Ramos-Cruz v. Carrau-Martinez

• Decision Date: 13 September 2022
• Docket Number: CIVIL 20-1589 (FAB)
• Parties: ANTONIO RAMOS-CRUZ, Petitioner, v. INES CARRAU-MARTINEZ, et als., Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

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ANTONIO RAMOS-CRUZ, Petitioner, v. INES CARRAU-MARTINEZ, et als., Respondents.

CIVIL No. 20-1589 (FAB)

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico

September 13, 2022

OPINION AND ORDER

FRANCISCO A. BESOSA, SENIOR UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Petitioner Antonio Ramos-Cruz (“Ramos”) is serving the first of three consecutive ninety-nine year term of imprisonment for the murders of Haydée Teresa Maymí-Rodríguez (“Maymí”) and her two children, Eduardo Enrique and Melissa Morales-Rodríguez (“Eduardito” and “Melissa,” respectively). See Puerto Rico v Ramos-Cruz, CR-93-43 (P.R. Super. Ct. Jan. 26, 1999) (Judgment). On October 27, 2020, Ramos filed a petition pursuant to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEPDA”), 28 U.S.C. section 2254 (“section 2254”). (Docket No. 1.) Respondents Inés Carrau-Martínez and Lorraine Martínez-Adorno (collectively “respondents”) move to dismiss Ramos' section 2254 petition pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). (Docket No. 46.) For the reasons set forth below the respondents' motion to dismiss is DENIED.

I. Background ^[1]

Maymí married Eduardo Morales-Colberg (“Morales”) in the 1980s. (Docket No. 39 at p. 42.) The couple purchased a home in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, where they lived with their young children, Eduardito and Melissa. (Docket No. 39 at p. 15.) Subsequently, Morales and Maymí separated. Id. Morales relocated, but Maymí and the children remained at the Trujillo Alto residence. Id. Neighbors later informed law enforcement officers that Morales was “jealous,” “had been stalking Maymí,” and “questioned [her] when she would go out.” Id. at pp. 2 and 14. During this timeframe, Maymí had an affair with Juan Manuel Pagán-García (known as “Juanma”). Id. at p. 2. This relationship ended, however, because Juanma was not “‘man enough' to be with Maymí.” Id. at p. 20. She had “made a fool of Juanma (‘le cogió de pendejo') and wanted another paramour (‘chillo').” Id. at p. 20.

The record does not identify who discovered the bodies, or when the Puerto Rico Police Department (“PRPD”) received notice that a triple homicide occurred at the Trujillo Alto residence. In June 1989, a person searching inside Maymi's home found her lifeless body “in an advanced state of decomposition.” Cruz, 2019 WL 2232528, at *39.

The culprits had placed her body inside a bathtub, “dressed in a sweatshirt rolled up to her breasts and green shorts, which were unbuttoned,” over pink underwear. (Docket No. 39 at p. 19.)^[2] After killing Eduardito and Melissa, the culprits hid the children's bodies inside a refrigerator and a freezer. Id. at p. 7. The victims had been stabbed to death. Id. at p. 7. A forensic pathologist noted the absence of bruising on Maymi's body. Id. at p. 7. The autopsy report revealed the presence of defensive wounds on her hands. Cruz, 2019 WL 2232528, at *31. Maymí had a shaved pubic area, “which the pathologist found rare in Puerto Rico at [that] time.” (Docket No. 39 at p. 38.) Investigators recovered human hairs from the exterior of Maymi's underwear, but no semen. Id. at pp. 19 and 25.

The PRPD investigation focused on Morales and Juanma. Id. at p. 19. A witness claimed that on the night of the murders, Maymí “ran out of the house screaming earlier in the evening that there had been a man spying on her through a window in the rear of the house.” Id. at p. 19. The day before this incident, Juanma “had gone to look for Maymí in the early morning hours . . . and honked his horn while parked in front of her house.” Id. at p. 20. Juanma informed the PRPD that “he was with his girlfriend the night of Maymi's murder,” but no attempts were made to corroborate this allegation. Id. at p. 20. Law enforcement officers arrested Juanma with a “kitchen knife in his car, a change of clothes, and a copy of El Vocero newspaper reporting on the triple murder.” Id. at p. 20. He was later released, however, and eliminated as a suspect. Id.

Teenage siblings Barbara and Jose Martínez-Maldonado (“Babi” and “Joito,” respectively) were the last persons to see Maymi alive. Id. at p. 7. Initially, they denied having any knowledge of the murders. Id. In fact, Channel 11 News interviewed Babi shortly after the crime. Id. at p. 16. She claimed to have “been with Maymi until 10:30 p.m. [,] and [that] she did not know anything else about the case.” Id.

