Opinion ID: 2567623
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Joe Saucedo

Text: Joe Saucedo's declaration was jointly submitted to the referee. Saucedo (also known as Jose Saucedo, Joseph Saucedo, and Turtle) declared that he had testified truthfully at petitioner's preliminary hearing and capital trial. Saucedo further declared, as he had testified then, that petitioner chased Robert Hosey and stabbed him, while he (Saucedo) tried to stop the stabbing. Saucedo also declared that a person named Sam Nobel, whom he knew from jail, had witnessed these things. [3] Saucedo's declaration acknowledges that in 1980 or 1981 he was housed in jail with Marvin Sanchez, Jimmy Barnes, Steven McDonald, and Abigail Molina, but states he never told them anything about the murder of Robert Hosey. The parties stipulated that if Saucedo had been called as a witness at the second reference hearing, he would have testified consistently with this account and would have testified, further, that he neither told Larry Montez the information contained in the Montez letter nor asked Steven McDonald to tell authorities that petitioner killed Hosey. A chronology of the prosecution of Saucedo in relation to the Hosey killing was introduced at the second reference hearing, together with supporting documents from the prosecution's files. As the chronology details, Hosey was murdered on September 12, 1980, approximately two weeks before the murder of Gary Black on September 27. Saucedo was arrested for the Hosey murder on September 19, 1980; on October 3, petitioner was arrested and charged with both the Black and Hosey murders. Saucedo was charged by information with the Hosey murder in January 1981. After petitioner's preliminary hearing in February 1981, petitioner was held to answer on the Black charges, but the Hosey charges were dismissed. In August 1981, then Deputy District Attorney Ito interviewed Saucedo under oath and on the record before a court reporter. On September 2, Deputy District Attorney Hazell recommended that Saucedo be permitted to plead to the reduced charge of assault with a deadly weapon in the Hosey case, in exchange for which Saucedo would agree to testify against petitioner. In a memo seeking authority to offer Saucedo such a deal, Hazell wrote: There is insufficient evidence to hold Mr. Miranda in the [Hosey] stabbing without Mr. Saucedo's testimony. A new complaint was filed charging petitioner again with the murder of Hosey, and in November 1981 a preliminary hearing was held at which Saucedo testified as expected. Petitioner thereafter was held to answer for the murder of Hosey, and the information against Saucedo in the Hosey case was amended to include a count of assault with a deadly weapon. Saucedo subsequently was released on his own recognizance. Respondent acknowledges that the district attorney requested witness expenses for Saucedo, which were approved. Thereafter, as detailed above, Saucedo testified as a state's witness at the penalty phase of petitioner's capital trial. The following day, Saucedo pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon in the Hosey case, in return for which he was sentenced to time served in state prison and placed on probation for two years.