Ruvalcaba v. Chandler
| Decision Date | 20 July 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-1741.,04-1741. |
| Citation | 416 F.3d 555 |
| Parties | Alejandro RUVALCABA, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Nedra CHANDLER, Warden, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Carl P. Clavelli (Argued), Chicago, IL, for Petitioner-Appellant.
Ira Kohlman (Argued), Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Respondent-Appellee.
Before RIPPLE, EVANS and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
An Illinois jury convicted Alejandro Ruvalcaba of the first degree murder and attempted murder of rival gang members. He unsuccessfully appealed to the Appellate Court of Illinois. The Supreme Court of Illinois later denied review. He then timely filed a petition for federal habeas relief. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In that petition, he asserted, among other matters, that his confession was involuntary and that he had been unduly prejudiced by prosecutorial misconduct. The district court denied his petition on the ground that the state court's decision was neither contrary to nor an unreasonable application of federal law. The district court granted a certificate of appealability with respect to the involuntary confession issue, and a certificate was issued on the prosecutorial misconduct claim after the case was docketed in this court. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
When he was sixteen years old, Mr. Ruvalcaba, together with two other members of the Latin Kings gang, Juan Meneses and Juan Alvarez, encountered rival La Raza gang members, Carlos Flores, Hiram Martinez and Luis Sanchez. This confrontation took place in a Chicago alley on November 7, 1994. Earlier in the day, someone had broken a window on Meneses' car, an act of vandalism that he attributed to La Raza. Meneses and Mr. Ruvalcaba were both armed. The two groups exchanged gang signs. According to the La Raza survivors, Meneses and Mr. Ruvalcaba drew their firearms; Flores, Martinez and Sanchez attempted to run away. According to Mr. Ruvalcaba, Meneses and Flores began shooting at each other, and he joined in. Regardless of who initiated the altercation, Meneses and Mr. Ruvalcaba both fired. The latter testified that he fired only one round towards a fence in the direction of the fleeing rivals. Martinez was killed in this exchange of gunfire.
A police investigation indicated Mr. Ruvalcaba's involvement, and two officers went to his residence. Mr. Ruvalcaba's brother informed them that he was not there. The officers left, arrested Alvarez and Meneses, and then returned. No one answered the door at Mr. Ruvalcaba's residence so the officers left a business card. They learned that Mr. Ruvalcaba had a girlfriend, Diana Caguana, and they arrested Mr. Ruvalcaba at her residence at approximately 11:30 p.m. The police then returned to Mr. Ruvalcaba's residence to notify his parents of his arrest, but, when officers arrived there, no one was home and their business card remained in the door.
Mr. Ruvalcaba was placed in a police-station interview room and read his Miranda rights by the interrogating officers, Detectives William Moser and Albert Graf. A youth officer was not present initially, but one later arrived and was in the room during a brief conversation in which Mr Ruvalcaba denied knowing anything about Martinez's murder. Detective Moser sent officers a second time to locate Mr. Ruvalcaba's parents, but again the officers were unsuccessful. Mr. Ruvalcaba participated in a lineup with Alvarez and Meneses just after midnight. Thereafter, Mr. Ruvalcaba was returned to the interview room; Detective Moser testified that he checked on the suspect through the night and asked Mr. Ruvalcaba whether he was hungry or needed to use the restroom. Detective Graf testified that he purchased food for Mr. Ruvalcaba and the other suspects at approximately 3 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
Diana Caguana, Mr. Ruvalcaba's girlfriend, along with the couple's infant child, arrived at the station sometime that morning. At approximately 9 a.m., Detective Moser and a youth officer were present while the assistant state's attorney, Thomas Biesty, again issued Miranda warnings and questioned Mr. Ruvalcaba. He denied knowledge of the murder. At approximately 10 a.m., Detective Moser took a picture of Caguana and the baby; the detective testified that he took the picture at Mr. Ruvalcaba's request to prove to Mr. Ruvalcaba that Caguana was present at the station, but Mr. Ruvalcaba denies knowing that she was there. Detective Moser testified that he allowed Caguana to speak to Mr. Ruvalcaba at 11 a.m. Mr. Ruvalcaba denies that the visit took place. Indeed, Mr. Ruvalcaba testified that Detective Moser showed him the picture of Caguana and the baby, and told him to confess or Detective Moser would R.25 at C116.
