Opinion ID: 3032869
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Shooting and its Aftermath

Text: At about 3:00 a.m. on January 31, 1999, Melvin Coleman, the murder victim, hired Matthew Caldwell, an unlicensed taxicab driver, to drive him to the corner of Third Street and Allegheny Avenue in Philadelphia. There, Coleman spoke briefly with three men, Vazquez, Santiago, and George Rivera, who were in a gray Buick LeSabre. After the three men in the Buick departed, Coleman asked Caldwell to drive him to a different location in Philadelphia. On the way to that location Coleman and Caldwell saw the gray Buick parked near a payphone. Coleman rolled down his window and asked the three men if there was any “hydro around,” to which one of the men responded “in about five minutes.” App. at 188. Caldwell and Coleman then continued driving. When they stopped at a traffic light a few blocks later, the gray Buick approached the taxi from behind whereupon one or more of its occupants began shooting at the taxi shattering its rear window. As Caldwell pulled his vehicle around the corner, he heard another shot, following which Coleman told him that he had been hit. After Caldwell heard 5 two more shots, he drove Coleman to Temple University Hospital where he died of a single gunshot wound to the upper back.3 A few minutes after the shooting two Philadelphia police officers on routine patrol who were unaware of the shooting spotted the gray Buick making an abrupt right turn onto Sixth Street. The officers were concerned with the Buick’s operation and consequently followed it. Then, when the officers attempted to initiate a traffic stop, the driver of the Buick, Santiago, ran a red light and its occupants fled. During the ensuing pursuit, one of the Buick’s occupants, who Vazquez later acknowledged had been he, threw a gun out of a window of the car. At the trial there was evidence supporting a finding that the gun, which the police recovered, was the murder weapon. After the vehicle covered a few additional blocks Vazquez jumped from it on the passenger side and rolled along the ground. Following a brief stop during which one officer took a good look at Vazquez, who escaped and avoided apprehension on the night of the murder, the police continued to pursue the Buick, but they lost track of it after a few more turns.4 3 We have no idea why any of the men fired shots, and the parties in their briefs do not give any explanation for the gunfire. Moreover, we do not know if the shooter or shooters were firing at Caldwell, Coleman, or simply the taxi. 4 Identification of defendants as occupants of the Buick was demonstrated conclusively at the trial inasmuch as Santiago 6 About 20 minutes later different officers in another patrol car spotted the Buick in which Santiago now was the sole occupant. When Santiago saw the police he fled, first in the vehicle and then on foot. Unlike Vazquez, however, he did not escape as the police apprehended him shortly into his flight. Following his arrest, Santiago gave a statement to Philadelphia Detective Will Egenlauf in which he admitted that he had been the driver of the Buick at the time of the shooting and identified Vazquez and Rivera as its other occupants at that time. Santiago said that Vazquez was the shooter and that he and Rivera were surprised when Vazquez opened fire. Santiago explained that he fled from the police solely out of fear and agreed to help them identify and apprehend Vazquez and Rivera. The appellees do not accept Santiago’s statement to Egenlauf as having been completely accurate as they recite in their brief that “[t]he ballistics evidence . . . indicated that two different guns were fired at the cab [and] [t]he Commonwealth argued that there was never an ‘innocent’ passenger in the car, but instead that both Rivera and Vazquez were shooters.” Appellees’ br. at 7. Thus appellees assert that the prosecutor “effectively undermin[ed] both Santiago’s statement and Vazquez’s testimony.” Id. Nevertheless, the prosecutor partially accepted Santiago’s statement because she argued that Vazquez fired the fatal shot. admitted to the police that he had been its driver and Vazquez testified that he had been in the car. 7 Notwithstanding Santiago’s identification and offer to help in Vazquez’s apprehension, the police did not arrest Vazquez for several months until they found him at his wife’s house asleep next to a police scanner. For reasons that the parties do not explain in their briefs or suggest are explained in the record at a place to which they direct our attention, Rivera, who was not a defendant at the trial, was not present at it. Indeed, when we study the parties’ briefs we almost sense that they do not want us to know why Rivera was not at the trial, for appellees cryptically tell us only that “George Rivera, who was also in the car at the time of the shooting, was not brought to trial,” Appellee’s br. at 3, and Vazquez tells us only that “Mr. Rivera was unavailable for trial.” Appellant’s br. at 11.