Roberto Angeles-Acosta - Mistaken Witness ID

Angeles-Acosta, Roberto; attempted murder; NRE: mistaken witness identification

[671:1000]; 2nd Dept. 5/18/98; affirmed

"[W]e are satisified that the verdict...was not against the weight of the evidence..."

267 F.Supp.2d 410; E.D.N.Y. 6/10/03; writ denied

"On April 26, 1993, at approximately 10:00 a.m., [Angeles-Acosta] [???] , along with co-defendants [Jose] Marte and [Luis] Morales, knocked on the back door of the home of Hilde and Olga Vargas in Queens...Ms. Vargas testified at trial that the men wore dark suits with identification tags affixed to their jackets. They were holdig notepads that were labeled 'City of New York' and were carrying briefcases. The men identified themselves as New York City inspectors conducting a census to check boilers. When Ms. Vargas refused them entry, Marte pointed a gun at her head, and forced his way into the home. Ms. Vargas then told the men that Betsy Rodriguez, a friend of the Vargases who was staying with the family, was in the basement. Marte and Morales descended to the basement where they found Ms. Rodriguez sleeping. [Angeles] remained upstairs with Ms. Vargas.

"Once in the basement, Marte, holding a square-shaped gun in one hand, pulled the sheets off Rodriguez's bed. In Spanish he asked her where the safe with the money was, and she told him she knew nothing of a safe. Meanwhile, Morales, also in the basement, put on latex gloves and cut the telephone wires. Marte continued to question Ms. Rodriguez about the safe, and told her that he would kill her. While Marte and Morales were in the basement with Ms. Rodriguez, [Angeles] brought Mrs. Vargas to her bedroom. He communicated with the other two defendants via handheld radio. Ms. Vargas testified that while she was in the bedroom with [Angeles], he told her that if she didn't give him everything, Marte would kill her. Marte then came upstairs, put on Mr. Vargas's hat and sunglasses, and told Ms. Vargas to get the drugs. Ms. Vargas was then told that the men had kidnapped her husband, and that if she didn't give them everything, they would kill him. Ms. Vargas then proceeded to empty the bedroom safe of its contents, including $10,000 cash and jewelry. Marte then pointed a square gun at her head, and led her to one of her son's bedrooms, and told her again to find the drugs. The men also told her that they knew where her children went to school, and that for one month they had been following the family.

"Marte and Angeles then brought the two women into the dining room, where Angeles told the women that the men would return and kill the women if they called the police. Angeles told Ms. Vargas to write down her phone number on a piece of paper, which he put in his pocket. The men then left the house by the same door which they entered. Both women testified to seeing the men drive off in a big, old, light gray car. Using the one phone that Marte did not disable, Ms. Rodriguez called Mr. Vargas at work. After he arrived home, Mr. Vargas called the police.

"On May 5, 1993, Ms. Vargas and Ms. Rodriguez identified Marte in a police line-up as one of the men who robbed her. On May 7, 1993, Mr. Vargas received a phone call at work. The caller, speaking Spanish with a Dominican accent, told Mr. Vargas that if Ms. Vargas testified at the Grand Jury, he would kill Mr. Vargas and their children. On May 10, 1993, at approximately 2:00 p.m., Louis Sosa, an employee of Mr. Vargas, received a phone call at work from a Spanish-speaking male with a Dominican accent. When Mr. Sosa told the caller that Mr. Vargas was not there, the men told Mr. Sosa to tell Vargas that he would not like the consequences if he showed up tomorrow. On May 11, 1993, the day before Ms. Vargas and Ms. Rodriguez were scheduled to appear before the Grand Jury, the Vargas's home in Queens was riddled with bullets at approximately 1:15 a.m. The bullets shattered the windows in front of the house, the porch, and the Vargas's bedroom. One of the bullets went through one of the children's bedrooms. Mr. Vargas then called the police.

"Soon after the shooting on May 11, 1993, several officers arrived at the Vargas's home. Officer Bushy recovered nine nine-millimeter shells from the street, outside the house, two small fragments from the Vargas's bedroom wall, and one round next to their bed. Officer Langstrand recovered two spent shells from outside of the house. On May 12, 1993, officers arrested Morales inside of his apartment, where they recovered a portable radio, a shopping bag containing six spent shells, and two spent shells from the dresser. On May 12, 1993, Ms. Vargas and Ms. Rodriguez identified Morales from a police line-up as one of the men from the incident of April 26, 1993.

"At trial, Detective Josph Amato testified that ten of the shell casings recovered from the Vargas's home were fired by one gun and one of the shell casings was fired by a different gun. Detective Amato also testified that the shells recovered from Morales's apartment matched the one shell recovered from the Vargas's that was different from the other ten. Those shells were fired from an SWD model M-11 gun. According to Amato's estimony, while ninety-nine percent of all firearms in the world have a circular firing pin which leaves a round crater in the back of the shell casings, the M-11 leaves a rectangular pin hit.

