State v. Sanes, A-5319-17
| Decision Date | 31 August 2021 |
| Docket Number | A-5319-17 |
| Parties | STATE OF NEW JERSEY, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. JUAN D. SANES, a/k/a PADRO RONDON, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division |
NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION
Submitted October 28, 2020
On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division Camden County, Indictment No. 14-05-1705.
Joseph E. Krakora, Public Defender, attorney for appellant (Laura B Lasota, Assistant Deputy Public Defender, of counsel and on the brief).
Jill S. Mayer, Acting Camden County Prosecutor, attorney for respondent (Kevin J. Hein, Special Deputy Attorney General/Acting Assistant Prosecutor, of counsel and on the brief).
Appellant filed pro se supplemental briefs.
Before Judges Ostrer and Vernoia.
A jury convicted Juan Sanes of conspiracy to commit murder and related crimes arising out of a drive-by shooting in Camden. The State alleged Sanes, a triggerman, conspired with two other men to kill Julian Santos, who was dating a former girlfriend of one of the men. Santos was not hit, but the girlfriend was wounded.
Defendant now appeals, asserting error at every stage of the criminal process. Most significantly, he argues the court erred in denying his pre-trial suppression motions; the court erroneously admitted irrelevant and prejudicial evidence; the court erred in denying his motion for acquittal; the trial judge erred by refusing to investigate allegations by a juror that defendant was denied his right to a fair trial; and the court erred in sentencing him.
We affirm.
On May 5, 2013, Diana Ocasio was in a gold Buick near Von Nieda Park in Camden. Her boyfriend Julian Santos was in the front passenger seat; her young daughter was in the back seat; and Ocasio's best friend sat in the other back seat.
Ocasio noticed a black truck pull up in front of her. Wilber Fernandez ("Wil") - the father of Ocasio's young daughter - and his friend Edward Torres (also known as "Tego"), got out and approached Ocasio's car. One of them held a bat, and the other a gun. As she started to flee, Ocasio heard gunshots - including one from Santos in her car. Fernandez and Torres got back in their vehicle, and Ocasio, rather than escape to safety, followed them in hers. A witness at the scene generally corroborated this version of events.
As Ocasio followed, Santos exchanged gunshots with someone in the black truck. Witnesses said Fernandez was driving, and Torres was in the passenger seat. Ocasio said she eventually stopped at the intersection of 32nd Street and Pierce, with Fernandez and Torres still ahead of her. At that point, a third man, standing at the corner, began to open fire on her car. She was struck once in her right hand, and she was "grazed" on her head and her left arm. Santos was not shot.
The police investigation soon focused on defendant. After Ocasio went to the hospital, she told police she knew who shot her his name was "Bam"; Torres and Fernandez were his friends; and he was "[s]hort, dark skin, maybe about five[-]two," and "[a] little chubby." She said she knew Bam for about five or six years and he lived in North Camden. But, when Ocasio was shown a photo array that included a photo of defendant taken a year-and-a-half earlier, Ocasio said the person depicted only "look[ed] familiar," and looked like Bam, but was not the shooter. She explained the man in the photo had a beard, and the shooter did not.
Ocasio's failure to identify defendant as the shooter did not deter Sgt. Robert Ferris, the lead investigator. Ferris had previously investigated defendant for narcotics offenses, and knew defendant went by "Bam." Ferris did not search the Camden Police database for any others who went by "Bam."
Two or three blocks away from the shooting, police found Wilber Fernandez's ID card and a black aluminum bat inside a black Dodge Ram. A surveillance video captured part of the incident; it showed a gold or silver-colored Cadillac SUV park on the street, and a man exit the car, stand there very briefly until Ocasio's car approached, and then shoot at Ocasio's car.[1] The video was grainy; and the shooter's face was not visible. But he appeared "[s]hort and stocky," and wore "three-quarter leg shorts," although the colors were unclear.
Around 10:30 p.m. on the day of the shooting, two detectives stopped defendant as he drove a Cadillac matching the one from the surveillance video. He was on Grant Street, not far from the shooting. The police informed him he was "required" to come speak with the police about a shooting earlier that day, and he complied. Defendant was then "detained for questioning. "Police immediately towed the Cadillac.
