Opinion ID: 2567623
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 20

Heading: The Murder of HoseySecond Degree Murder Plea.

Text: In People v. Miranda , Los Angeles County Superior Court Case No. [372157], Central Division, Miranda pled guilty to the second degree murder of Robert Hosey. The Referee finds that if the undisclosed evidence had been disclosed to petitioner, petitioner's trial counsel in the Hosey murder case would have advised petitioner not to plead guilty and petitioner would not have entered a guilty plea. Following this summary, the referee's second report describes in more detail the referee's findings and the testimony and documentary evidence on which they, are based. Among other things, the referee's second report states and supports the referee's findings that: Larry Montez did write and sign the document dated October 23, 1980, (hereinafter the `Montez Letter'); that Montez was incarcerated in Los Angeles when he wrote the Montez Letter and [a]t that time, Saucedo was housed in a cell adjacent to Montez; that Montez signed the letter either in the interview cell while being interviewed by detectives or at a restaurant after his interview with the detectives; and that the information contained in the Montez Letter is credible.... The referee's second report also states that: In describing Saucedo's statements, each person's current description is consistent with the description that that person gave the District Attorney twenty years ago. At this point, there is no apparent reason for any of those persons to lie.... [11] Further, the prosecution had sufficient belief in the credibility of the `valuable and essential information' contained in the Montez Letter about Saucedo's confession to and description of the Hosey killing that the prosecution entered into an arrangement with Montez. To secure Montez's future testimony to convict Saucedo of murdering Hosey, the prosecution arranged for Montez to be released early on a jail sentence he was then serving.... [¶] Finally, the credibility of Saucedo's denial of making, the confessions to the Hosey killing is suspect.... Additionally, the referee's second report details what Saucedo told Barnes, Sanchez, and McDonald about his role in the Hosey killing and finds that disclosure to the defense of information provided to the prosecution by Barnes and Sanchez [4] would have led to useful defense evidence. The second report finds disclosure of McDonald's information would not have been useful to the defense since the untruthful information the prosecution possessed at that time does not implicate Saucedo.