State v. Jimenez

• Decision Date: 29 June 2022
• Docket Number: 2019-68-C.A., P1/12-3389A
• Citation: 276 A.3d 1258
• Parties: STATE v. Christopher JIMENEZ.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

276 A.3d 1258

STATE

v.Christopher JIMENEZ.

No. 2019-68-C.A.

P1/12-3389A

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

June 29, 2022

Christopher R. Bush, Department of Attorney General, for State.

Stefanie DiMaio Larivee, Esq., for Defendant.

Present: Suttell, C.J., Goldberg, Robinson, Lynch Prata, and Long, JJ.

Justice Long, for the Court.

The defendant, Christopher Jimenez (defendant or Mr. Jimenez), appeals from a Superior Court judgment of conviction and commitment for one count of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree child abuse stemming from the abuse and death of his five-week-old daughter. On appeal, Mr. Jimenez contends that the trial justice erred by denying his motions (1) to suppress a statement alleged to have resulted from an arrest made without probable cause, in violation of the United States and Rhode Island Constitutions; (2) to dismiss the indictment as vague, in violation of the United States and Rhode Island Constitutions; and (3) for new trial based on the state's alleged failure to prove the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

For the reasons stated herein, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.

Facts and Procedural History

In December 2012 Mr. Jimenez was indicted on three counts relating to the abuse and death of his infant daughter, Christina Jimenez (baby Christina). Count one alleged that Mr. Jimenez murdered baby Christina in the second degree, in violation of G.L. 1956 §§ 11-23-1 and 11-23-2. Count two alleged that Mr. Jimenez committed first-degree child abuse against the infant by infliction of serious bodily injury, in violation of G.L. 1956 § 11-9-5.3(b)(1), (d), (e), and (f).¹ Count three alleged that Mr. Jimenez committed a second count of child abuse against the infant by inflicting serious bodily injury, in violation of § 11-9-5.3(b)(2), (d), (e), and (f).

Prior to trial, defendant moved to suppress a formal statement he gave to the Providence police during the investigation into the abuse and subsequent death of baby Christina. The trial justice heard testimony and ultimately denied the motion to suppress. The defendant also moved to dismiss the indictment as unconstitutionally vague, a motion that the trial justice also denied after a hearing on the matter. A bench trial was subsequently held over eight days in October 2016. The evidence at trial revealed the following tragic facts.

Mr. Jimenez was the father of baby Christina, and her mother was Mayra Gonzalez (Mayra).² Mr. Jimenez and Mayra had a first child, a boy, who was two months old when Mayra became pregnant with baby Christina.

Mayra testified that when she was about five months pregnant with baby Christina, she and Mr. Jimenez were evicted from the apartment they had maintained for about a year. She, defendant, and their infant son moved to an apartment on Congress Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island, with Mayra's parents, Maures and Alejandhina Gonzalez,³ and Mayra's three teenaged siblings.

It was a crowded living situation. Mayra, Mr. Jimenez, and their infant son shared one room. Mayra, Alejandhina, and Maures each testified consistently that defendant was very unhappy and isolated during the period leading up to and immediately following baby Christina's birth. They each testified that defendant spent most of his time in the couple's bedroom, and that defendant did not have a strong relationship with the Gonzalez family. Alejandhina further testified that Mayra and defendant fought with some frequency. Mayra testified that defendant did not have a vehicle or a job, though Alejandhina and Maures testified that he sometimes left the apartment to go visit his own brother and sister.

On May 10, 2012, Mayra gave birth to a healthy baby girl, baby Christina, at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island.

Doctors discharged mother and baby two days later, with no complications.

However, at 4:26 a.m. on June 20, 2012, just five weeks after baby Christina was born, Mayra placed a 911 call reporting that baby Christina was not breathing. Mayra testified she had gone to bed at around 10 p.m. after feeding baby Christina and changing her diaper. She awoke early the next morning to see baby Christina on defendant's lap; Mayra described baby Christina as visibly dizzy and wobbly, with white "goo" coming out of her mouth. The defendant told Mayra he had dropped the infant; it was then that Mayra called for help. By the time she was outside waiting for an ambulance, baby Christina had stopped breathing.

