Opinion ID: 2567623
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: Joe Ingber

Text: The November 4, 1996, declaration of Joe Ingber, petitioner's lead trial counsel in the Black case, was jointly submitted to the referee. Ingber also gave direct testimony at the second reference hearing. According to Ingber, in the course of representing petitioner he never received the Montez letter or any information concerning Montez, Sanchez, Barnes, or McDonald. Had Ingber possessed the Montez letter and the information in Montez's declaration at the time of petitioner's trial, he would have cross-examined Saucedo in detailed fashion about the letter and its contents, which he believed would have caused the jurors to question Saucedo's credibility as the primary aggravation witness at the penalty phase of petitioner's trial. Had he known that Saucedo had received funds from the prosecution, he also would have cross-examined Saucedo regarding his motivation to make a deal and testify against petitioner and would have used Saucedo's arrangements with the prosecution to argue against petitioner's receiving the death penalty. Had Ingber been provided with information about persons to whom Saucedo had said things similar to things he had said to Montez, he would have interviewed those persons and would have attempted to call them to the stand to the extent he determined their testimony to be of value. In particular, had he been aware of the information known to Jimmie Barnes he would have called Barnes to the stand to impeach Saucedo and would have brought before the jury the fact Barnes had been released from custody owing to information he provided about the Hosey murder. Barnes and Montez would have corroborated one another, in Ingber's view, and cross-examination of Saucedo based on Barnes's information would have been effective. Had Saucedo denied on the stand that he told Sanchez he had stabbed Hosey, the defense, according to Ingber, could have used Sanchez's testimony to impeach Saucedo. The defense also could have pointed out that in return for the information Sanchez gave law enforcement, certain criminal charges against him had been dropped and he was relocated at taxpayer expense. In Ingber's opinion, the jurors would have viewed Saucedo's testimony with extreme caution after hearing Sanchez's testimony. Ingber further opined that if he had been aware of McDonald's declaration at the time he would have attempted to locate and corroborate McDonald's testimony and use it to impeach Saucedo. As Mc-Donald's statements corroborated those of other witnesses, Ingber believed the resulting cross-examination of Saucedo would have been effective.