Upon arriving at the police station, defendant was placed in a locked holding cell, and the police took his shoes, belt, and ID. Defendant was wearing blue three-quarter length shorts, with a t-shirt and hooded sweatshirt, and had a shaved head with a thin manicured goatee. Police considered defendant a suspect at this point. Nearly two hours later, Ferris questioned defendant after telling him he was free to go if he wished and after defendant waived his Miranda[2] rights.
Defendant said he had been at his girlfriend's house all day, except for a brief trip by car to Wal-Mart for milk for his daughter. The girlfriend lived just twenty to twenty-five yards from the shooting location. Defendant also acknowledged some people call him "Bam," and he knew Wil Fernandez. After the interview ended, defendant consented to a search of the car and his cell phone. The cell phone search disclosed a contact for "Tego," (Torres's nickname) and multiple calls with "Tego" the day of the shooting. At that point in the investigation, Ferris already knew Torres was one of the two men in the black Ram. The police then released defendant.
About a week after the shooting, Ocasio identified the 700 block of North Grant Street in North Camden as a place she had previously seen Bam. Police conducted another photo array, and Ocasio identified Torres as one of the men in the black truck.
One month after the shooting, police conducted a second interview of defendant, after informing him of his Miranda rights. He again insisted he spent the day with his girlfriend. Confronted with surveillance pictures of the Cadillac, defendant said someone who lived nearby owned the same car. Defendant claimed he did not know Fernandez very well. Defendant also stated Torres was his "sister['s] son," but that he did not talk to him very much. He did not remember speaking with Torres on the day of the shooting, stating, He also identified both Fernandez and Torres from pictures.
Defendant admitted the contact "Tego" in his phone was Edward Torres. Ferris asked defendant to explain the calls from Tego on the day of the shooting: 4:18 p.m., thirty-five seconds long; another call lasting one minute, thirty-nine seconds; and a third call at 4:24 p.m., lasting four minutes and sixteen seconds.[3]Defendant said he did not remember speaking with Torres that day; he said it was possible his phone rang while he was sleeping, and his girlfriend picked it up. After completing the interview, Ferris formally arrested and charged defendant.
There were two proceedings before the grand jury. After the first, the grand jury returned an indictment against defendant and Santos. Defendant moved to dismiss the conspiracy-to-commit-murder count in the indictment, contending the State failed to present evidence identifying defendant's coconspirator. The court denied the motion, finding that phone records showed three calls immediately before and after the shooting occurred between defendant and Torres; defendant "was seen driving a Cadillac resembling the Cadillac owned by his fiance's mother"; and defendant's relationship to Torres, were enough to show that "the grand jury could find that the defendant was in contact with . . . Torres, who was chasing the victims."
About a month later, after Santos pled guilty to aggravated assault and a firearms offense, the State reconvened the grand jury to obtain a superseding indictment against defendant. The State evidently did so to correct misstatements Ferris made in the first submission.[4] This time, Ferris accurately testified that Ocasio "described the person who shot her . . . as a short, darkskinned male that she knew by the name of Bam, not knowing his official name"; Ocasio did not positively identify defendant in the photo array, although she said defendant's picture "looked just like [the shooter]," "[b]ut, from the nose down, that's not him." Ferris also testified Ocasio had provided defense investigators with a statement that "she was sure the shooter is not Juan Sanes who she knows through her ex-boyfriend."
Defendant was charged with multiple crimes, most seriously first-degree attempted murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:5-1 and N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3(a)(1) (count one), and first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:5-2 and N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3(a)(1) (count two). He was also charged with four counts of second-degree serious-bodily-injury-aggravated-assault (two counts involving Santos and two involving Ocasio) N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1(b)(1) ()[5]; two counts (one involving Santos and one involving Ocasio) of fourth-degree aggravated assault by pointing a firearm, N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1(b)(4) (); one count of fourth-degree aggravated assault by recklessly causing bodily injury to Ocasio with a deadly weapon, N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1(b)(3) (count eight); third-degree endangering the welfare of a child (Ocasio's daughter), N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4a (count ten); second-degree unlawful possession of...
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