Opinion ID: 2584547
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: Mitigating Evidence at the Penalty Phase

Text: Petitioner contends that Robusto failed to adequately investigate and present evidence in mitigation at the penalty phase. As noted above, at the penalty phase of the trial, Robusto called as witnesses five members of petitioner's family and three family friends. Petitioner's father, Antonio Valdez, described petitioner as a good worker who was obedient and respectful to his parents. Petitioner's mother, Rosa Valdez, and his two sisters, Victoria and Graciela Valdez, pled for mercy for petitioner and described him as not violent. The same was true for petitioner's aunt, Leticia Belmar, and his friends Enedina and Jose Garcia. No one testified that petitioner was abused as a child. To the contrary, family friend Carolina Reyna testified that even though petitioner's father always yelled at him and his siblings, petitioner listened and obeyed. A markedly different account of petitioner's childhood emerged at the reference hearing. Rosa Valdez testified that her husband, Antonio, had subjected petitioner to a pattern of severe physical abuse. Rosa [7] testified that Antonio had a drinking problem and would physically abuse her, sometimes in front of petitioner. Rosa stated that her husband hit petitioner all the time. Petitioner told Rosa that when he was a small boy, his father would make him kneel in the sun while holding stones in his hands. When petitioner was 10 or 11 years old, his father beat him with a utility cable. As a child, petitioner worked at night with his mother and older brother, Antonio, Jr., cleaning offices. They would arrive home at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. and Rosa would wake the boys at 7:00 a.m. to go to school. One day, the boys left school to find a place to sleep. When their father found out, he beat them with a pool cue. When petitioner was about 16 years old, he worked at a restaurant his parents owned, washing dishes. One day, his father took from him a burrito he was eating and beat him with a frying pan. Rosa stated that she never reported Antonio's conduct to the police because she was afraid of him. When asked why she never took the children to a doctor after these beatings, she first answered, I don't know, and then explained in response to a further question that she did not think they needed medical attention. A short time later, however, Rosa said that after Antonio beat petitioner with the pool cue, petitioner was bedridden for three days without being able to move at all with fever. Rosa testified that Robusto never interviewed her prior to trial, saying that the first time she met him was in court. When asked whether she ever told Robusto that petitioner had been abused by his father, she replied, I forgot. She said that if Robusto had asked her while she was testifying about petitioner being mistreated by his father, she would have answered those questions. Rosa recalled telling Robusto that Antonio had hit petitioner on one occasion when petitioner refused to attend school, but stated that conversation took place in the hallway outside the courtroom. Carolina Reyna testified at the reference hearing that she was a family friend and described petitioner's father as a violent alcoholic who would verbally and physically abuse his children. When petitioner was 15 years old, his father hit him with a bat. Reyna stated that, prior to her testimony at trial, Robusto interviewed her at petitioner's family's home. Rosa was present but her husband was not. Robusto did not ask her if petitioner's father had molested her child, and it did not occur to her to mention it. Reyna told Robusto that Antonio yelled at petitioner but did not tell him Antonio had hit petitioner, explaining, I didn't go into specifics because he didn't ask me those questions. Reyna was reminded that she was asked at trial if she had seen petitioner interact with his parents and answered, He had a few problems with his father. When asked, What type of problems? she answered that petitioner's father would always yell at him. Reyna explained at the reference hearing that she did not mention that Antonio had beat petitioner with a baseball bat because defense counsel didn't ask me and I did not know I was to say all that, adding that she was afraid to speak out. Graciela Gamp (Graciela Valdez at the time of trial), petitioner's younger sister, testified at the reference hearing that her father verbally abused her but never struck her. Antonio was often drunk and would sometimes slap Rosa. When she was seven or eight years old, and petitioner was 15 or 16 years old, she saw Antonio hit petitioner on the back with a two-by-four. Petitioner was unable to move the next day, and Gamp fed him cereal through a straw. Petitioner left home after that. Gamp stated that Robusto never interviewed her and never came to her family's house. When she testified during the trial, she did not mention that her father had physically abused petitioner because she didn't think it was relevant. Victoria Valdez, petitioner's other sister, testified that her father treated her well and struck her only once, but he struck Rosa and her brothers more often, especially petitioner, whom he struck almost