Opinion ID: 2686798
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Medical Records from Cuba

Text: Trial counsel did not rely exclusively on Ms. Mendoza’s testimony to show Mendoza’s difficult upbringing. They also obtained, via Mendoza’s relative in Cuba, a doctor’s summary of Mendoza’s childhood medical records in Cuba, which were consistent with Ms. Mendoza’s testimony. The records were signed by Dr. Pedro A. Rivera Richards and contained the seal of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. After Ms. Mendoza’s testimony, the defense proffered these medical records. The records were in Spanish and were read to the jury in English through an interpreter.9 They documented Mendoza’s mental health problems and treatment from ages 2.5 to 5 (1968 to 1971), and then from ages 10 to 13 (1976 to 1979). 9 The trial court overruled the State’s hearsay objection to the admission of the medical records. 15 Case: 13-14968 Date Filed: 07/31/2014 Page: 16 of 58 The medical records stated that Mendoza’s “[m]ain diagnosis” was “definitive dominant character with aggressive predominance and schizophrenic and schizoid characteristics.” His other diagnoses were “fears, nocturnal fears during infancy, and enuresis.” According to the records, Mendoza first received psychiatric care when he was two-years-old. From ages two to five, Mendoza received “specialized treatment and family counseling.” At five-years-old, he was released from treatment. At age ten, Mendoza went back to a pediatric psychiatrist in Cuba “because he was not progressing in school” and “found himself isolated.” Mendoza had many “fights and brawls” inside and outside school in Cuba. Mendoza received “all types of psychotherapy, talks and meetings and family sessions” as well as “special school therapy for his conduct and specialized medical treatment.” He was evaluated “by the whole medical group,” including psychiatrists and psychologists and subjected to various psychometric tests. When he was 13-years-old, Mendoza reported having “visions, hallucinations and auditive types of sensations of persons calling him.” This led the doctors to diagnose “characteristics of schizophrenic and schizoid characters.”