State v. Rivera
| Decision Date | 01 April 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 1 CA-CR 02-0211.,1 CA-CR 02-0211. |
| Citation | 86 P.3d 963,207 Ariz. 383 |
| Parties | STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Michael Anthony RIVERA, Appellant. |
| Court | Arizona Court of Appeals |
Terry Goddard, Attorney General By Randall M. Howe, Chief Counsel, Criminal Appeals Section and Diane M. Ramsey, Assistant Attorney General, Phoenix, Attorneys for Appellee.
James J. Haas, Maricopa County Public Defender By Garrett W. Simpson, Deputy Public Defender, Phoenix, Attorneys for Appellant.
¶ 1 Michael Anthony Rivera appeals his convictions and sentences on one count of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary, and one count of kidnapping. We conclude that the trial court erred when it allowed two accomplice witnesses to testify who had entered plea agreements containing consistency provisions when the witnesses had not been informed that the consistency provisions were unenforceable and that they would receive the benefit of their plea agreements as long as their testimony was truthful. We reverse and remand on that basis.
¶ 2 In April 1998, Michael Rivera, Marcario Vela, Victoria Valenzuela, and Katherine Saiz were charged with murdering Megan Ramirez. During the police department's investigation of the murder, Valenzuela and Saiz each offered police several different versions of the events leading to Ramirez's murder, including one given during a videotaped "free talk" on August 10, 1998. Prior to Rivera's trial, Valenzuela and Saiz independently agreed with the State to plead guilty to second-degree murder. In exchange for the plea offers, each woman specified that the information she had provided in her "free talk" was full, accurate and truthful and also agreed to testify at Rivera's trial consistently therewith.
¶ 3 Prior to his trial for first-degree murder, Rivera moved to preclude the testimony of Valenzuela and Saiz, arguing that both plea agreements required the witness to testify consistently with the version of events given in their "free talks" and thus, according to State v. Fisher, 176 Ariz. 69, 859 P.2d 179 (1993), contained unenforceable consistency provisions. Rivera argued that admitting testimony procured by such agreements would violate his right to a fair trial. The trial court summarily denied Rivera's motion.
¶ 4 At trial, Saiz and Valenzuela both testified. Valenzuela testified that the victim, Megan Ramirez, was dating Rivera, who was a member of the "West Side Chicanos" street gang. Valenzuela further testified that on the night of Ramirez's murder, Ramirez danced with a member of the "Wedgewood" street gang at a local bar. According to Valenzuela, the Wedgewood gang is a rival gang to the West Side Chicanos and was also perceived to be responsible for the death of Jesse Moreno, who was Saiz's boyfriend, Rivera's friend, and also a West Side Chicano gang member.
¶ 5 After Ramirez went home that evening, Rivera, Vela and Valenzuela went to Ramirez's home. They obtained entry through an unlocked window and forced her to accompany them in Valenzuela's car. Together with Katherine Saiz, they then drove Ramirez to a field. Valenzuela and Saiz both testified that after Rivera shot Ramirez twice, he directed each of them to shoot her as well. They testified that they did so to preserve respect for Moreno's memory, the West Side Chicano street gang, and the esteem with which Rivera was held within the gang. Ramirez's body was found the next day.
¶ 6 On cross-examination, Valenzuela and Saiz admitted that they each told police multiple versions of the events surrounding Ramirez's murder prior to their August 10, 1998 videotaped interview. Each also admitted that she signed the plea agreement and that she understood that any variation in her testimony from the version given in her August 10 interview would cause her to lose the benefit of her plea agreement. Although Saiz and Valenzuela both testified that they shot Ramirez at Rivera's direction, their separate accounts vary in other respects.
¶ 7 At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found Rivera guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and kidnapping. The trial court sentenced Rivera to "natural life, not to be released on any basis" on the first-degree murder charge. The court further sentenced Rivera to twenty-four years in prison on both the burglary charge and the kidnapping charge and ordered that all three sentences be served consecutively. Rivera timely appealed, and we have jurisdiction pursuant to the Arizona Constitution, Article 6, Section 9 and Arizona Revised Statutes ("A.R.S.") sections 12-120.21(A)(1) (2003), 13-4031 (2001) and 13-4033 (2001).
