Opinion ID: 3170092
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Deborah Caro

Text: On July 11, 2011 – more than two years after the shooting – Deborah Caro went to the Cherokee Indian Police Department. At that time, Caro spoke to Detective Owl and claimed that her husband, Justin Denig, was the one who shot Shell in 2008. The government disclosed this statement to the defense, and Owl and the Federal Defender’s office conducted a follow-up investigation into Caro’s claims. Counting her first conversation with Detective Owl, Caro ultimately gave a total of four statements to Owl and James Allard, the defense investigator. Caro did not testify at the evidentiary hearing, as the district court permitted her to assert the marital testimonial privilege. The court permitted Bird to proffer the substance of Caro’s statements. In her first conversation with Detective Owl, Caro told Owl that Denig was physically abusive and that she had not reported him previously because she was afraid of him. She explained, however, that they had separated “this past Saturday” and that she had “t[aken] out a protective order on [him].” J.A. 523. Caro stated that on Christmas Eve, 2008, she, Denig, and Shell were drinking together at Caro’s trailer, which was then located beside Caro’s mother’s home. Caro passed out at her mother’s house, but Denig brought her back and put her to bed. She woke up at around 6 a.m. and found blood in the trailer. Caro told 7 Owl that she walked outside and saw Shell lying on the ground, bloody, with a “bullet mark” on his arm. J.A. 522. Denig was crying and said, “I shot him.” J.A. 522. Caro stated that she told Denig that Shell needed to go to the hospital, but Denig refused and threatened to kill her unless she helped him put Shell into his car. Denig and Shell then left in Shell’s car; Caro did not see Denig again until late in the day when he called and asked to be picked up at a place near Bunches Creek. Denig was muddy and wet, and he told Caro that he had gotten lost hiking and had fallen in the creek. On August 5, 2011, defense investigator Allard briefly interviewed Caro while she was at work, and she again stated that Denig shot Shell. Allard gave Caro a copy of Owl’s notes about the July 11 conversation, and she generally affirmed the substance of that statement. When Allard interviewed Caro again three days later, however, she recanted much of her previous statement. She denied ever saying that Denig admitted to shooting Shell, or saying that she saw a bullet mark, and she said that the blood she saw on Shell could have been from a bloody nose. Caro also told Allard that Denig, who had been arrested for assaulting Caro, had been released from custody and was again living with her. On May 30, 2012, Detective Owl interviewed Caro again. In this interview, Caro talked about a night in the fall of an 8 unspecified year when she, Denig, and Shell were together at her trailer and were very drunk. She passed out and saw blood on the floor when she woke up. However, contrary to her July 11 account of the incident, Caro told Owl that she saw Shell and Denig -- each with a bloody nose -- sitting together inside the trailer, drunk but apparently content and without animus. She claimed that she and Denig helped Shell out to his car because he was drunk, but Caro did not claim to see any bullet wound or any injury other than the bloody nose. She said that Denig later went fishing, which was not unusual, and that he came back home wet after falling in the creek. Caro recanted her previous statement that Denig threatened to kill her if she did not help to get Shell into the car, and she indicated that her mother (who did not like Denig) told her to say that. See J.A. 665. Caro stated that months after the confrontation with Shell, Denig told her that he shot Shell. Caro told Owl that she did not believe him and that she had not seen evidence of a shooting, and she described Denig’s statements about the confrontation as “boasting” and “bragging.” J.A. 645-46, 651, 659. Caro told Owl that she asked Denig about the shooting multiple times when Denig was sober and that Denig told her he didn’t know what she was talking about. At the conclusion of the interview, Caro prepared a hand-written statement in which 9 she stated, “I am willing to testify to Justin’s words, that he said he shot [Shell].” J.A. 672.