People
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