State v. Martinez

691 P.2d 887, 102 N.M. 94
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 23, 1984
Docket7276
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 691 P.2d 887 (State v. Martinez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Martinez, 691 P.2d 887, 102 N.M. 94 (N.M. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

HENDLEY, Judge.

Defendant appeals his second degree murder conviction. The five issues raised for reversal relate to 1) whether a witness was unavailable, 2) admission of conspiracy testimony, 3) hearsay exception, 4) severance and conflict, and 5) the death penalty qualification of the jury. Other issues raised in the docketing statement but not briefed on appeal are abandoned. State v. Vogenthaler, 89 N.M. 150, 548 P.2d 112 (Ct.App.1976). We affirm.

Defendant, Lujan, and Sedillo were originally charged with capital murder arising out of the beating and stabbing death of fellow-prisoner Thompson at Camp Sierra Blanca on August 1, 1981. Defendant’s first trial resulted in a mistrial because of a procedural error. His second trial resulted in mistrial as the result of a hung jury. Sedillo pled guilty to second degree murder, and at defendant’s third trial testified that he (Sedillo) alone killed Thompson. Lujan was tried with defendant at the third trial and was acquitted. Defendant was found guilty of second degree murder.

Unavailable Witness

Love was a prisoner on the night of Thompson’s murder. He was one of the two prisoners who saw the beating administered to Thompson outside of the lodges. Love saw defendant and Sedillo kicking and punching Thompson in back of Bonito Lodge. Love then saw defendant, Sedillo, and Lujan carry Thompson off. Shortly afterwards, Love looked out of his window in Desert Lodge and saw defendant hitting Thompson and Sedillo beating him with a pool cue. Defendant then came into Desert Lodge with blood on his arm and took a shower.

Love, who was in the penitentiary at the time, testified at the preliminary hearing in August 1981. Love was released in October 1981 and moved back to Oklahoma. He appeared for his deposition in January 1982 pursuant to the district attorney’s request and an ordinary witness subpoena. See NMSA 1978, Civ.P.R. 45 (Repl.Pamp. 1980). He appeared for the first trial in February 1982 in the same manner. He appeared and testified in the second trial in March 1982. Again, his appearance was pursuant to request and a Rule 45 subpoena. In August of 1982, just prior to the third trial which began on September 7, the district attorney sent another Rule 45 witness subpoena to Oklahoma. Love’s probation officer in Oklahoma served it on him. The prosecutor talked with Love twice, once on September 7 and once about ten days before that. Love was advised of his schedule and was told to pick up his tickets at the airport.

On September 8, after Love failed to arrive in New Mexico, the prosecutors began checking to see what had happened to him. The authorities in Oklahoma told the prosecutors here that Love had his own trial pending in Oklahoma. The prosecutors here had known about the Oklahoma charges since June. Love was to be tried on a misdemeanor charge, but because of the habitual offender statute, he was subject to a twenty-year sentence if found guilty. The attorneys in Oklahoma thought their trial would be continued so that Love could testify in defendant’s case. The trial was not continued. Love was present during the morning of his first day of trial in Oklahoma, but he did not thereafter return.

The prosecutors here immediately prepared a subpoena pursuant to the Uniform Act to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Without a State in Criminal Proceedings, NMSA 1978, Sections 31-8-1 to -6 (Repl.Pamp.1984), and sent it to Oklahoma by Federal Express. The prosecutors also learned that there were outstanding warrants pending for Love’s arrest in both New Mexico and Oklahoma. Prior to Love’s nonappearance here, the prosecutors had no reason to believe, based on Love's three prior appearances, that he would not appear as scheduled. The prosecutors here did not avail themselves of the Uniform Act until Love had already become a fugitive.

The trial court found that Love was unavailable and, therefore, that his preliminary hearing testimony would be admissible under NMSA 1978, Evid. Rule 804 (Repl. Pamp.1983). The deposition testimony and testimony from the prior trial were made available to the defense because, had Love been present, defense counsel could have cross-examined on them. With certain exceptions, the preliminary hearing testimony was read to the jury. Counsel for defendant then presented Love’s testimony from the second trial.

Defendant contends that the trial court erred in ruling Love to be unavailable. He claims that the admission of Love’s prior testimony deprived defendant of his confrontation and due process rights. Initially, it should be noted that defendant’s complaints about the adequacy of his earlier cross-examination of Love and the fact that his motives were different at the preliminary hearing are without merit. With regard to adequacy, the trial court recognized that certain matters were not developed by the defense during the earlier testimony and admitted the transcripts, with the express condition that the defense be allowed to cover these matters by extrinsic evidence. With regard to motive, State v. Massengill, 99 N.M. 283, 657 P.2d 139 (Ct.App.1983), holds that, as a matter of law, a defendant has the opportunity and a similar motive to develop testimony at a preliminary hearing as he does at trial. The requirements of Rule 804(b)(1) were satisfied as to adequacy of opportunity and as to motive.

Defendant’s confrontation issue is controlled by State v. Martinez, 99 N.M. 48, 653 P.2d 879 (Ct.App.1982). There, the court held that there is no denial of confrontation if the witness is unavailable and if the evidence admitted falls within a firmly rooted hearsay exception. If Love was unavailable, his former testimony falls within the firmly rooted hearsay exception of Rule 804 as former testimony. Thus, the only substantial issue raised, with regard to Love’s testimony, is whether he was unavailable.

Rule 804(a)(5) provides that a declarant is unavailable if he “is absent from the hearing and the proponent of his statement has been unable to procure his attendance by process or other reasonable means.” Our prior cases have insisted on strict compliance with the Uniform Act before an out-of-state witness may be declared unavailable under Rule 804(a)(5). State v. Vialpando, 93 N.M. 289, 599 P.2d 1086 (Ct.App.1979). Use of “process” is limited to securing the presence of an in-state witness, and the Uniform Act has been considered “other reasonable means” for securing the presence of an out-of-state witness. State v. Waits, 92 N.M. 275, 587 P.2d 53 (Ct.App.1978).

The question raised by this case is whether the Uniform Act must be used sufficiently in advance of trial to insure the witness’s presence at the commencement of the trial or whether other reasonable means exist in certain cases. In Waits, the witness appeared at a preliminary hearing and then failed to appear, in response to an ordinary subpoena served out-of-state, for trial. The court held that “under the facts of [that] case,” the Uniform Act had to be used. Here, the facts are different.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
691 P.2d 887, 102 N.M. 94, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-martinez-nmctapp-1984.