Opinion ID: 2321578
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Salamanca

Text: Salamanca likewise claims that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective because he also failed to call Sandy Leonzo, Erica García and Blanca Buruca to impeach Rosa García by testifying that she had been drinking and could not have identified any of the attackers because she had left before the assaults. Salamanca was not charged with participating in those attacks, but, he argues, by impeaching García's account that she saw the attackers, the witnesses would have undermined the credibility of Rosa García's testimony that Salamanca physically threatened her against talking to police about the attacks the following day. The trial court denied Salamanca's claim of ineffective assistance without a hearing. The trial court noted that, in her affidavit filed in support of appellant's motion, Erica García did not state that she was with Rosa García on the night in question, or had any knowledge of her whereabouts (indeed, she does not mention Rosa García in her affidavit at all). [59] The trial court then properly concluded that Salamanca had not offered any evidence in support of his claim that Erica could have impeached Rosa García's testimony that she witnessed the attack on Helm. With regard to the other witnesses, Salamanca's trial counsel, Bradford Barneys, stated in his affidavit that, along with the other defense counsel, he had interviewed Sandy Leonzo and found her incredible. He based that determination on her general demeanor and because she told defense counsel at the time that she left the scene after the assaults had occurred, not before as later claimed in her affidavit. For these reasons, Salamanca's trial counsel decided that Leonzo would likely hurt appellant Salamanca more than help him. Though he stated that all of the defense counsel had jointly interviewed Leonzo and Buruca together with Mayra Rivera, Salamanca's trial counsel admitted in his affidavit that he had no independent recollection of having talked with Blanca Buruca. According to trial counsel, he discussed with Salamanca his decision not to call Leonzo and Buruca, and Salamanca agreed. Salamanca did not provide any affidavit rebutting his trial counsel's assessment of these witnesses' credibility or the decision not to call them as defense witnesses. As in Villatoro's case, Salamanca does not challenge the truth of his trial counsel's attested facts, but rather the soundness of his decision not to call Leonzo and Buruca. The trial court found that the decision of Salamanca's counsel not to call Leonzo was based on a reasoned assessment well within his discretion. See Smith, 454 A.2d at 825 (holding the decision whether to call a witness is left almost exclusively to counsel). It also found no prejudice, and we agree. Rivera's testimony was intended to discredit Rosa García, who was the sole witness to testify about Salamanca's threat and assault. But García was also impeached for bias because of her boyfriend's (Benítez) cooperation with the government and her own delay in reporting Salamanca's threats to the police. The jury, however, chose to believe her account, and we think it unlikely that it would have been swayed otherwise by Buruca's and Leonzo's proffered testimony, which would have been cumulative of Mayra Rivera's trial testimony. The government's case against Salamanca for assault was based on Benítez's testimony that he saw Salamanca knock the homeless man to the ground, and neither Garcia, Leonzo nor Buruca had anything to say in this regard. We conclude that the trial court did not err in denying, without a hearing, Salamanca's motion for a new trial based on ineffectiveness of trial counsel.