State v. Gutierrez

Facts

On April 8, 2002, Jose Valverde was found dead in a boxcar he used as his home. He had been shot in the head with a shotgun. In July 2015, more than thirteen years later, a grand jury indicted D for the murder. D's ex-wife Nicole Cordova offered the following testimony at trial. She married Gutierrez in 2002, and the marriage lasted only two years. The victim, her uncle, had raped her several times when she was thirteen or fourteen years old. She told D about the rapes some months before the victim was killed, and D told her 'not to worry about anything anymore.' On the day of the murder, D left home for about a half-hour and was visibly upset when he returned. D told her that he 'took care of it,' and although he did not explain further, she knew what had happened. D told her that he needed help to find a shotgun shell and then they drove to the victim's boxcar. When she entered the boxcar, she saw that it was in disarray and that the victim's body was face down on the floor. She sifted through some beer cans, found a shotgun shell, and then walked outside. After she and D returned home, he put the clothes and shoes he had been wearing into a bag and left with his father and brother to dispose of them. D later threatened that she would suffer the same fate as the victim if she ever told anyone about what happened. She lied to them and never told anyone until police contacted her again a couple of years before trial. D's second wife, Evelyn Franco, also testified. She married D in May 2006. At the time of trial, they were still legally married but had not spoken in years. D informed her that he had committed a murder. He elaborated that his ex-wife's uncle had molested her, so he went to his house, walked up to where he was laying on the couch, and fired a shotgun into his face killing him. D was found guilty of willful, deliberate, and premeditated first-degree murder. D appealed.

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

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