Snitch Scandal: Conviction Overturned in OC Double Murder of Pregnant Woman

An Orange County Superior Court judge today granted a new trial for a 39-year-old man twice convicted of killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child in Fullerton.

Henry Rodriguez was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder and a count of second-degree murder as well as a count of conspiracy to commit murder under a legal theory of aiding and abetting. In 2003, appellate court justices reversed the conviction based on the way authorities obtained a confession from the defendant.

In 2006, he was put on trial again and convicted and sentenced to 40 years to life.

Orange County prosecutors announced they would appeal the ruling.

Rodriguez’s attorney, James Crawford, sought a writ of habeas corpus in Orange County Superior Court to seek a new trial based on newly uncovered information about how Orange County sheriff’s deputies track the placement of inmates in the jail. The so-called TRED records were first made public in allegations of governmental misconduct in the handling of the case against Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in Orange County history, who is awaiting the death penalty phase of his trial.

Judge Thomas Goethals, -- who dumped Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas’ office from any further prosecution of Dekraai, a ruling that is under appeal -- also granted Rodriguez’s motion for a new trial.

At issue is whether Rodriguez was denied a fair trial in 2006 when retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel allowed the testimony of jailhouse informant Michael Garrity.

An attorney for the county argued in March 2005 that there were no records on Garrity’s work as a confidential informant. Later that day, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department produced the TRED records and Fasel looked them over in private and ruled they should be turned over to Rodriguez’s attorney.

Those records, however, were never given to Crawford, Goethals ruled.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Cameron Talley argued during Rodriguez’s retrial that Garrity told authorities about the July 17, 1998, murder of eight-months-pregnant Jeanette Espeleta because it was the right thing to do, not because he had a longstanding agreement to inform and was receiving benefits from prosecutors to do so.

Goethals ruled that Crawford should have had the information about Garrity’s work as a snitch so he could, first of all, try to get him eliminated as a witness in the trial for possibly violating Rodriguez’s constitutional rights or impeach his credibility at trial.

Also at issue is if Garrity pumped Rodriguez for information while in custody, which would have been illegal because he had an attorney at that time.

Garrity, however, could legally relay bragging by Rodriguez or some other unprompted statement about the crimes to authorities.

The legal theory in the case is that Rodriguez helped a friend, the father of the unborn child, kill the victim so he wouldn’t have to pay child support.

Investigators believe Espeleta was killed and then her body, which was never recovered, was dumped in the ocean from a boat.

Rodriguez’s father, Enrique Rodriguez, told reporters outside of court today that he was pleased with the judge’s ruling.

“I think justices has come back to us after 17 years,” Rodriguez said. “I feel very happy for what’s happened today.”

Crawford told reporters that prosecutors violated the so-called Brady law, which requires all evidence to be turned over to defense attorneys, as well as committed a Massiah violation, which does not allow government agents to question defendants in custody after they are legally represented.

“They violated Brady and due process,” Crawford said. “Hopefully they’ll do the right thing and dismiss the case.”

Crawford said prosecutors “shouldn’t get three bites at the apple.”

Prosecutors “have a duty to seek justice,” he said.

Had Crawford had the evidence at issue for the 2006 trial, “Mr. Garrity wouldn’t have been able to testify,” he said.

“They shouldn’t even be entitled to a new trial,” Crawford said.

Talley -- now a defense attorney -- told City News Service that he kept nothing away from Crawford during the trial.

“I’m not going to opine on the entire reasoning or rational behind the opinion of Judge Goethals, who I admire, have appeared before and tried cases against as a defense attorney,” Talley said. “Not being in court to hear his reasoning, I don’t have a global opinion about as to whether he is right or wrong.

“However, in regard to what I did as a prosecutor in that case, I did everything absolutely ethically, fair and correct,” Talley told CNS. “I turned over absolutely every shred of evidence that I had in my discovery to James Crawford, and I, in fact, invited him to review my boxes of discovery to confirm he had everything.”

Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy, also now on the case, referred questions to the District Attorney’s media office.

In his ruling, Goethals said “the factual record in this case is troubling.”

The failure to turn over evidence of Garrity’s confidential informant work, “allowed a prosecutor... to successfully argue facts, to both a judge and a jury, which did not mirror reality,” Goethals wrote.

A retrial date has been set for April 11.

City News Service