Opinion ID: 220788
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Structure of Pabon's Joint Trial

Text: The Philadelphia DA's Office, on behalf of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, prosecuted Pabon jointly with four codefendants for the murders of Vargas and Carisquilla. His codefendants were: (1) Pagan, alleged to have planned and paid for the killing but not to have been one of the shooters; (2) Centeno, Pagan's common-law wife who the DA claimed was involved in the conspiracy to murder Vargas; (3) DeJesus, an alleged shooter; and (4) Hernandez, an alleged shooter. Guatauba, also believed to be one of the shooters, was not apprehended by authorities at the time of trial. Ortiz, the purported driver, accepted a plea deal to avoid the death penalty and testified for the Commonwealth. Roman, a member of the drug group who was not involved in the shooting, also testified for the Commonwealth as part of a cooperation agreement regarding a different murder charge. Judge Jane Greenspan presided over the joint jury trial. Each of the five defendants was represented by his or her own defense counsel. All of the defense attorneys moved for severance, but their motions were denied. The defense attorneys later moved for recusal of Judge Greenspan based on remarks made by her during voir dire, but those motions also were denied. Pabon used a court translator for pre-trial hearings and during the trial. The Commonwealth's decision to introduce confessions given by several of the non-testifying codefendants raised the potential for violations of the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution. Thus, the trial transcript reflects negotiated, line-by-line edits to these confessions, made by Judge Greenspan in discussion with prosecutors and several of the defense attorneys. Pabon's court-appointed counsel in this habeas appeal points to one passage in DeJesus's statement as a Bruton violation. The relevant portion of his statement reads: Question: José, is there anything you would like to add to your statement? Answer, Yeah. I know that I didn't shoot the girl who got killed. Another should be arrested for this. He paid it off. He even gave me the Grand National for helping to do this besides the money that Guatauba paid me. (N.T. 8/2/99: 44) (emphasis added). The statement referred to Pagan, who employed the other men and was alleged to have paid for the killings. Pagan's attorney objected, asking that the statement be limited to I know that I didn't shoot the girl who got killed to avoid a violation of his client's Sixth Amendment rights. The Commonwealth argued that the statement should not be redacted because it did not name Pagan explicitly. Ultimately, his attorney and the DA agreed to limit the statement to I know that I didn't shoot the girl who got killed. Another should be arrested for this. Pabon's claim that this redacted statement, in the context of the trial, violated his Confrontation Clause rights is discussed in part III.B below.