Opinion ID: 1800657
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Witnesses' Relationship

Text: The three witnesses whose testimony connected Garcia to the crime  Feliciano Aguayo, Elizabeth Feliciano, and Rufina Perez  were all related to each other. Aguayo, whose mother is Elizabeth, married Perez's sister. Although this familial relationship was noted on an early police report, Garcia's trial counsel never mentioned it to the jury and could not recall it at the evidentiary hearing. The State, however, repeatedly told the jury that the witnesses were unconnected. Garcia claims his trial counsel was deficient in failing to expose the witnesses' relationship and in failing to argue that they might have fabricated their testimony in hopes of receiving a reward. Nothing in the record suggests that the witnesses actually did conspire to testify against Garcia, or even that they sought remuneration for their testimony. One of the witnesses, Perez, denied hearing about the reward before trial. Another witness, Elizabeth Feliciano, knew of the reward but testified that she neither sought nor received any money. All that Garcia has demonstrated is a familial relationship. Even the strength of that relationship remains unclear. Perez testified that she did not know the Felicianos very well because I never visit them. She apparently knew Aguayo better, but cautioned that their relationship got nothing to do [with] what they say on the others. At the evidentiary hearing, Garcia's trial counsel testified that he would not have emphasized a familial relationship to the jury unless he could have shown that it influenced the witnesses' testimony. Absent any evidence that the relationship did, in fact, influence their testimony, we reject Garcia's ineffective assistance claim on both the deficiency and prejudice prongs.