State v. Aricivia

495 N.W.2d 364, 1992 Iowa App. LEXIS 305, 1992 WL 425191
CourtCourt of Appeals of Iowa
DecidedNovember 30, 1992
Docket90-1719
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 495 N.W.2d 364 (State v. Aricivia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Aricivia, 495 N.W.2d 364, 1992 Iowa App. LEXIS 305, 1992 WL 425191 (iowactapp 1992).

Opinion

DONIELSON, Presiding Judge.

The defendant, Armando Cardenas Arici-via, appeals from the judgment and sentence of the district court finding him guilty of first-degree murder.

On June 20, 1989, Kelly Jo Bramley was found strangled to death in the Sioux City apartment she shared with the defendant’s brother, Humberto Aricivia. On March 13, 1990, Armando Aricivia was charged by trial information with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Bramley.

A jury trial commenced on September 18, 1990. The coroner testified Bramley died from strangulation, and the marks on her body were found consistent with a struggle and with sexual abuse. He estimated the time of death to be between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on June 20, 1989.

A criminalist with the DCI testified she performed blood tests on samples taken from the victim, Humberto, and the defendant. She compared those samples to samples taken from the sheets on Bramley’s bed and vaginal swabs from her body. The criminalist testified she found spermatozoa on the vaginal swabs. She could not conclusively find Aricivia was the donor, but she also could not eliminate him as a donor. However, Humberto was eliminated as a donor of the spermatozoa.

Harold Deadman, the State’s DNA expert, testified concerning tests performed on the DNA taken from the defendant, Humberto, Bramley, and the vaginal swabs from her body. Using these samples, he found DNA profiles present in the vaginal swab male fractions which matched the defendant’s profile. Based on this match and the use of the FBI’s black data base, the chance of the match being coincidental was one in 1.6 million. Over the defendant’s objection, he testified that, using a Hispanic database, the chance of a coincidental match was one in 500,000.

Russell Little, who was Bramley’s neighbor, testified that on the morning of June 20,1989, he saw a bearded man standing at the window of Bramley’s apartment. Little picked Aricivia’s picture out of a police photo lineup, but was unable to identify the defendant at one of two depositions. At the second deposition, Little was able to identify the defendant because he had a beard at that time. An investigator for the defense testified Aricivia only had “stubble” on his face at the deposition. Over the defendant’s objection, photographs taken of Aricivia following this deposition were introduced into evidence.

William Malloy, another neighbor, also testified he saw a bearded man who appeared to be talking to someone in Bram-ley’s apartment. He was unable to pick the defendant’s picture out of a police photo lineup, but he identified the defendant at trial.

Aricivia’s brother Humberto testified he went to work at about 5:40 a.m. that morning and he got off work at 2:30 p.m. After work, he met up with several friends, including his brother, Armando Aricivia. Humberto testified Aricivia previously had a beard, but on that day he was clean shaven. Humberto also testified his brother was not welcome at his apartment because Bramley had told him Aricivia had raped her. He testified when he confronted Aricivia with the accusation of this incident, Aricivia asked for Humberto’s forgiveness.

Joannie Saul, Aricivia’s live-in girlfriend, testified for the State. She testified she, her brother John, and Aricivia had stayed up and smoked crack during the night of June 19 and the early morning of June 20. She testified that, around 7:20 a.m. on June 20, the defendant told her he was going to talk to Humberto and left. By about 11:00 *366 a.m., Aricivia had returned. Joannie noticed he had shaved his mustache off and there were scratches on his back. Joannie testified Aricivia later told her if the police asked about the scratches, she should tell them he received them while playing. She further testified she did not make the scratches because her fingernails were too short. On cross-examination, Joannie admitted she knew Aricivia had been sleeping with another woman.

The State also introduced the deposition of Alberto Mendoza, who stated that Arici-via had told him he would kill Bramley for filing the sexual abuse charges against him and putting him in jail. The defendant attempted to introduce evidence from an Alberto Rodriguez who said Mendoza had told him he had lied in his deposition. However, the district court excluded the testimony on the ground the evidence was inadmissible hearsay.

The State presented evidence from Dorothy Loftus, also Bramley’s neighbor, who testified that, on July 14, 1988, she saw a man she recognized as Humberto’s brother crawl through Bramley’s window at the victim’s apartment. After the man left, Bramley appeared at Loftus’s home and told Loftus that she had been raped.

Aricivia, through an interpreter, testified in his own defense. He stated he had been at a party at Ray Groth’s house with Joan-nie on the night of June 19. He testified they briefly left the party, went to Arici-via’s apartment, returned to the party at 4:00 a.m. and stayed until 7:00 a.m. They then returned to his apartment. In his testimony, he accounted for his activity and whereabouts for the entire morning and afternoon of June 20. Specifically, he testified he was back and forth between his apartment and Ray’s house throughout the morning. He testified he had had sexual relations with another woman and he had been in a fight with Joannie over the matter that morning. He admitted he had shaved that day, but testified he had also shaved on June 19 before he went to reapply for food stamps. It was verified at trial that Aricivia had visited the food stamp office, but not whether Aricivia had a beard at that time.

The defense also read the deposition of Ray Groth into evidence. He testified Ari-civia was at his house on June 19. He stated Aricivia returned the next day between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. and stayed until 11:00 a.m. His account of Aricivia’s whereabouts was inconsistent with Aricivia’s testimony.

Other witnesses testified for both the State and the defense regarding Aricivia’s whereabouts. The testimony of the. various witnesses contained conflicting accounts of Aricivia’s activity and whereabouts on June 20.

Prior to trial, Aricivia had filed a motion in limine arguing evidence of the sexual abuse charges filed by Bramley should be excluded because it constituted improper character evidence and it was highly prejudicial. The trial court denied the motion. Aricivia also filed a subsequent motion seeking to exclude evidence underlying the sexual abuse charge and arguing evidence that Bramley had later dismissed the sexual abuse charges should be admissible. The court overruled that motion as well.

Aricivia also filed a motion to suppress the State’s DNA evidence and the statistics based on such evidence because the DNA evidence was not sufficiently reliable. This motion was denied. In addition, the defendant filed a motion for a protective order, a motion in limine and a motion to suppress alleging the State had improperly obtained a report from the defendant’s DNA expert, Cellmark Diagnostics. This motion was also denied.

Aricivia subsequently filed two applications for discretionary review based on the trial court’s ruling regarding the prior sexual abuse charges and the Cellmark DNA report. The applications for discretionary review were denied by a three justice panel of the supreme court. The trial court denied Aricivia’s motion for reconsideration.

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Bluebook (online)
495 N.W.2d 364, 1992 Iowa App. LEXIS 305, 1992 WL 425191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-aricivia-iowactapp-1992.