every day. She recalled that when petitioner was around 11 years old, her father hit petitioner with a two-by-four so badly that he could not move afterwards and had to drink from a straw. He ran away from home after that. When petitioner was seven years old, Antonio punished him for stealing a jar of pennies by burning his hands. Antonio also hung [petitioner] up in the garage and beat him with a cord. Perez stated that Robusto never interviewed her prior to or during petitioner's trial and never came to her family's house. In 1998, six years after petitioner's conviction, his father was convicted of raping a relative and was sent to prison. Carolina Reyna testified that Antonio had also molested her child when the child was six years old. Robusto testified that he has been an attorney for more than 30 years and has practiced solely criminal law for more than 20 years; petitioner's was the third capital case in which he was involved. Prior to trial, he interviewed each of the witnesses who testified for the defense at the penalty phase, including petitioner's mother and Carolina Reyna, and no one said that Antonio had physically abused petitioner. To the contrary, Rosa Valdez, with whom Robusto spoke at least six times, three times at her home, said petitioner had a good, loving relationship with his family, including his father. Robusto told Rosa that it was important for him to hear not only the good things about petitioner's family, but the bad as well. Robusto asked Rosa if plaintiff had had problems with his father, and Rosa stated there had been no problems. Rosa told Robusto that Antonio had struck petitioner once when petitioner was 16 or 17 years old, causing petitioner to leave home for one year. The family, including Rosa, downplayed the incident and described it as an isolated event. Robusto checked petitioner's school record and saw nothing that indicated petitioner had been abused. Petitioner described his relationship with his family as good. Robusto asked petitioner if he ever had been abused by his father, and petitioner answered, no. Dr. Nancy Kaser-Boyd, a clinical psychologist, examined petitioner in 2002 and testified at the reference hearing that petitioner told her that Antonio had repeatedly beaten him, burned his hands, and hung him in the garage. As a result, petitioner suffered from complex post traumatic stress syndrome at the time of the murder. Dr. Kyle Boone, a clinical psychologist, conducted a neuropsychological assessment of petitioner in 2007 and testified at the reference hearing that petitioner has low average intelligence and reads at a 10th grade level. He shows evidence of brain dysfunction, primarily in the frontal lobes, which decreases his ability to comply with the law. In his report, the referee found credible Attorney Robusto's assertion that, prior to trial, he specifically asked petitioner if his father or anyone else had abused him and petitioner replied in the negative. The referee further concluded that petitioner's denial was truthful. The referee found that, prior to trial, Robusto interviewed many of the witnesses now claiming to have witnessed abuse and asked them about petitioner's relationship with his family, but none revealed any abuse other than one beating allegedly inflicted upon petitioner by his father. The referee described as unconvincing the witnesses' denial that Robusto had asked them whether petitioner had been abused and concluded that the witnesses' explanations for not mentioning the abuse when they testified at the penalty phase were implausible. After summarizing the testimony of each of the witnesses, the referee found that petitioner has failed to prove his allegations of child abuse. Likewise, he has failed to prove that he ever developed PTSD [(posttraumatic stress disorder)], or that he suffers from brain damage/dysfunction, or cognitive impairment. The referee noted that petitioner  has demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that his father hit him on one occasion and that he thereafter ran away from home. The referee concluded: In short, petitioner has failed to carry his burden of proving that substantial mitigating evidence existed at the time of his trial. The referee concluded that Robusto's penalty phase preparation was reasonable, if not exhaustive, and that the reason no abuse was uncovered was that none had occurred. [8] The referee's findings are supported by substantial evidence and we adopt them. The record before us provides convincing reasons to suspect the veracity of the claims by petitioner's family and friends that he was repeatedly physically abused by his father, but that no one mentioned it while testifying at the penalty phase or when speaking to Robusto because Robusto failed to ask. We accept the referee's finding that Robusto interviewed each of the witnesses who testified at the penalty phase and asked them to share both the bad and the good about petitioner's relationship with his family. We also accept the referee's finding that Robusto specifically asked petitioner whether he had been abused by his father or anyone else, and that petitioner denied having been abused. Petitioner has failed to show that Robusto failed to adequately investigate and present evidence in mitigation at the penalty phase.