State v. Nicholas Santana

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedMarch 1, 2022
Docket2021AP000159-CR, 2021AP000160-CR
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Nicholas Santana (State v. Nicholas Santana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Nicholas Santana, (Wis. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. March 1, 2022 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Sheila T. Reiff petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal Nos. 2021AP159-CR Cir. Ct. Nos. 2017CF3993 2018CF4825 2021AP160-CR STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT I

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,

V.

NICHOLAS SANTANA,

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

APPEAL from judgments and an order of the circuit court for Milwaukee County: DAVID A. FEISS and JEFFREY A. WAGNER, Judges. Affirmed.

Before Brash, C.J., Donald, P.J., and White, J.

Per curiam opinions may not be cited in any court of this state as precedent

or authority, except for the limited purposes specified in WIS. STAT. RULE 809.23(3). Nos. 2021AP159-CR 2021AP160-CR

¶1 PER CURIAM. Nicholas Santana appeals his judgments of conviction entered upon a jury’s verdict in a joined trial for first-degree recklessly endangering safety with use of a dangerous weapon, and substantial battery with intent to cause bodily harm, both counts with domestic abuse assessments, and felony intimidation of a witness by a person charged with a felony. He also appeals the circuit court order denying his motion for postconviction relief without a hearing. He argues that newly discovered evidence, a Brady1 violation, and ineffective assistance of counsel compel a new trial or evidentiary hearing. Upon review, we reject his claims and affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶2 This matter arises out of an altercation between Santana and his live- in girlfriend, M.B., in August 2017. According to the criminal complaint, Milwaukee police responded to a 911 call and spoke with M.B., who reported that Santana physically attacked her after an argument and she sought help for her injuries shortly after the attack. M.B. told police that Santana choked her, punched her in the face twice, stabbed her in the face, and then kicked her in the stomach and back. M.B. was treated at St. Luke’s Hospital; the complaint stated that the emergency room doctor diagnosed M.B with a nasal fracture and she received sixteen stitches for the stab wound. Santana was charged with three counts: (1) first-degree recklessly endangering safety, with use of a dangerous weapon with a domestic abuse assessment; (2) substantial battery with intent to

1 Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963).

2 Nos. 2021AP159-CR 2021AP160-CR

cause bodily harm with a domestic abuse assessment; and (3) strangulation and suffocation.2

¶3 The trial court3 granted the State’s motion to join for trial a second complaint against Santana, and the trial was conducted in November 2018. We recite relevant testimony from the trial. M.B. testified that on the date of the incident, she and Santana were visiting with Ralph Schmall, a friend of Santana’s, and hanging out in Schmall’s backyard when she and Santana got into a “belligerent” argument “calling each other names.” M.B. said she was going to leave, but when she tried to pick up her bag, Santana “grabbed [her] in a choke[]hold.” M.B. testified that Santana put his forearm around her neck from behind. Santana punched her twice in the face. Then he started kicking her in her “hands and … body and [her] neck and [her] back.” She testified that Santana stopped when Schmall, who had gone inside his residence, came back outside. She got up and realized she was bleeding from her face; she had a cut “all the way from [her] eye, all the way down [her] cheek” on the right side of her face. She testified she went to a nearby Popeye’s restaurant and they called an ambulance to take her to St. Luke’s Hospital. She testified that although she did not see Santana

2 Santana was ordered to have no-contact with M.B. as a condition of his bond, an order issued the same day as the criminal complaint. The State issued a second complaint against Santana in October 2018 alleging a single count of felony intimidation of a witness by a person charged with a felony. The second complaint alleged that while in custody at the House of Corrections, Santana violated the no-contact order and called M.B. The police listened to a call from July 19, 2018, in which Santana told M.B. he was taking the case to trial and that she should “stay out of the way.” We do not further discuss the witness intimidation charge because those underlying facts are not at issue in Santana’s postconviction motion or appeal. 3 The Honorable Cynthia Mae Davis presided over Santana’s jury trial. We refer to Judge Davis as the trial court.

3 Nos. 2021AP159-CR 2021AP160-CR

stab her with his pocketknife, she believed that the injury to her face was from a knife and she knew Santana carried his pocketknife around most of the time.

¶4 Schmall testified that after visiting with Santana and M.B., he found M.B. on the ground in the yard. He stated that M.B. was bleeding and she told him that Santana hit her and stabbed her. After M.B. left, Schmall went into the yard to clean up and saw Santana, who showed his pocketknife to Schmall.

¶5 Officer Taylor Baas testified that he responded to a 911 call at Popeye’s restaurant, where he met with M.B. and then took her statement at St. Luke’s Hospital. Officer Luis Vargas Ramos testified that he was dispatched to the scene of the incident and found Santana, based on the description of the suspect. He detained Santana and found the pocketknife in his pocket during the search incident to his arrest. Officer David Cabral testified that he and his partner, Officer Baas, responded to the 911 call at Popeye’s restaurant. He testified that M.B had a deep wound to her face.

¶6 Dr. Charles Nussbaum testified that he was the emergency room physician who treated M.B.’s injuries at St. Luke’s Hospital. He testified that this case stood out as “one of the more significant or concerning assault type of cases that I’ve seen.” He testified that M.B. told him that Santana caused her injuries. He testified that for the laceration to the face, a physician’s assistant who worked with him closed the injury with sutures; he explained that “[i]t actually had to be done in two layers; some deep sutures to pull—to fasten the muscle tissue together, and then some sutures to close the skin over the top.” He testified it took sixteen sutures to close the laceration and the wound was two and one-half inches long. He testified that the laceration was deep, going through the skin and muscle,

4 Nos. 2021AP159-CR 2021AP160-CR

exposing the bone. Further, he testified that M.B. sustained fractures to her orbital socket and nasal bone.

¶7 The jury returned guilty verdicts for first-degree recklessly endangering safety with use of a dangerous weapon and substantial battery with intent to cause bodily harm, but Santana was acquitted of the strangulation and suffocation charge. The jury returned a guilty verdict on the count of felony intimidation of a witness from the second case.

¶8 Prior to sentencing, Santana’s trial counsel informed the trial court that he was pursing potential newly discovered evidence. Santana was told by Justin D. Jackson, another inmate at the jail, that M.B. had been involved in an allegedly similar stabbing incident. The State investigated and turned over two reports, one from 2009, the other from 2013, both involving M.B.4 The State summarized the reports:

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Related

Brady v. Maryland
373 U.S. 83 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Giglio v. United States
405 U.S. 150 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Strickland v. Washington
466 U.S. 668 (Supreme Court, 1984)
United States v. Bagley
473 U.S. 667 (Supreme Court, 1985)
State v. Pettit
492 N.W.2d 633 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1992)
State v. Love
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State v. Plude
2008 WI 58 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2008)
State v. Harris
2004 WI 64 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2004)
State v. Allen
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State v. Johnson
449 N.W.2d 845 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1990)
State v. Bentley
548 N.W.2d 50 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1996)
State v. Thiel
2003 WI 111 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2003)
State v. Gary Lee Wayerski
2019 WI 11 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2019)
State v. Vollbrecht
2012 WI App 90 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2012)

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Nicholas Santana, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-nicholas-santana-wisctapp-2022.