Opinion ID: 778488
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jesus's Representation

Text: 7 Jesus was initially represented by George Denny (Denny), who was representing Jesus's brother, Ernesto, in another matter at the time. Shortly after Jesus was arrested, at least three people told Denny's investigator, David Lynn (Lynn), that it was Ernesto, not Jesus, who shot Kidd. 3 Shortly after the shooting, Ernesto met with Denny and Lynn and confessed that he, not Jesus, was the shooter. Attorney Denny withdrew from Jesus's case because he believed that Ernesto's confession created a conflict of interest. 8 Attorney Ted Yamamoto (Yamamoto) was in the courtroom when Denny recused himself and was appointed by the court to represent Jesus. Denny indicated to Yamamoto that he recused himself from Jesus's case because he was representing someone that ... might have been the shooter. At the state habeas hearing, Yamamoto explained that, based on this conversation, he thought that Denny knew or had some idea who the real shooter was, and thought possibly the investigation might start with discovering that person's identity. Denny did not provide Yamamoto with information about the witnesses who had spoken to Denny's investigator, Lynn, and Yamamoto did not seek any information from Denny about the identity of the shooter. 9 Before trial, Yamamoto became convinced that Ernesto was the shooter. Although Yamamoto testified at the state habeas hearing that a series of events before trial caused him to conclude that Ernesto was the shooter, one conversation in particular solidified this conclusion. After a pretrial conference, Yamamoto told Ernesto's and Jesus's mother, Christina Avila (Christina), that he believed Jesus was innocent and asked Christina to ask around the neighborhood or find out who is the shooter [because] ... it would give us somewhere to go. Yamamoto testified that Christina looked somewhat dejected and looked back up at [Yamamoto] very distraught, and she said, `I think I know, but it would be trading one for the other. ' (Emphasis added). Yamamoto was so confident that Ernesto was the shooter that he told the prosecution that Ernesto was probably the shooter during plea negotiations. 10 Despite Yamamoto's belief that Ernesto was the shooter, he conducted no investigation to substantiate this belief and never instructed his investigator, Kazuo Sakamoto (Sakamoto), to seek out evidence implicating Ernesto. During the state habeas hearing, Yamamoto explained that he did not investigate Ernesto's involvement in the shooting because he assumed that Jesus and Christina, Jesus's mother, did not want him to implicate Ernesto at trial. As Yamamoto testified: 11 I was pretty sure at some point during that trial or prior to the trial that Ernesto was the real shooter. In my omission to act, that is to do something about it, I think I was — can be categorized as being incompetent . . . . [Jesus] never actually expressed to me a desire for me to restrain myself from going after Ernesto, but at the same time I assumed that that's what he wanted. I also assumed that his mother didn't want me to, because I can still see her face when she told me that I'd be trading one for the other, and because of that fact alone, I think again in retrospect, maybe I should have asked to be relieved. 12 (Emphasis added). Yamamoto also explained that he did not aggressively investigate whether Ernesto was the shooter because he entertained a strong belief that Ernesto was going to admit that he was the shooter before or during trial. Yamamoto testified: 13 As the trial went on, I would always turn around when someone came in the courtroom thinking that Ernesto was going to say stop this whole, you know, thing, and/or I was going to get a phone call during the course of the trial one evening.... That was in the back of my mind. Not that I planned for something like that to happen.... [But] I believed it would.