"On December 1, 1993, [Angeles] was arrested by FBI Agent Robert Bukowski on an unrelated matter. Bukowski received from [Angeles] a wallet containing a Dominican driver's license and a pawn ticket from Gem Pawn Brokers in the Bronx. Agent Bukowski visited the pawn shop and was told that the account number on the pawn ticket was for [Angeles's] account...On August 4, 1994, Ms. Vargas identified [Angeles] at a police line-up as the man who had remained with her upstairs during the incident on April 26, 1993. Ms. Rodriguez was pregnant and did not attend the line-up. On September 1, 1994, Agent Bukowski and Mr. Vargas visited the pawn shop, where Mr. Vargas was show the property in [Angeles's] account. Mr. Vargas identified certain pieces of jewelry as his own, missing since April 26, 1993. Mr. Vargas again identified those pieces of jewelry at trial. Both Ms. Vargas and Ms. Rodriguez identified [Angeles] in court."

NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"On May 19, 1995, the jury convicted the men of attempted murder, robbery, burglary, criminal possession of a weapon, and tampering with a witness. Morales was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison. Marte was sentenced to 12 to 25 years in prison. Angeles-Acosta was sentenced to 16-2/3 to 50 years* in prison."

[* Note that Angeles-Acosta, who was actually innocent, received the greatest maximum sentence of the three.]

"In 2008, Angeles-Acosta wrote to Adele Bernhard, who was running an innocence clinic at Pace Law School. A review of the case failed to turn up new evidence. However, five years later, in 2013, Morales filed an application for parole. At that time, he said that although he was guilty, Angeles-Acosta was innocent. Morales signed an affdavit that he submitted to the parole board. Morales told Bernhard that at the time he went to court after his arrest, he knew that Angeles-Acosta was not involved. However, because Morales believed that Angeles-Acosta was an informant, he said nothing.

"After Morales was granted parole, he went to the 106th Precinct police station in Queens and provided the name of the third person who committed the crime with him and Marte. Police directed him to the Queens [DA's] office.

"On February 15, 2018, Bernhard, accompanied by Morales, went to the Queens County [DA's] office and presented a prosecutor and two detectives with her report of the re-investigation of the case as well as the name of the third person involved in the crime, Rubin Sierra.

"During questioning, Morales said that the Vargas home was targeted because [someone] told a taxi driver...that drugs and cash were kept there...Morales said that even though they were led to believe that there was upwards of $10,000 in the home, the jewelry collected barely made up $1,000. He said that Sierra drove them to Chinatown where they sold off the jewelry. Morales said that at Marte's urging, he and...Sierra drove by the Vargas home and fired 12 shots into the home."

"Morales said that he recalled that when he first met Angeles-Acosta in custody, Angeles-Acosta was complaining about not knowing why he was there. Morales said he didn't realize Angeles-Acosta was charged in the same case with him until they were called into the courtroom. Morales said he told his attorney that he didn't recognize Angeles-Acosta and his attorney said, 'They all say that.' From that point on, Morales said he believed Angeles-Acosta was working as a police informant. The prosecution began to re-investigate the case. By that time, Marte was dead.

"In August 2019, attorneys for Angeles-Acosta filed a motion seeking to set aside Angeles-Acosta's convictions based on Morales's affidavit.

"On October 2, 2019, during a hearing on the motion, Robert Masters, [a Queens ADA], said that the prosecution was requesting that Angeles-Acosta's convictions be vacated. Masters noted that the third person named by Morales had been paroled not long before the crime for a different home invasion that involved the theft of 62 kilograms of cocaine. Masters said the third man fit the description given by Vargas and Rodriguez, and noted that at the time of the crime, the witnesses said the third man had a beard. Sierra had a beard and Angeles-Acosta did not.

"Morales took police-administered polygraph examinations and was deemed to be truthful when he denied Angeles-Acosta was involved in the crime. Angeles-Acosta took a polygraph and was determined to be truthful when he denied involvement.

"'The evidence presented at trial against [Angeles-Acosta] regarding these matters was strong and it's the view of the [DA] that at the time it merited conviction,' Masters said. 'However, based on the newly presented evidence from Mr. Morales, a careful review of the initial case and a thorough reinvestigation of this matter, there is cause to conclude that that's no longer the case.'

"Masters added that subsequent reinvestigation 'undermined the strength of the jewelry identification'* and failed to find 'any connection between Angeles-Acosta and Morales and Marte."

[*Therefore, it appears that Vargas's (above) identification of items at the pawn shop in Angeles' account as belonging to Vargas was incorrect.]

"Justice Kenneth Holder granted the motion to vacate the convictions. Masters then dismissed the charges and Angeles-Acosta was released.

"In October 2019, Angeles-Acosta filed a claim for compensatoo with the New York Court of Claims. He settled the claim in December 2020 for $3,500,000."

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]