Cabrera v. State

171 A.3d 119
CourtSupreme Court of Delaware
DecidedJuly 31, 2017
DocketNo. 372, 2015
StatusPublished

This text of 171 A.3d 119 (Cabrera v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cabrera v. State, 171 A.3d 119 (Del. 2017).

Opinion

SEITZ, Justice:

In 2001, a Superior Court jury convicted Luis Cabrera of two counts of First Degree Murder and other offenses for the execution-style killing of Vaughn Rowe and Brandon Sanders in Wilmington's Rockford Park. His co-defendant, Luis Reyes, was tried separately and also found guilty of First Degree Murder.1 Both defendants were sentenced to death. After Cabrera's conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal,2 Cabrera filed a motion in November 2004 for postconviction relief claiming in part his trial counsel was ineffective in his defense. The motion took years to resolve due to events outside of counsel's and the Superior Court's control. The Superior Court in 2015 granted the motion in part, ruling that Cabrera's trial counsel was ineffective during the penalty phase of the trial, and vacated Cabrera's death sentence.3 The Superior Court denied the remainder of Cabrera's postconviction claims. Cabrera appeals from the Superior Court's denial of his motion for postconviction relief. The State voluntarily dismissed its cross-appeal of the Superior Court's vacatur of Cabrera's death sentence in light of our decisions in Rauf v. State4 and Powell v. State,5 finding Delaware's death penalty statute unconstitutional and applying our ruling retroactively. We now affirm.6

I.

In Cabrera's direct appeal we recounted the facts and procedural history underlying Cabrera's conviction.7 Briefly stated, on January 21, 1996, a pedestrian discovered the bodies of Brandon Saunders and Vaughn Rowe in Rockford Park. The Wilmington Police determined that sometime during the night of January 20 or early hours of January 21, Rowe had been beaten, both victims were shot in the back of the head, dragged into the woods, and covered with a bed sheet.

The Wilmington Police Department appointed a detective as chief investigator.

*122During the multi-year investigation, his investigative team uncovered compelling evidence that linked Cabrera and Reyes to the victims and the crime. In December 1999, Cabrera and Reyes were indicted and then tried separately for the Rockford Park murders. The State sought the death penalty for both men. Cabrera was already serving a life sentence for the murder of another individual, Fundador Otero.8

A Superior Court jury convicted Cabrera of two counts of First Degree Murder and other offenses. The jury recommended by a vote of 9-3 that Cabrera be sentenced to death. The trial court followed the jury's majority recommendation and imposed a death sentence. Cabrera appealed his conviction and sentence, and while the appeal was pending, filed a motion for a new trial claiming to have discovered new evidence calling into doubt his conviction. The trial court denied the motion. Our Court affirmed the convictions and sentence on direct appeal, including the trial court's denial of Cabrera's new trial motion.9 Cabrera then filed a motion for postconviction relief under Superior Court Criminal Rule 61. In a lengthy opinion dated June 22, 2015, the Superior Court granted the motion in part by vacating Cabrera's death sentence.10 The trial court ruled that Cabrera's trial counsel was ineffective during the penalty phase of the trial. The court denied the remainder of the motion. This appeal followed.

II.

Cabrera raises ten arguments challenging the Superior Court's denial of his postconviction motion: (1) the Superior Court should have considered Cabrera's reverse Batson claim as a standalone claim, instead of limiting its assertion to an ineffective assistance of counsel claim; and even if Cabrera was limited to an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, prejudice did not have to be shown to demonstrate ineffective assistance of counsel; (2) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to move to suppress the gun taken from Cabrera's father's residence; (3) the State's failure to disclose expert testimony until just before trial rendered the trial fundamentally unfair and violated due process; (4) the State's lead investigator improperly testified about a key piece of evidence rendering it inadmissible, and the State should have granted immunity to the witness who later sought to recant her allegedly perjured testimony; (5) the jury was improperly death qualified; (6) the Allen charge to the jury was unduly coercive and failed to include transitional language; (7) the State's alleged Brady violations affected the fairness of the trial; (8) the jury included members who were not properly qualified, and counsel was ineffective for failing to strike those jurors or move for a mistrial; (9) Cabrera's counsel should have been able to contact the jurors to investigate their bias or competence; and (10) the Superior Court improperly denied Cabrera's request to take discovery on a number of issues raised in the postconviction proceedings.

We review the Superior Court's denial of postconviction relief for abuse of discretion.11 Legal and constitutional questions are reviewed de novo.12 For each of Cabrera's *123postconviction claims, we will first review the Superior Court's application of the procedural bars of Superior Court Criminal Rule 61.13 If Cabrera has overcome those procedural hurdles, we will then review the Superior Court's resolution of his claims.

A.

During jury selection Cabrera's counsel, with Cabrera's close involvement,14 exercised three peremptory challenges against members of the venire who were black. After Cabrera and his counsel struck the third black juror, the trial judge raised a concern about the strikes. Neither the State nor Cabrera, however, wanted the trial judge to inquire further into the strikes:

TRIAL COURT: Before the next juror, please, I don't mean to pull the pin out of the hand grenade, but that's at least the third African-American the defense has stricken. Two others were females, as I recall, and one of them was a male too.
THE STATE: Your Honor has correctly recounted the record pertaining to the defense use of strikes. We have no application at this time, however.
DEFENSE COUNSEL: Does the Court wish for me to make a record?
TRIAL COURT: You might want to protect yourself, sure.
DEFENSE COUNSEL: Well, I don't -
THE STATE: We have no application at this time and, in particular, we are not alleging, nor do we ask the Court to find that a prima facie case of racial animus in the exercise of peremptory challenges has been shown by this record.
TRIAL COURT: Okay. I make no such finding anyway. I'm not making a finding. I'm merely making an observation.15

Cabrera did not attack his peremptory challenges at trial or during his direct appeal. But, Cabrera changed course in his motion for postconviction relief.

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Bluebook (online)
171 A.3d 119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cabrera-v-state-del-2017.