At 11:30 a.m., Assistant State's Attorney Biesty again issued the Miranda warnings to Mr. Ruvalcaba and again questioned him in the presence of Detective Moser; the parties disputed whether the youth officer was present throughout the interview. Mr. Ruvalcaba claims that he received warnings but did not waive his Miranda rights. Mr. Ruvalcaba asked what Alvarez and Meneses were saying, and Biesty showed him that his codefendants had given statements. Mr. Ruvalcaba thereafter confessed to the events in the alley and gave a statement at 12:40 p.m. He claims that Biesty pressed him to conform the statement to those already rendered by Alvarez and Meneses. However, Mr. Ruvalcaba did not have access to his codefendants' statements while giving his own. At the end of his statement, Mr. Ruvalcaba said that he had been treated well, understood his rights and had not been given promises in exchange for the statement.
Mr. Ruvalcaba was charged with first degree murder in the death of Martinez and with the attempted first degree murder of Flores and Sanchez. Before trial, he sought to suppress the confession on the grounds that the police had failed to notify his parents of his arrest, that he did not intelligently waive his right to an attorney after police told him that he did not need one and that officers coerced him into making a statement. The trial court heard testimony from the officers and Mr. Ruvalcaba and denied his suppression motion,
basing its determination on the witnesses' credibility. The court found that the officers had substantially complied with the requirements contained in the Juvenile Court Act. The court further found that [Mr. Ruvalcaba] had not been subjected to intense psychological pressures and had voluntarily given his statement after being advised of his constitutional and juvenile rights.
R.8, Ex.B (Opinion of Appellate Court of Illinois) at 9.
After the denial of his suppression motion, Mr. Ruvalcaba was tried before a jury and relied upon a claim of self-defense. The jury acquitted Mr. Ruvalcaba of the attempted murder of Sanchez, but could not reach a verdict on the other charges. He was tried a second time. The second jury found Mr. Ruvalcaba guilty of the first degree murder of Martinez and the attempted murder of Flores.
Mr. Ruvalcaba appealed to the Appellate Court of Illinois; he argued, among other grounds, that his confession was involuntary and that he had been denied due process of law because of prosecutorial misconduct during the assistant state's attorneys' closing arguments. The court affirmed his conviction in an unpublished opinion. R.8, Ex.B.
The appellate court rejected Mr. Ruvalcaba's contention that the trial court erred in denying the motion to suppress his confession. Mr. Ruvalcaba had sought suppression on the ground that he had been questioned without his parents present and had made a statement under coercion. Considering the totality of the circumstances and taking special care because Mr. Ruvalcaba was a minor, the court noted that certain factors, such as Mr. Ruvalcaba's age, his lack of experience with the criminal justice system, and the alleged threats against his girlfriend and child, supported a determination of involuntariness.
On the other hand, the appellate court continued, several factors supported the conclusion that Mr. Ruvalcaba's statement was voluntary. Notably, he had raised the alleged threats for the first time on appeal and never had mentioned the threats in his statement or trial testimony; he had offered no evidence to corroborate his claim to have been psychologically or physically coerced; he had been fed and was allowed to use the restroom, and he said in his statement that he had been treated well by the police; he acknowledged at every stage that he understood his rights; he did not have access to any codefendants' statements when giving his confession and had not argued at trial that he was forced to change his statement to conform with the statements of the other arrestees. Moreover, the appellate court noted certain personal traits of Mr. Ruvalcaba that indicated that his statement had not been involuntary. For example, he was a high school student of at least average apparent intelligence and was an admitted gang member who was presumably "streetwise." R.8, Ex.B at 21.
The court also noted that, although Mr. Ruvalcaba was detained for up to thirteen hours, he was interrogated only three times, for intervals ranging from only a few seconds to forty-five minutes. The appellate court finally determined that the police had complied with Illinois' Juvenile Court Act by calling a youth officer shortly before Mr. Ruvalcaba arrived at the station and by making a "reasonable attempt to notify" Mr. Ruvalcaba's parents. 705 ILCS 405/5-405. The appellate court accordingly held that the totality of...
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