State v. Rios

• Decision Date: 05 April 2005
• Docket Number: No. COA04-706.,COA04-706.
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Miguel Aguilar RIOS, Defendant.

610 S.E.2d 764

169 NC App. 270

STATE of North Carolina v. Miguel Aguilar RIOS, Defendant.

No. COA04-706.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

April 5, 2005.

Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General Daniel P. O'Brien, for the State.

Appellate Defender Staples S. Hughes, by Assistant Appellate Defender Anne M. Gomez, for defendant. BRYANT, Judge.

Miguel Aguilar Rios (defendant) appeals his judgment filed 19 December 2003, entered consistent with a jury verdict finding him guilty of first-degree murder.

On 4 August 2003, defendant was indicted for the first-degree murder of Shahid Iqbal (Iqbal). This matter came for jury trial at the 15 December 2003 criminal session of Guilford County Superior Court with the Honorable Michael E. Helms presiding. The jury found defendant guilty as charged on 18 December 2003. By judgment filed 19 December 2003, defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Defendant gave notice of appeal in open court.

Facts

The State presented the following evidence at trial: The security-system videotape from Sam's Mini-Mart in High Point, North Carolina showed that at 8:15 p.m. on 19 April 2003, Abel Medina (Medina) (co-defendant) bought a 12-pack of beer. Several minutes later, Medina re-entered the store, bought a pack of cigarettes, and stayed at the counter for several more minutes after completing the purchase.

The videotape then showed defendant entering the store, pulling his shirt over his face with one hand, and carrying a semi-automatic gun with the other. Defendant walked directly to the counter and fired a shot at Iqbal, the store clerk. The gun then jammed. Defendant released his shirt and used both hands in order to clear the jam, revealing his face to the video camera. Defendant then leaned over the counter and fired another shot before pulling his shirt over his face again and leaving the store. Iqbal was then seen moving past the video camera to the telephone.

Bystanders who heard the shots saw two subjects running out of the store — Medina fleeing on foot and defendant running to his car. Defendant left the lights of his car off as he pulled out and drove down Foust and Green Streets. The bystanders who heard the shots and saw the car flee with its lights off, looked inside the store, saw the blood, and called 911. Iqbal, who was lying on the floor, was breathing with difficulty. Iqbal had called his parents' house on the telephone but was only able to say that somebody had shot him, before collapsing.

The initial broadcast of "shots fired" went out to law enforcement at 8:17 p.m. Police officers began arriving at the scene within minutes of the broadcast. EMS took Iqbal to the hospital where he later died from the gunshot wound.

At 8:24 p.m., officers driving to the scene observed a man walking on foot northwards on Green Street, approximately 200-300 yards from the store. Because most people tend to stare at a line of police cars going by, officers stopped Medina as he appeared to be turning away and hiding his face. The officers asked Medina in Spanish whether he had heard shots from the store or knew anything about the shooting. He said he did not. After obtaining his name and reviewing his identification, the officers released Medina and proceeded on to the scene of the crime.

At 8:26 p.m., Lieutenant J.C. Blank of the High Point Police Department arrived at the store and spoke briefly with some of the officers who were already on the scene. Lt. Blank then went directly to the video monitoring system behind the counter and observed the video camera. He rewound the videotape and on the monitor saw Medina buying a 12-pack of beer, leaving the store, then minutes later, re-entering the store and buying a pack of cigarettes.

Lt. Blank continued viewing the videotape which showed defendant entering the store, pulling his shirt up over his face, and shooting at the clerk once. Then, while clearing a jam with both hands, defendant's shirt dropped, and defendant's face was clearly shown as he leaned over the counter and fired again. Thereafter, Lt. Blank called in the officers who had stopped Medina, had them view the videotape, and sent them out to locate the two men.

At 8:52 p.m., the officers' search led them to 1122 Textile Place. A small dark-colored car, meeting the witnesses' description of the car that left the scene with its lights off, was backed into the driveway, parallel to the car immediately next to it. An unopened and still cold 12-pack of beer was on the floorboard, and the engine of the car was warm. Through a window of the house, the officers observed defendant standing in the front room.