Between June 1989 and December 1990, Puerto Rico prosecutor Andres Rodríguez-Elías (“Rodríguez”)^[3] interviewed Babi and Joito on numerous occasions. Id. at p. 20. After eighteen months of police inquiry, law enforcement officers informed Babi that “she was being charged with murdering Maymi and her two children.” Id. at p. 20 (emphasis in original). In the final moments of a fifteenhour interrogation, Babi's memory of that fateful night abruptly changed. Id. at p. 21. She provided prosecutors with a statement “placing [Ramos] and [Juan Carlos Melendez-Serrano [“Melendez”] at the scene of the crime.” Id. Prosecutors interviewed Joito the next day, “warning him that he was also suspected of the killings.” Id. After another fifteen-hour interrogation, law enforcement officers received a revised statement. Id. Like his sister, Joito suggested that Melendez and Ramos committed the triple homicide.

In 1989, Ramos was nineteen-years old and worked at the Suiza Dairy pasteurizing plant with his uncle. Id. He lived “a couple houses away from [Maymi] with his aunt, uncle and four cousins.” Id. at p. 22. The trial occurred in 1992 before the Puerto Rico Court of First Instance, Carolina Division (“Court of First Instance”). Id. at p. 21; see Pueblo de P.R. v. Ramos-Cruz, Case No. KLCE201701397. Prosecutor Rodriguez alleged that Ramos and Melendez attempted to rape Maymi, but that these two men failed to restrain and sexually assault her. Id. at p. 9; see Cruz, 2019 WL 2232528, at *37 (“[T]he transcription of the trial on the merits indicates that the sexual act was the motivation for the commission of the crime of murder.”) (Salgado-Schwarz, J.) (dissenting). After Maymi overcame her assailants, Ramos and Melendez then allegedly stabbed her and the two children repeatedly. Id. at p. 10.

This theory of the case rested predominantly on testimony provided by Babi and Joito. See Cruz, 2019 WL 2232528, at *28 (“Let us remember that [Babi and Joito] were the only two witnesses that place [Ramos and Melendez] inside [Maymi's] house, in her room, from 3:30 to 4:00 a.m. in the morning of June 26, 1989, that is, the moments that were closest in time to her time of death and that of her two children.”).

A. The Trial Evidence ^[4]

Joito claimed that at 10:30 p.m. on the night of the murders, he was at home watching a basketball game while Babi, Ramos, Melendez, and a “group of people stood in front of Maymi's house.” (Docket No. 38 at p. 21.)^[5] At approximately 1:00 or 1:30 a.m., Joito walked to Maymi's house “to look for his sister.” Id. at p. 22. He “called out to [Babi] who came out of Maymi's residence.” Id. At this juncture, Ramos and Melendez were “standing near [the] house.” Id. Joito, Ramos, and Melendez made “dumb comments” (“en forma de broma”) and “tried to come up with an excuse to go in Maymi's house.” Id. Melendez stated that he “would like to have sex with Maymi.” Id. According to Joito, Maymi left her house because Babi took her keys. She then asked Joito to look for Babi. Id.

Babi testified that “she hung out with Maymi that night starting around 7:00 p.m.” Id. The two women walked to a local bakery, where Maymi called a person nicknamed “el Prieto.” Id. Maymi and Babi returned to the former's residence. Id. Babi then “left for some time and returned to find Maymi outside talking to Melendez.” Id. “She stayed and talked to them both.” Id.

Morales arrived at Maymi's house at approximately 9:30 p.m. with Eduardito and Melissa. Id. at p. 23. Maymi, Morales and the children entered the residence. Id. Babi remained outside “talking to Melendez and [Ramos] (who had walked over around that time).” Id. According to Babi, Melendez asked her to “get Maymi's keys [inside her house] so he would have an excuse to talk to Maymi.” Id. Babi allegedly entered Maymi's house, stole her keys, evaded detection by Maymi and Morales, and “then returned to hang out outside [the] house.” Id. Ultimately, Babi returned home with Maymi's keys. Joito subsequently “found Babi, got the keys from her and returned to Maymi's house.” Id.

Joito testified that when he “gave Maymi her keys,” Ramos and Melendez were allegedly still outside her house. Id. Either Ramos or Melendez asked Maymi for a glass of water, stating that this was their “opportunity” to “deal with” her. Id. Joito avers that he then went home, but returned five minutes later and “saw Maymi's gate open and no one outside.” Id. He allegedly:

snuck into the dark first floor of Maymi's house and went up the stairs. There . . . he saw [Ramos] leaning against the wall and heard the voices of Melendez and Maymi who were inside the bedroom adjacent to the hallway . . . he did not see [Ramos] inside Maymi's room but in the hallway outside it while he heard Maymi and Melendez's voices from inside the room. Maymi said ‘[Melendez], it's late. Go home. If you want we can talk later.' But [Melendez] did not want to, and the two started arguing.

Id. at. pp. 23-24. Rather than leave, intervene, or call the police, Joito allegedly walked downstairs to “sit on Maymi's living room sofa [to] think about what they might have been arguing about upstairs.” Id. at p. 24. After Joito sat in solitude for approximately ten minutes, Babi purportedly appeared “in the dark, grabbed his arm and said ‘Let's go. We don't like this. We don't like what's going on upstairs.” Id. Joito and Babi then went home. Id. At...