State v. Moreno
| Decision Date | 23 June 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 2008-161-C.A.,2008-161-C.A. |
| Parties | STATEv.Gabriel MORENO. |
| Court | Rhode Island Supreme Court |
Christopher R. Bush, Department of Attorney General, for Plaintiff.
Janice M. Weisfeld, Office of the Public Defender, for Defendant.
Present: SUTTELL, C.J., GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY, ROBINSON, and INDEGLIA, JJ.
The defendant, Gabriel Moreno, appeals from his conviction by a jury in the Providence County Superior Court of the following offenses: kidnapping, felony assault, two counts of simple assault, and interference with the use of a telephone in an emergency. This case came before the Supreme Court for oral argument pursuant to an order directing the parties to show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not be summarily decided. After examining the written and oral submissions of the parties, we are of the opinion that the appeal may be resolved without further briefing or argument. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court in all respects.
The allegations of the complaining witness, Danielle Brueske, formed the basis of the charges against defendant, and she served as one of the prosecution's primary witnesses at defendant's trial. We therefore begin by summarizing the most relevant portions of her trial testimony.
Danielle Brueske testified that she had met defendant while she was attending Diman School of Practical Nursing, which is located in southeastern Massachusetts. (She attended that school from September of 2005 through June of 2006.) She testified that defendant was a coordinator of the nursing program at the school and that he was also her instructor in some of her courses. Ms. Brueske further testified that, beginning on July 4, 2006, after she had completed nursing school, she and defendant began “seeing each other” and that their relationship quickly became sexual in nature.
Ms. Brueske testified that she had stayed at defendant's home in East Providence during the week prior to her taking the nursing board exams (which took place on July 16, 2006). However, unbeknownst to defendant, immediately thereafter, on July 17, Ms. Brueske resumed living with her boyfriend, one Jarret Ferreira, who decided at that time to ask Ms. Brueske to marry him-a proposal which Ms. Brueske accepted. Ms. Brueske characterized her relationship with her fiancé prior to their engagement as having been “pretty rocky.” Moreover, she testified that she did not tell either her fiancé or defendant about the existence of the other.1 She did testify, however, that, in the days immediately following her engagement to Mr. Ferreira, she told defendant not to contact her.
On July 23, less than a week after they had become engaged, Ms. Brueske and her fiancé argued, and she again went to stay with defendant. She contended that, at this point in time, defendant confronted her, stating that he knew she was “lying.” It was her testimony, however, that she still did not tell defendant that she was engaged to another man. Nevertheless, according to Ms. Brueske's testimony, the July 23 confrontation between defendant and her escalated to the point that defendant became physical; she testified that he “pinned [her] up against the wall” and then “pinned [her] on the bed,” not letting her up.
Ms. Brueske testified that, on July 25, after she had argued with Lynn Saucier,2 a friend who had also been a classmate of hers at Diman School of Practical Nursing (and who also knew defendant through the nursing school), she went to defendant's home. Ms. Brueske further testified that, when defendant came home later that day, he informed her that he knew that she was engaged to another man, and he stated that he had “spoken with Lynn.” Ms. Brueske testified that she then informed defendant that things between her and her fiancé “weren't going well.”
Ms. Brueske testified that, on that same day (July 25), she told defendant that she was going to her grandmother's house; she further testified, however, that in actuality she met up with a male friend, to whom she referred simply as “Doyle” in her testimony, and that she went to the movies with him. Ms. Brueske testified that she considered the outing with Doyle to have been a date. She went on to testify that, after going to the movies together, she and Doyle engaged in sexual relations in the back seat of his car.
Ms. Brueske testified that, after the late evening date with Doyle, she returned to defendant's home at approximately 2:00 a.m. on July 26. She testified that, during her absence, defendant had called and sent text messages to her cell phone some twenty times. Ms. Brueske further testified that defendant was waiting for her when she arrived at his home; she stated that he said that he knew that she had not gone to her grandmother's house and that he asked her where in fact she had gone. Ms. Brueske testified that she told him that she had gone to a beach for the purpose of thinking; she added that she did not inform him that she had been out on a date with someone else that night. Ms. Brueske stated that, after that discussion, she and defendant went to bed.
