State v. Pineda

• Decision Date: 02 March 2011
• Docket Number: No. 2009–53–C.A.,2009–53–C.A.
• Citation: 13 A.3d 623
• Parties: STATEv.Maria J. PINEDA.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

13 A.3d 623

STATE

v.Maria J. PINEDA.

No. 2009–53–C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

March 2, 2011.

Christopher R. Bush, Department of Attorney General, for State.George J. West, Esq., Providence, for Defendant.Present: SUTTELL, C.J., GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY, ROBINSON, and INDEGLIA, JJ.

OPINION

Justice INDEGLIA, for the Court.

The defendant, Maria J. Pineda (defendant or Pineda), appeals from her convictions for felony assault with a dangerous weapon, G.L.1956 § 11–5–2, and disorderly conduct, G.L.1956 § 11–45–1. Pineda contends that the trial justice erred when he (1) declined to instruct the jury on self-defense, (2) failed to inform her that she was entitled to individual counsel separate from her codefendant or to inquire into the specific conflicts of interest potentially caused by their joint representation, (3) denied her motions for a judgment of acquittal, and (4) denied her motion for a new trial. After reviewing the record and considering the parties' oral arguments, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court for the reasons set forth in this opinion.

IFacts and Procedural History

On or about September 17, 2003, Jose Pineda (Jose),¹ defendant's brother, was visiting his friend Keith Souza (Souza) and Souza's girlfriend, Elizabeth Rodrigues (Rodrigues), at Souza and Rodrigues's shared Pawtucket apartment (the Rodrigues apartment), when their conversation devolved into an argument over an audio tape in Souza's tape recorder. Later, after Souza discovered the tape missing, he called Jose to inform him that he was not welcome at the Rodrigues apartment until the tape was returned. Despite Souza's request, Jose returned to the residence three times between the evening of September 19, 2003, and the early morning hours of September 20, 2003. During this period, Jose, Souza, and Rodrigues, each drank alcohol.

Jose first arrived at the Rodrigues apartment on September 19, 2003, around 9 in the evening. Souza told Jose that unless he was going to return the tape, he had to leave. Jose obliged. About an hour later, Jose returned to the residence. On this occasion, Jose and Rodrigues argued about the missing tape, and then Jose again left the premises. Rodrigues testified that, as Jose was leaving this time, he threatened her with the warning that “I'm really going to get my sister. She is going to ‘F’ you up.” Souza also testified that Jose threatened that he was “going to get [his] sister.” Antoine L. Marria (Marria), an acquaintance of Jose's who was with him at the Rodrigues apartment, likewise recalled that Jose said that he was going to get his sister and bring her back to the apartment.

Thereafter, Pineda was awakened by Jose ringing her doorbell. Pineda testified that after she spoke with him briefly about the disagreement that he had with Souza and Rodrigues, Jose left. According to Pineda, because she knew Jose was very drunk and “[v]ery, very upset” and because she was afraid he would “do something crazy, and very hot headed,” she set out looking for him at the Rodrigues apartment. Pineda arrived in her own car, separately from her brother, but close in time. From this point, the accounts recalling the evening's events differ markedly.

Pineda said that upon her arrival at the Rodrigues apartment, she saw Souza hitting her brother with a bat. Pineda testified that she got out of her car to help Jose, when she was hit from behind and pinned to the ground by a female, later determined to be Rodrigues. Pineda explained that Rodrigues had a “stick * * * object” in her hand, and Rodrigues was attempting to hit her with it. According to Pineda, she gave a few kicks to try to free herself and tried to hold the “stick” back, but could not escape until a man pulled Rodrigues off of her. Souza likewise testified that Pineda and his girlfriend, Rodrigues, were “pulling hair and fist fighting.” Marria also testified to a fist fight between the two women. Pineda explained that after she was freed from the tussle she saw the “particular stick,” which now looked like a “construction tool” to her, on the ground nearby. Fearing that Rodrigues would retrieve the “construction tool” and hit her with it, Pineda recalled that she picked it up, stowed it in her car, and then drove away.