Lieutenant Dennis Tucker, a firefighter and cardiac-level emergency medical technician employed by the Providence Fire Department, testified at trial that he arrived at the Congress Avenue apartment with his team, just five minutes after dispatch, to find Mayra on the street holding baby Christina and waiting for the rescue. Lieutenant Tucker took baby Christina and assessed that she was in full cardiac arrest

; he began breaths and infant chest compressions. The rescue team transported baby Christina and her parents to Hasbro Children's Hospital (Hasbro), continuing compressions and ventilation throughout the ambulance ride. While in transport, Lt. Tucker further observed that baby Christina's pupils were fixed and dilated, indicating to him that she had suffered a head trauma.

Christine Barron, M.D. testified as an expert witness and as one of the physicians who cared for baby Christina during the infant's time at Hasbro. Doctor Barron testified that when baby Christina arrived at Hasbro, she presented in full respiratory cardiac arrest

. The infant was taken to a trauma room, where doctors resuscitated her heart by intubating her with an endotracheal tube. To ensure proper placement of the endotracheal tube, doctors ordered a chest x-ray, taken at 4:58 a.m. Radiologists immediately noted that baby Christina had at least ten rib fractures and a fracture to her left clavicle.

Mayra testified that, soon after their arrival at the hospital, doctors spoke with her to ascertain what had happened. She reported to the doctors that defendant had dropped baby Christina and that the baby had hit a table in descent and then hit the floor.

Doctor Barron testified that the physicians subsequently ordered CT scans

of baby Christina's head and abdomen, along with other films and labs. The CT scan of baby Christina's head, taken at 5:32 a.m., showed that baby Christina had suffered significant head trauma—multiple fractures of her skull and swelling resulting from an injury to her brain. Doctors transported baby Christina to the Hasbro Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for continued care, where she remained on life support. She had no pupillary reflex and no gag reflex: Her brain was unresponsive. Baby Christina never regained consciousness.

In the immediate aftermath of baby Christina's hospitalization, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families and the Providence Police Department began investigating the circumstances surrounding baby Christina's injuries. DCYF child protective investigator McKayla Dolan and Providence Police Department Detective Nancy Santopadre each testified at trial about the parallel investigations.

During the investigations, Mayra and defendant were separately transported to the Providence police station to give formal statements. Detective Santopadre testified at a pretrial hearing on defendant's motion to suppress that, while the parents waited at the police station, she arrived at the police station and marshaled the information at her disposal, speaking to fellow investigators, a representative of the attorney general's office, and the Hasbro physicians. Significantly, Det. Santopadre learned from the Hasbro physicians that baby Christina had sustained more than a dozen rib fractures

, a clavicle fracture, a pelvic fracture, a lacerated liver, and four skull fractures, and that she had a scar on her chin. The detective also learned that the story Mayra and Mr. Jimenez had maintained until that point was not consistent with baby Christina's actual injuries: The injuries were far more extensive than could be produced by a fall, and the injury to baby Christina's brain at the time of admittance was several hours older than had been reported by the parents.

Detective Santopadre testified that, at that point, she determined that Mr. Jimenez was a suspect in a crime. Detective Santopadre joined defendant in an interview room, informed him that the police suspected him to have committed child abuse, and read him his Miranda rights.⁴ The defendant waived his rights, and he gave a formal interview in which he attempted to explain as accidents the numerous injuries baby Christina had sustained. After the interview, Mr. Jimenez was placed under arrest and charged with child abuse.

On July 7, 2012, baby Christina was taken off life support. She died that same day.

At trial, the state presented two expert witnesses to provide medical evidence, including Dr. Barron. Christina Stanley, M.D., the state medical examiner who performed the autopsy on baby Christina in July 2012, provided expert testimony at trial that confirmed Dr. Barron's testimony and provided more details. The medical evidence showed that baby Christina's injuries were catastrophic: During the little more than five short weeks in which baby Christina was alive and conscious, she had endured dozens of inflicted injuries—injuries that culminated in a head trauma

dealt in the early-morning hours of June 20, 2012.

The medical evidence established that baby Christina had sustained four skull fractures

: one on her right frontal bone, one on her left parietal bone, and two on her right parietal bone. Further, she had sustained an injury to the brain itself, evidenced by significant edema, or swelling, of the brain, as well as a subdural hemorrhage (bleeding from the vessels on the surface of the brain), retinal hemorrhages (bleeding of the retinas), and two instances of retinoschisis (tearing of the retinal tissues from each other) of the right eye. The head trauma...