Madrid v. State

247 Md.App. 693

239 A.3d 770

Darwin Naum Monroy MADRID

v.STATE of Maryland

No. 1937, Sept. Term, 2017

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

October 1, 2020

Argued by Piedad Gomez (Paul B. DeWolfe, Public Defender, on the brief) Baltimore, MD, for Appellant.

Argued by Michelle M. Martin (Brian E. Frosh, Atty. Gen., on the brief) Baltimore, MD, for Appellee.

Panel: Meredith,^* Berger, Nazarian, JJ.

Meredith, J.

At the conclusion of a jury trial in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, Darwin Naum Monroy Madrid ("Madrid"), the appellant in this case, was convicted of participating in the murder and attempted murder of two members of an enemy gang in Prince George's County. He was also convicted of two counts each of first-degree assault, use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or crime of violence, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and participation in a criminal gang in violation of Md. Code (2002, 2012 Repl. Vol., 2015 Supp.), Criminal Law Article ("CL"), § 9-804. After sentencing, he noted this direct appeal.

QUESTIONS PRESENTED

Madrid asks this Court:

1. Did the circuit court err in denying Mr. Madrid's motion to suppress his custodial statements to police?

2. Did the trial court err by refusing to instruct the jury on the defense of duress?

3. Is the evidence insufficient to sustain Mr. Madrid's convictions for participation in a criminal gang under § 9-804(a) of the Criminal Law Article ?

We answer "no" to all three questions, and shall affirm the judgments of the Circuit Court for Prince George's County.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The following facts are drawn from the evidence presented at Madrid's trial.

In 2014, at the age of 14, Madrid immigrated to the United States from Guatemala, and resided with his mother, stepfather and sister in Prince George's County. He began to attend high school, where he took classes that included English as a second language, algebra, and science. On one occasion when he was in one of the school's restrooms, some individuals attempted to rob him, but some members of the MS-13 gang came to his defense and prevented the robbery. After that experience, he began to develop a relationship with the gang members who had come to his defense, and he began to do favors for them, such as giving them $10 or $15 when they needed money.

With the passage of time, the MS-13 gang members with whom he associated would give him assignments, or "orders," for him to perform duties for them. One order was for him to report "anything strange," such as the sighting of a member from another gang. He considered himself to be an "esquina" (entry-level member of the lowest rank) in the MS-13 gang. Another assignment he would be asked to perform from time to time was to "pick up rent" from individuals who had small businesses such as selling beer without a license or selling drugs. The largest amount of rent he had picked up for the gang was $1,500. Many times, the orders given to Madrid would be communicated via telephone from an individual in El Salvador named Delincuente, who was the highest ranking gang member with whom Madrid had any contact. He described Delincuente as "the Word," the person who gives orders to other gang members. Madrid indicated that the frequency of the orders he was given increased over time. He explained: "It gets to the point where it's ... almost daily." And he said that, if a gang member does not follow the rules, "[t]hen the person gets punished."

Madrid testified that he had been punished only once. At one point after he had been in the gang a few months, he attempted to limit his entanglement with MS-13 by failing to always answer the phone when they called, failing to return some of the phone calls, and making excuses to avoid some of their requests. As a result, he received "a minor punishment" the gang called "Thirteen seconds." For thirteen or so seconds, three members of the gang hit him with their bare hands, but, he said, "I didn't have like big injuries, major injuries." But he understood that the MS-13 gang sometimes administers more serious punishments, such as beating the offender with bats to the point of breaking legs or inflicting death.

On the evening of April 16, 2016, Madrid went to the Galaxy nightclub. While there, he met up with three other MS-13 gang members he knew as Alex, Henry, and Hellboy. He received a phone call from Delincuente, who called from El Salvador to ask him to look around the club and report back whether there were members of another gang at the nightclub. Madrid was ordered to check particularly for members (he described as "chavalas" or chavalos) from the 18th Street gang. Madrid did not see any chavalas, but Hellboy assured him that he had seen them. So Madrid called Delincuente and told him that the enemy gang members were there. He was told to wait at the nightclub.

