Convicted gang leader Jose Negrete’s past murder trials were wracked by jury problems. His legal team said in court papers filed this week in Superior Court his fourth trial, dubbed a “trial by transcript” by defense attorney Jack Furlong, was no different.
The Latin Kings leader was awarded a new trial when the appellate court overturned his 2009 conviction, which led to an 80-year sentence, because of jury misconduct. A jury member knew the father of the victim’s children and made statements to panelists that were not a part of evidence at trial.
In this case, Negrete’s attorneys say this jury should not have known this was 
Negrete’s fourth trial for ordering the murder of gang “queen” Jeri Lynn Dotson and the near-strangulation of gang turncoat Alex Ruiz in August 2004.
But Furlong & Krasny associate Andrew Ferencevych wrote in a motion for new trial that any chance of that was eviscerated once prosecutors introduced transcripts of prior witness testimony from Negrete’s murder trials in 2008 and 2009.
Jurors were told only the transcripts were from prior proceedings as the judge purposely left it vague to try to preserve Negrete’s right to a fair trial. For jurors that didn’t make the leap that the transcripts were from a prior trial, it was done for them after prosecutors’ myriad tongue slips.
“Although great measures were taken in an attempt to redact all references to the prior trials from the transcripts, the state improperly referred to the trial and the jury on many occasions during the transcript reading,” Ferencevych wrote. “These repeated references indicated to the current jury that Negrete had already been tried for these offenses.”
Negrete was convicted for the second time last month of murder, conspiracy and attempted murder for ordering Dotson killed after she witnessed the Aug. 30, 2004 abduction of her roommate Ruiz.
Ruiz, formerly a member of the rival Netas, was targeted by Negete’s henchmen on the Latin King leader’s orders after his defection triggered a war between the factions. Ruiz survived being strangled, stomped and left for dead in a dumpster on Duck Island.
He was one of four witnesses who refused to testify at Negrete’s most recent trial, putting prosecutors in a bind. Witnesses feigned memory problems, said they did not want to revisit the past and wouldn’t testify against Negrete for fear of recriminations.
The state had little leverage over many of Negrete’s coconspirators. Many had been released from state prison after serving their sentences for their involvement in Dotson’s murder and the murder attempt on Ruiz.
Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez elected not to hold any witnesses in contempt for refusing to answers prosecutors’ questions. Ferencevych said in the motion the judge should have punished recalcitrant witnesses.
“The court permitted each witness to indicate that he did not remember certain questions,” he wrote. “The court then permitted the witness to walk out the door without any punishment for actively deciding not to testify.”
Prosecutors attempted to get around the lack of witness cooperation by introducing prior testimony, which Negrete’s defense team said caused additional problems.
Ferencevych pointed out prosecutors were allowed to “cherry pick” past testimony from Negrete’s 2008 or 2009 trials that was most favorable to its case. He said prosecutors should have been forced to choose from one or the other.
Furlong has said he plans to appeal if the new trial motion, set to be heard later this month, fails. He said he is confident his client will win on appeal, which would add yet another chapter to a case that has dragged on for more than a decade.
“All we had was a melodramatic reading of a prior trial that ended in a reversal by the appellate division,” Furlong said. “I have no reasonable doubt that this verdict will be reversed on appeal based on the unusual circumstances that led to the wholesale reading of trial transcripts to this jury. I don’t blame the judge for what happened, but I strongly disagree with how he dealt with the problem.”