The officers knocked and received entry to the house. Defendant resisted arrest and attempted to flee, requiring two officers to handcuff him. Defendant then dropped onto a cot and hunched over. While Officer John Gianella of the High Point Police Department was searching him for weapons, defendant kept turning his body so that the officer could not search his stomach area. After putting defendant on his back, Officer Gianella discovered a 9mm semi-automatic gun¹ in defendant's pants immediately below defendant's belt and down in the groin area. The officers cleared the weapon and removed the magazine. Defendant had a second magazine in his back pocket.

Defendant and Medina were separated from each other and from the other three occupants of the house (Julio Reyes, Gabriel Solez, and Mary Alta Wainwright). As defendant sat in a chair in the bedroom, he hunched over and moved from side to side. Officer Gianella asked defendant in Spanish if he was drunk. Defendant replied he did not like beer, but was sick². Officer Gianella noted defendant had no problem walking, even with his hands cuffed behind his back, did not have slurred speech, had no odor of alcohol on his person, did not have bloodshot eyes, and was able to follow Officer Gianella's directions.

Police attempted to interview the other occupants of the house. Wainwright, who also testified at trial, said that Medina, Reyes, and Solez rented the house, and defendant was just visiting. Wainwright said Solez had invited her in earlier in the afternoon and gave her a beer. At one point before it got dark, defendant and Medina left, but Medina returned about a half-hour later and was crying. Five to ten minutes after that, defendant returned. Defendant was not drinking beer at this time, and most of the times Wainwright saw him that night, he was not drinking beer. In addition, at some point in the evening, defendant kissed her on the cheek and she smelled no odor of alcohol on his breath. Reyes said defendant and Medina had left the house and were not gone long, that Medina returned first, and thirty minutes later defendant returned. Solez was too intoxicated to be interviewed.

Around 9:30 p.m., defendant was transported from 1122 Textile Place to the police station, where he was processed, including having a gunshot residue test performed on him, and was placed in a holding cell at 10:20 p.m. Officer R.L. Cecil of the High Point Police Department, who maintained custody and visual contact with defendant at all times, testified that he observed in defendant no indications of intoxication, no slurred speech, no glazed eyes, no stumbling, or poor body functioning. Officer Cecil also testified that defendant walked normally and under his own power, with his hands cuffed behind his back, and needed nothing to lean on.

At 11:45 p.m., Detective Mike Nixon of the High Point Police Department and Officer Gianella, interviewed defendant, reading him his rights in both English and Spanish. Defendant indicated orally (sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish) and in writing that he understood his rights and he agreed to waive them in order to talk. After defendant and Officer Gianella "bonded" and could understand each other, most of defendant's confession was in Spanish.

At first, defendant denied any involvement in the shooting or being in the store, or knowing anything about the shooting. Thereafter, Det. Nixon showed him the videotape, and defendant confessed that he shot Iqbal. Defendant said that "the Pakistani" had offended Medina while buying the beer. Defendant said he was outside the store at the time, but overheard Medina and the clerk arguing. After this, he and Medina went back to 1122 Textile Place, and Medina had told him that the clerk had called him a "mother-f[*]cking wetback" when he was buying beer. They then went back to the store ten to fifteen minutes later. Defendant admitted that he was angry about the whole situation between Medina and the clerk.

Defendant said Medina had asked him to come into the store and defend him. So, the second time Medina went in, he bought cigarettes. Defendant admitted he went in because Iqbal had offended Medina and he wanted "to speak bad to [Iqbal]" about it. As defendant entered the store, Iqbal said to defendant, "Don't put your feet on the floor, you f[*]cking wetback." Iqbal also made a comment concerning defendant's father. Defendant admitted he did not like Pakistanis. Defendant admitted he got "madder" after Iqbal's comments to him, and that is when he pulled the gun and shot Iqbal. At this point in the interview, defendant asked Det. Nixon when he could go home. Det. Nixon told him, "No time soon," and that the man he shot was dead — defendant thought Iqbal was still alive. Det. Nixon asked defendant how he felt about killing Iqbal. Defendant said a lot of Mexicans and Americans were dead because of problems with some Middle Eastern countries. He said he had not had problems with Pakistanis before, but he did not go to that particular store because he did not like Pakistanis.

Defendant never said in his interview that he was drunk or intoxicated or that he had been drinking at all. Further, Det. Nixon testified he was within two to four feet of defendant during the interview, and he did not detect any...