Sierra, Cory Estrada

CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 17, 2015
DocketWR-69,627-03
StatusPublished

This text of Sierra, Cory Estrada (Sierra, Cory Estrada) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sierra, Cory Estrada, (Tex. 2015).

Opinion

CORY ESTRADA SIERRA § IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS Appellant § IN THE STATE OF TEXAS vs. § Re: 13-14-00666-CR THE STATE OF TEXAS § Tr.Ct.No. S-05-3072-CR Appellee § REC!E!VEDJN COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS ~R 172015 COMES NOW, PETITIONER CORY ESTRADA SIERRA, "PRO-SE" and files this ~rj.~ o~e. ,...n b. · AlUI~u ~co~1!.«21, yoerll\ Mandamus in the above styled cause and states the following to writ:

1. On July the 9th of 2013 Petitioner filed a Motion for retesting of DNA under Chapter 64 of the Code of Criminal Procedure with the 36th Judicial District Court of San Patricio, Texas, .with request for appointment of counsel and other Motions to follow pretaining to the need for request. No reply was ever received from the 36th District Court.

2. On September 30th of 2014, again Petitioner re~filed another Motion for DNA testing under Chapter 64 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, this time under the direction of the handbook for offenders in the George Beto Law Library with COVER LETTER, REQUESTING FOR APPOINTMENT OF COUNSEL PURSUANT TO ART. 64, DECLARATION OF INABILITY TO PAY COST as EXHIBIT "1", SIX MONTH TRUST FUND ACCOUNT STATEMENT signed by John G. Becraft supr. of the George Beto Law Library and a ORDER APPOINTING COUNSEL. (See copies attached to Writ of Mandamus).

3. On the 20th of October of 2014, the District Court of the 36th filed Motions under'Chapter 64 and made a decision according to the District Attorney's request to deny Petitioners motion for "The State, objects to any unwarranted DNA testing in this cause as the Defendant has not met the burden of proof necessary to invoke the provisions of Article 64 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, as no reasonable grounds for the filing of said motion have been presented." Signed Micheal E. Welborn. With that the 36th District Court denied Petitioners Motion for DNA Testing, along with other grounds that the District Attorney also gave.

4. Inone of the documents that the District Court sent back with the reply from the District Attorney's office was the copy of the original DNA results that were done before court but were never raised in court by defense attorney Mr. Hector De Toro, while the A.D.A. Micheal Hess introduced to the jury a HIV

l/7 expert witness that the State used to convince the jury that Petitioner had given HIV to the victim. The HIV doctor was Terence I. Doran out of the Uni- versity of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Doran explained how it was possible for someone to contract the HIV virus, when asked by Mr. Hess the A.D.A. "In your medical opinion how do you think A~Y. contract the HIV virus?"-He stated "through sexual contact".

5. On or about June 15th of 2005, Defense Attorney Mr. De Toro, came to visit the Defendant (Myself) to view over the items taken from the defendants home that was claimed tobe-A.Y.s_ clothing from the, time the victim said were the clothing she wore everytime the defendant sexually assualted her. Upon viewing the clothing the defendant ·noticed that two of the clothing were didnot belong .to the victim, and identified them to his counsel as being Item 15-2 and Item 16-2, one Black Shorts Size "S" and one Black "NIKE" shorts Size "M". Defense Atty pointed out that the victim claimed that they belonged to her. Defendant tried to correct defense atty by telling him that was not true, because Item 15-2 belonged to HIM (Defendant) and Item 16-2 belonged to the victims Mother. Defendant then said to defense atty "wait til results come back and see the truth for yourself."

6. On or about the 16th of September of 2005, the result finally came back from the TX Dept. of Public Safety, at which time defense atty came to visit De- fendant once again this time accusing defendant of lying to him. Saying that Defendant had been untruthful to his atty about that he did not do the crime of sexual assault against the step daugther·A. Y~ And then slams the DNA re- sults on the table. When Defendant went to grab the results defense atty grabs the results and throws them in his briefcase and closes it up. Defen- dant then stand to leave and defense atty trys to-stop him by saying meeting just started. Defendant notified atty that once he grabed the results so the defendant could not see them meeting was over and that he would write a let- ter to·the judge and he could explain why he would not let the defendant see the results to the DNA when it was the defendant who requested the DNA Testing not the State to prove that he didn'_t do what he was being accused of.

7. It was then that the defense atty gave the results to the defendant to view. After the viewing results the defendant asked the defense atty to show him where it said that the defendant was guilty, his reply was "some where in there"; after asking defense atty to show me where the results said I did it

2/7 he replys with "I must have mis-read it". I then show him again how I had told him that the result were going to come back saying that "Cory Sierra and Debbie Sierra cannot be excluded as the contributors", because those two shorts never belonged to th0 victim. they had been put in there by the mother so that when the DNA was done they could find something of the de- fendant to sayhe did it. But what they orshe the mother did not expect was for the lab to question if the female mixture did no:t match the. victim then who did it belong too. Therefore they had the whole household DNA tested to see who it would match. It matched the mother of the victim Debbie Sierra. The mother tampered with the evidence, therefore showing that the victim lied, and the A.D.A. knew about it and still brought in a expert witness to say that I.in his medical opinion gave A.Y. HIV through sexual assault. And my attorney never stood up to show the results of the DNA to prove that it was a lye, theoA.D.A. knew tt and still brought in a expert witness to lye to the jury committing Prosecutorial Misconduct (See u.s. v. Reid, 625 F.3d 977) Under the 2 step inquiry for evaluating prose- cutorial misconduct or remark was improper, and, if it· was improper, the court then determines whether the impropriety was sufficiently flagrant to warrant reversal by taking into account four factors: (1) the degree to which the conduct or remarks tended to mislead the jury or prejudice the defendant; (2) whether they were isolated or extensive; (3) whether they were deliberately or accidentally put before the jury; and (4) the overall strength of the evidence against the defendant. (See u.s. v. Wells, 623 F.3d 332) In order to warrant a·new trial, prosecutorial misconduct must have been so pronounced and persistent that it pe~meated the entire atmosphere of the trial. (See Drake v. Portuondo. 553 F:~ 3d) A conviction obtained through testimony the prosecutor knows to be false is repugnant to the u.s. Consti- tution. This is so because, in order to reduce the danger Of false convictions, courts rely on the prosecutor not to be simply a party in litigation whose sole object i f the conviction of the defendant before him. The prosecutor is an officer of the court whose duty is to present a forceful and truthful case to the jury, not to win at any cost. A conviction obtained through use of false evidence, known to.be such by representatives of the State, must fall under the 14th Amendment. The same result obtains when the State although not not soliciting false evidence, allows it to go uncorrected when it appears.

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Related

Scheuer v. Rhodes
416 U.S. 232 (Supreme Court, 1974)
United States v. Wells
623 F.3d 332 (Sixth Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Reid
625 F.3d 977 (Sixth Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Duarte
246 F.3d 56 (First Circuit, 2001)
United States v. Kasenge
660 F.3d 537 (First Circuit, 2011)
Gray v. State
69 S.W.3d 835 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Ex Parte Ybarra
629 S.W.2d 943 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1982)

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