Adams County murder conviction overturned due to unreliable identification | courts

Colorado’s second-highest court last week overturned a man’s murder conviction and ordered a new trial after finding that the identification of a witness based on a salacious photo lineup was unreliable and should be removed from the trial.

On the night of January 30, 2018, two men fought with Ricardo Rivas in the parking lot of his Westminster apartment building. One of the attackers was taller and thinner, the other was shorter and heavier. Multiple witnesses saw parts of the attack that resulted in the fatal shooting of Rivas.

Only one eyewitness saw the attack. He stood 30 feet from the fight near his apartment and watched for 40 seconds. The witness suggested that the shorter and heavier man was Rivas’ killer.

Four months after the witness gave police his first statement, including a description of the suspect, police presented him with photographs of six identical men. The witness identified Juan Manuel Castorena as the attacker with 80% certainty.

Then the jury members Found Castorena guilty of murder and is serving a life sentence.

On appeal, as he did before trial, Castorena challenged the reliability of the witness’ identification of himself through the photo array.

First, there were other suspects who fit the description of the shooter. Second, the witness was unable to identify Castorena as the shooter during the 2022 trial. Third, the witness’s account has changed somewhat over time.

Additionally, the defense argued that the police photos were inappropriately suggestive. The witness initially told officers the shooter was wearing a hooded sweatshirt. Castorena was the only person wearing a hoodie in the photo lineup.

During the preliminary hearing, then-District Court Judge Robert W. Kiesnowski Jr. acknowledged that the photo display was problematic.

“My heartburn is because of the hoodie,” he said. “Look, the only person wearing a hooded sweatshirt (like a halo, so to speak) is the defendant.”

Although he found the photo array suggestive, Kiesnowski concluded that the witness’s determination was reliable, given his view of the attacker’s face and the confidence with which he made the photo identification.

On appeal, Castorena again challenged the reliability of the identification. His lawyer applied for investigation illuminating the fallibility of eyewitness memories. Innocence Project also reported Of the 367 exonerations based on DNA, 69% of the cases involved misidentification of the defendant’s witnesses.

“Have there been some inconsistencies over the four years? Sure. But that’s a natural part of the process. In four years, it makes sense that the statement would change a little bit,” Deputy Attorney General Sonia Russo told a three-judge panel. Court of Appeals during oral arguments.

Like the trial judge, the panel agreed that the fact that Castorena was the only hooded suspect in the photo lineup made the lineup meaningful to the witness. Therefore, his out-of-court identification had to be reliable enough to be used as evidence.

The panel concluded that this was not the case.

Initially, the appellate judges were concerned that the witness saw the shooter from up to 100 feet away at night.

“We found several cases that supported identifications made from six to fifty meters away, but these cases involved daylight conditions,” Judge Katharine E. Lum wrote. In the opinion of 24 October.

In addition to the witness’s varying physical description of the attacker, the panel found no evidence of what Castorena looked like at the time of the murder. Finally, four months had passed between the crime and photo identification.

“While other witnesses and evidence placed Castorena at the apartment complex that evening and linked him to the fight with the victim,” Lum wrote, “the only out-of-court identification was that Castorena—not (the weak assailant) or someone else—had shot the victim.”

The panel decided to hold a new hearing because the unreliable identity of the eyewitness would likely affect the decision.

Here is the situation People are against Castorena.