Danielle Brueske testified that defendant left for work at approximately 8:30 a.m. on July 26 and that, after he left, she was unable to locate her cell phone. She further testified that, to her surprise, defendant returned home at 9:30 a.m. and that, upon his return, he told her that he had left work “because he couldn't be without [her].” She stated that defendant told her that “he knew [she] was lying” about where she had been and that he had taken her cell phone to work. Ms. Brueske testified that their conversation began in the computer room of defendant's home, but that defendant “started pushing [her] back towards his bedroom.” She testified that, once in the bedroom, he “pushed [her] back onto his bed.” She stated that at that moment she was clothed only in a towel due to the fact that she had just taken a shower.
Ms. Brueske testified that defendant “held [her] wrists down onto the mattress” and that he told her that she “was killing him.” She estimated that defendant held her on the bed for approximately fifteen minutes until he decided to leave the bedroom. Ms. Brueske testified that she next encountered defendant in the laundry room, where she had gone in order to retrieve her clothes; she said that she discovered defendant sitting on the floor of the laundry room holding a butcher knife to his wrist.
Ms. Brueske testified that defendant followed her back into the bedroom and that she attempted to keep him out by shutting the door; however, defendant was able to force his way into the bedroom. She further testified that, at that point, defendant informed her that she “wouldn't be leaving that day.” Ms. Brueske testified that, as she tried to use defendant's phone to call for assistance, he grabbed the phone out of her hands and removed the battery. She stated that she next attempted to “get to the window” and to scream for help but that defendant prevented her from doing so.3 She testified that she fled from the bedroom into the living room but that defendant proceeded to drag her from the living room into the hallway. Ms. Brueske then described the struggle with defendant that took place in the hallway; she said that defendant placed her in a chokehold, causing her to lose consciousness. She further testified that, while defendant was dragging her back to the bedroom and while she continued to resist him, he applied another chokehold, and she passed out for a second time.
Ms. Brueske testified that, when she regained consciousness, she found herself in the bedroom; she described defendant as being “very angry” at that point. She testified that defendant told her that she was “dead inside and that he was going to take [her] physical life from [her].” Ms. Brueske described how defendant proceeded to use duct tape to bind her wrists and her ankles. She stated that defendant then used the duct tape to attach her hands to the bedpost and her feet to the footboard.
Ms. Brueske further testified that defendant held a pair of scissors to her chest and stated that he was going to “take [her] heart out because [she] didn't know how to use it;” she testified that defendant then pushed the scissors down onto her chest, cutting her skin. She testified that defendant placed a piece of duct tape over her mouth and then, again using a chokehold, caused her to pass out a third time. She further testified that, when she awoke, defendant told her that he had killed her and that she was “reborn.” Ms. Brueske stated that, using the same scissors with which he had cut her chest, defendant now cut the duct tape from her wrists-releasing her hands and injuring her wrists in the process. She stated that she herself then removed the duct tape from her ankles. She described how defendant then drank a soda, which he stated had “some medication in it;” she said that he told her that “he was going to drink it and lay [ sic ] down until he died.”
Ms. Brueske testified that, later that afternoon, defendant received a phone call from Lynn Saucier. Ms. Brueske stated that defendant kept his left arm extended across her neck while he was on the phone with Ms. Saucier; she added that, during that phone call, she “made a sound or [she] might have said something, and he looked at [her] and he pushed on [her] neck.”
Ms. Brueske stated that, after engaging in the above-referenced phone conversation with Lynn Saucier, defendant allowed her ( i.e., Ms. Brueske) to use his phone to call her father. She testified that, after that phone call ended, she continued to talk to defendant and that she asked him to allow her to leave so that she could go to her godmother's house; she added that defendant eventually allowed her to do so. Ms. Brueske testified that she left defendant's...
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