State v. Medrano, 1-702
| Decision Date | 09 November 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. 10-2090,No. 1-702,1-702,10-2090 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ELVIS CESAR MEDRANO, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Court of Appeals |
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Buena Vista County, Charles K. Borth, District Associate Judge.
Elvis Medrano appeals from his conviction of assault causing bodily injury. AFFIRMED.
Mark C. Smith, State Appellate Defender, and Robert P. Ranschau, Assistant State Appellate Defender, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Elisabeth S. Reynoldson, Assistant Attorney General, David Patton, County Attorney, and James M. McHugh, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.
Considered by Sackett, C.J., and Vaitheswaran and Tabor, JJ.
Elvis Medrano appeals from his conviction of assault causing bodily injury. He contends the court erred in denying his motion to suppress a photographic identification array as impermissibly suggestive. He also contends the evidence he was the perpetrator or that the victim suffered a bodily injury was insufficient to support the jury's verdict. We affirm.
Background Facts and Proceedings. Around midnight on October 8-9, 2010, Jason Page, a cab driver, picked up a fare in the Alta, Iowa, area and took him to Don Pepe's bar in Storm Lake. Page described the fare as a Hispanic man in his late twenties or early thirties who said his name was Elvis. Around 2:00 a.m., Page was called to pick Elvis up. Page took Elvis to La Juanita's restaurant. Elvis asked Page to return later to pick him up. Page left to pick up another fare at Buena Vista University and took him to La Juanita's. After that fare paid and left Page's cab, Page noticed a man lying on the sidewalk. Doing a double take, Page noticed Elvis either taking off or putting on his shirt. Page called to Elvis from the cab. Elvis walked over, got into the cab, and asked to return to Alta. Page asked if they could wait a minute because he had another fare for Alta, but Elvis said he needed to go because he had just knocked someone out. As they left, Page asked Elvis what had happened and Elvis replied that he had hit someone because that person was "talking smack" about Mexicans.
Nicholas Philips came out of La Juanita's to smoke a cigarette and saw two men fifteen or twenty feet away, arguing in Spanish. He turned to look in thewindow of La Juanita's and heard a punch. When he turned back, one man was lying on the ground. The other man walked toward Philips, who asked what happened. The man said the person on the ground had been talking crap about Mexicans. About that time, Page's cab arrived, Page spoke to the man who then got into the cab, and left. Philips went to help the man on the ground; others came to help, too. The man was lying on his back and there was a lot of blood from the back of his head. When a police car came by a few minutes later, Philips flagged it down. Philips explained to the officer what happened, then left for about twenty to thirty minutes.
Philips later went to the police station, where he was shown a photo array1 and identified the defendant as the man who had been arguing and who left in the cab.
As Page was driving Elvis toward Alta, the dispatcher called on the cab's radio to ask if Page had picked up a fare in front of La Juanita's. Page said yes. The dispatcher asked Page had dropped the person off yet. Page said no. The dispatcher asked where the person was going. Page said he was heading to Alta, but didn't have an address. The dispatcher asked Page if he knew the person's name. Elvis gestured to Page. Page told the dispatcher he did not know the person's name. The dispatcher then confirmed the person was still in the cab. Page said yes. Then Page heard the dispatcher speaking to the policeand telling them the person they were looking for was still in the cab. Before the cab reached Alta, Elvis told Page to stop and let him out. Elvis then walked toward a field at the back of a building. Page left and reported to the dispatcher where he had dropped Elvis off. He later went to the police station, where he was shown a photo array2 and identified the defendant as the person who had been in his cab. Page told the police he was seventy percent sure of his identification.
On October 10, police arrested Elvis Medrano. He denied having been at La Juanita's the night in question. He said he took a cab to go home in Alta, but the cab driver stopped part way there and ordered him out of the cab.
On December 6, Medrano filed a motion to suppress the photo lineup and corresponding identification, contending none of the other photos in the array were reasonably similar to the defendant and the photo array was impermissibly suggestive, giving rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. Following a hearing on December 7, the court denied the motion to suppress. After discussing the similarities and differences in the four photos, the court concluded the array was not impermissibly suggestive. Further, the court concluded the photo array did not give rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification because two separate witnesses identified the defendant from the photos and the defendant's inclusion in the photo array was not based on a physical description given by witnesses, but on statements the suspect said his name was Elvis and he had recently been released from prison.
A jury trial was held on December 14-15. The jury found Medrano guilty. The court sentenced Medrano to time served and a fine, which the court suspended.
Scope and Standards of Review. Concerning the motion to suppress, because Medrano claims his constitutional rights were violated by the photo array, we review the record de novo based upon the totality of the circumstances. State v. Manna, 534 N.W.2d 642, 643 (Iowa 1995); State v. Cook, 530 N.W.2d 728, 731 (Iowa 1995). In our review of the district court's ruling on defendant's motion to suppress, we consider both the evidence presented during the suppression hearing and that introduced at trial. Cook, 530 N.W.2d at 731.
We review challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence for errors at law. Iowa R. App. P. 6.907; State v. Pace, 602 N.W.2d 764, 768 (Iowa 1999). We will uphold a finding of guilt if "substantial evidence" supports the verdict. Pace, 602 N.W.2d at 768. "Substantial evidence" is evidence from which a rational finder of fact could find a defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. We review the evidence in the light most favorable to the State. Id. We consider not only evidence that supports the verdict, but all reasonable inferences that may be derived from the evidence. Id.
Merits. Motion to Suppress. The defendant contends the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress the photographic lineup as impermissibly suggestive. The motion to suppress alleged "none of the photos of the three other individuals were reasonably similar to the defendant," and "[a]s a result, thephoto lineup was impermissibly suggestive, and such irregularity gave rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification."
In denying the motion to suppress the district court concluded:
The court concludes this display was not impermissibly suggestive. It consisted of four separate photos. All four photos are of similar quality. All appear to show Hispanic males. Three of the four appear to show individuals of approximately the same age and size. While photos one and two contain some definite distinguishing features from Defendant, photo three is substantially similar to Defendant.
The Iowa Supreme Court has described the analysis to apply to challenges to out-of-court identifications as follows:
State v. Taft, 506 N.W.2d 757, 762-63 (Iowa 1993) (internal citations omitted). The court has applied this test to challenges under both the United States and Iowa Constitutions. Id.
At trial, Lt. David Doebel of the Storm Lake police department testified he talked with Nick Philips and Jason Page at the scene. From Page he got the name Elvis and a description of the person in the cab. From Philips he got a more general description. He returned to the station and "put together the lineupwith Elvis and also three other individuals that were similar to him." The photos were full-page, black and white. Philips came to the station and viewed the photos. Doebel described the procedure.
I gave him the photo lineup which consisted of four individuals. Elvis Medrano was the third individual in the lineup. They were— the lineup was a full-page photo of an individual. He turned the page, there was the next person up to four. He looked at the first one, looked at the second one, looked at the third one, who was Elvis. Looked like he was going to say "this is the guy." Then he looked at the fourth one, turned back, said "this is the guy. He pointed out Elvis Medrano
Doebel was not present when the photo array he prepared was shown to Page. Officer Anderson showed the photo array to Page less than an hour and a half after Page was interviewed at the scene. Page identified the defendant. Anderson asked him about how certain he was of the...
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