¶ 8 On appeal, Rivera argues that the testimony of Valenzuela and Saiz, procured through an illegal consistency agreement, deprived him of a fair trial and accordingly, he is entitled to a new trial. See State v. Fisher, 176 Ariz. 69, 859 P.2d 179 (1993)
. He further argues that because the State acted outside the law in obtaining the testimony of Valenzuela and Saiz, their testimony must be suppressed at the new trial.1
See A.R.S. § 13-2802(A)(1) (2001) (); Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961) (); see also United States v. Peltier, 422 U.S. 531, 542, 95 S.Ct. 2313, 45 L.Ed.2d 374 (1975) (); United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423, 430, 93 S.Ct. 1637, 36 L.Ed.2d 366 (1973) (same).
¶ 9 We agree that Rivera is entitled to a new trial. We further agree that any tainted testimony or statements made by Valenzuela and Saiz after they entered their plea agreements cannot be used by the prosecution to establish Rivera's guilt. We disagree, however, that Valenzuela and Saiz will necessarily be precluded from testifying at Rivera's retrial if appropriate action is taken to clear their testimony of the taint caused by the consistency provisions in their respective plea agreements.
¶ 10 Rivera relies on Fisher for his argument that the testimony of Valenzuela and Saiz tainted his trial. In Fisher, the defendant and his wife, Ann, were charged with the murder of the owner of an apartment complex they managed. 176 Ariz. at 71, 859 P.2d at 181. Prior to her husband's trial, Ann Fisher entered an agreement with the State in which she agreed to plead guilty to a reduced charge in exchange for her testimony against her husband. Id. The agreement was expressly conditioned on her promise that if required to testify at trial, her testimony "w[ould] not vary substantially in relevant areas to statements previously given investigative officers." Id.
¶ 11 At trial, Mrs. Fisher invoked her Fifth Amendment right and did not testify. Id. Her agreement with the State was then admitted into evidence and her husband was found guilty of first-degree murder and subsequently sentenced to death. Id. After her sentencing on a lesser crime pursuant to her plea agreement, Ann Fisher contacted her husband's lawyer and told him that she, not her husband, had killed the victim. Id. at 72, 859 P.2d at 182. Based upon that confession, her husband's lawyer filed a motion for new trial. Id.
¶ 12 At a hearing on this motion, Ann Fisher denied committing the murder but did testify that she had made "conflicting statements... to various people" suggesting that she had. Id. She further testified that, had she been unconstrained by her plea agreement, she would have testified as to "how it was," and that her husband was "staggering drunk" on the day of the murder. Id. Based on this evidence, the superior court granted a new trial. Id.
859 P.2d at 183. The court acknowledged that plea agreements could "properly be conditioned upon truthful and complete testimony." Id. However, "[t]he prosecution should have bargained with [Mrs. Fisher] only for truthful and accurate testimony." Id. at 74, 859 P.2d at 184 (). Instead, it had required that Ann Fisher's testimony be consistent with earlier versions given to authorities. Id. at 73, 859 P.2d at 183.
¶ 14 The court explained that the problem with accepting testimony at trial from someone whose plea agreement contains a consistency provision is that when "the prosecution's case depends substantially upon accomplice testimony and the accomplice witness is placed, either by the prosecution or the court, under a strong compulsion to testify in a particular fashion," id. at 73, 859 P.2d at 183 (quoting People v. Medina, 41 Cal.App.3d 438, 116 Cal.Rptr. 133, 145 (1974)), undue pressure is placed "on witnesses to stick with one version of the facts regardless of its truthfulness." Id. at 74, 859 P.2d at 184. This inherent pressure "frustrate[s] the jury's duty to determine the credibility of the witness," and thus deprives the defendant of a fair trial. Id. Our supreme court has twice reaffirmed its holding in Fisher while making clear that in cases where a...
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