Rodrigues testified to a different version of the fight. She explained that after Jose had left for the second time, she was walking back toward the apartment when a woman, later determined to be Pineda, struck her in the head with a hammer about “seven times.” After receiving the first blows from the hammer, Rodrigues recalled, she “[s]tarted fighting [Pineda] * * * punching her, uppercutting her.” In the course of the fight, according to Rodrigues, the hammer was dislodged from Pineda's hands and Jose tried to hand it back to his sister. Rodrigues testified that, once the fracas subsided, she called 9–1–1 and explained that Souza needed medical attention.²

After Rodrigues's 9–1–1 call, officers from the Pawtucket Police Department were dispatched to the scene and given a description of Jose's and Pineda's cars. First spotting a gold vehicle as described by the dispatcher, Officer Robert Cardente (Officer Cardente) turned on his police cruiser's lights and attempted to make a stop. The gold vehicle, a Ford Taurus, later confirmed to be Pineda's, did not stop; and at trial, Pineda said that she did not see the police lights. Almost immediately after sighting the Taurus, Officer Cardente saw the other vehicle described in the dispatch and successfully made a traffic stop. Officer Michael Kevin Kane, Jr. (Officer Kane) and other police officers arrived as backup, proceeded with traffic-stop protocol, and then arrested Jose, the driver of this second car. As the police were taking Jose into custody, Pineda drove up in her car, yelling that the police were arresting her brother and that she “work[ed] for a lawyer.” Thereafter the police also arrested Pineda and seized a two-headed hammer from her vehicle.

Once the traffic stop of Jose's car was secured, Officer Cardente went to the Rodrigues apartment. He testified that upon his arrival, Rodrigues was hysterical and told him that she had been punched by Pineda, but “didn't mention a hammer.” Rodrigues disputed Officer Cardente's recollection, instead recalling that she did tell the first officers on the scene that she was hit several times with a hammer. After speaking briefly with Rodrigues at the apartment, Officer Cardente brought her to the showup of Jose and Pineda, who were in Officer Kane's custody. There, Rodrigues positively identified Pineda as her assailant. According to Officer Cardente, when Rodrigues made the identification, she asserted that Pineda “was the individual who punched her.” Rodrigues conversely recalls that at the showup she told the police officers that Pineda was the person who “struck [her] with the hammer several times.”

After the showup, the police brought Rodrigues to the police station, where she gave Det. Napoleon Gonsalves (Det. Gonsalves) a statement of the evening's events.³ Detective Gonsalves recalled that Rodrigues never mentioned being struck repeatedly with a hammer when he was taking her first statement. In accordance with Rodrigues's written statement, Det. Gonsalves testified that Rodrigues only reported that an object “grazed” her person. In her testimony, however, Rodrigues disputed that she used the word “grazed” when describing the incident to Det. Gonsalves that night. According to Rodrigues, she told Det. Gonsalves that she was struck repeatedly with a hammer. She justified the discrepancy between her testimony of the events and the written statement with explanations that Det. Gonsalves was “rude” to her while taking her statement; she was only “somewhat” familiar with the statement before she signed it; and she was dizzy, not feeling well, and in need of medical attention while she was giving her statement, but was denied this request. Basically, Rodrigues testified that Det. Gonsalves made mistakes or manipulated her words when he took her statement at the police station that evening. Detective Gonsalves disputed her contentions, recalling that he followed proper protocol, that he allowed Rodrigues to review the statement before she signed it, and that Rodrigues never communicated her need for medical attention, but rather he remembered her being “very upset” and wanting to go to the hospital to see Souza. However, after looking at photographs taken at the police station that night, Det. Gonsalves did testify that Rodrigues looked like she had been hit in the eye, probably with a hammer.

Rodrigues testified that after her statement was finalized, she again asked to be transported to the hospital and a female officer obliged. While at the hospital, Officer Kane, who had brought Jose to the hospital for medical treatment, approached Rodrigues. He recalled that she told him that “[s]he was hit with a hammer.”

Approximately ten days after the incident, on September 29, 2003, Det. Gonsalves picked up Rodrigues at her apartment and brought her to the police station, where she gave a second statement. This statement included Rodrigues's assertion that “[Pineda] struck me about six or seven times in the head.”

On March 19, 2004, both Jose and Pineda were charged with assaulting Rodrigues with a dangerous weapon, a hammer (count 1), and disorderly conduct for engaging in fighting, threatening, violent or tumultuous behavior (count 2). At the pretrial hearing on February 24, 2005, Pineda and Jose's shared, private attorney presented the trial justice with a signed stipulation ⁴ requesting joint representation for his clients and waiving any potential conflicts of interest emanating from that arrangement. In open court, their attorney explained to the trial justice that he had discussed the potential for conflicts with Jose and Pineda and did not anticipate that any would arise. The trial justice then asked Pineda and Jose...