Opinion ID: 1127405
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Statements Made to Homicide Detective Boggs

Text: On March 27, 1987, after waiving his Miranda rights, defendant was interviewed about the Tatman murder by Homicide Detective Boggs. Defendant had already been arrested for the Bocanegra murders and agreed to talk to the officer because he believed he could be spending the rest of his life in prison. Boggs testified that defendant told him he wanted to rob Tatman of his refrigerator because he needed one. Defendant told Boggs that, because he was so intoxicated (from ingesting alcohol and drugs) at the time of the robbery, he could not remember the sequence of events. According to Boggs, defendant asked Reyes to pry open Tatman's bathroom window with Reyes's screwdriver. Once inside, Reyes removed the contents of Tatman's refrigerator, and defendant moved it to a room next door that had been rented by Vicky Ornalez, a friend of the perpetrators. Defendant told Boggs that when he returned to Tatman's room, Tatman was awake and Reyes was standing over him with a screwdriver in his hand. Defendant claimed he had no idea why Reyes was acting this way because both men had discussed trying not to awaken Tatman while they removed his property. Reyes then hit Tatman in the chest, pulled Tatman off the bed and onto the floor, and made multiple lunging movements downward with the screwdriver in his hand. Defendant asserted that the bed partially blocked his view, but he nonetheless believed Reyes was stabbing Tatman. After Reyes completed the murder, both defendant and Reyes returned to Vickie Ornalez's room.