Madrid went outside to wait for further instructions. Another MS-13 member he knew as Stuart came out to wait with him. After a few minutes, he received another call. The instructions were to go to the residence of an enemy gang member named Carlos Tenorio-Aguirre and wait there until Carlos came home that night. So Madrid and Stuart scurried to the apartment complex where they knew Carlos resided, running most of the way.

Soon after Madrid and Stuart arrived at the apartment complex, a car appeared. Madrid did not know who was in the car, but Stuart approached the car and was given a backpack. The car then departed. In the backpack were three guns. Stuart gave one of the handguns to Madrid. They were then joined by Alex and Hellboy, who waited with them until Carlos and another member of the 18th Street gang—Gamaliel Nerio-Rico—returned home.

According to Madrid's testimony at trial: "We waited for them to park the car and to get out of the car." And then: "We made the attack. We tried to carry out the orders we were given." Madrid, along with two other members of the MS-13 gang, shot at Carlos and his companion Gamaliel for "10 to 15 seconds. It was fast." Both of the targeted men appeared to be dead. The attack was captured on video surveillance recordings in which Madrid was plainly visible, as he admitted when he was on the witness stand.

After the ambush, Madrid and the other three members of the MS-13 gang ran to the back of the apartments, and then ran to an isolated location. They put the three firearms back in the backpack. The same car that had delivered the backpack showed up, and Stuart gave the backpack to a person in the car, which then drove away.

On the evening of April 18, 2016, Madrid was arrested at his mother's apartment building. At the police station, he gave a video-recorded statement to Detective Luis Cruz, the homicide detective who interviewed him in Spanish, Madrid's native language. In the statement, Madrid admitted he had shot the enemy gang member who died (Nerio-Rico), and had emptied his gun shooting at the second enemy gang member (Tenorio-Aguirre) who survived despite being struck by twelve bullets.

The grand jury for Prince George's County indicted Madrid on nine counts: murder (Count 1); attempted first-degree murder (Count 2); two counts of first-degree assault (Count 3 and Count 4); two counts of use of a handgun in a felony or crime of violence (Count 5 and Count 6); two counts of participating in a criminal gang (Count 7 and Count 8); and conspiracy to commit murder (Count 9).

Prior to trial, Madrid filed a motion to suppress the recorded statement he gave to Detective Cruz, arguing: (1) that the Miranda advisement was inadequate for him to knowingly waive his rights; and (2) that his incriminating responses were not voluntary because the interviewing detective had improperly induced him to confess. The court denied the motion to suppress his statement.

At trial, Madrid did not dispute his participation in the murder and attempted murder. The version of facts set forth above is based upon Madrid's own trial testimony. His fellow gang member Manuel "Alex" Beltran also testified at trial and identified Madrid in the video recording of the attack that was admitted into evidence at trial. Madrid testified at trial that he shot the members of the 18th Street gang to carry out an order he had been given by the person in El Salvador named Delincuente, whom he had never met but with whom he had spoken on the phone multiple times. Madrid testified that, if he disobeyed an order from a superior in the gang, he would be punished by members of the MS-13 gang, and punishment could include severe beatings and even death. Madrid testified that he shot the two members of the 18th Street gang because, if he did not carry out the order of a "green light" for Carlos, "that green light would have been for me." He did not assert, however, that he had received any specific threat on April 16 or 17 prior to the time he participated in the shooting of the enemy gang members. The trial court rejected Madrid's request to instruct the jury regarding duress as a possible mitigating factor.

The jury convicted Madrid on all counts. After sentencing, this appeal followed.

I. Motion to Suppress

Prior to trial, Madrid filed a motion to suppress the statement he gave to Detective Cruz, contending that it was obtained from him in violation of the Fifth Amendment because the advisement of Miranda rights was inadequate for him to knowingly waive his rights, and the incriminating statement was involuntary under the United States Constitution, the Maryland Declaration of Rights, and Maryland common law. Madrid argued that, among other things, his young age, lack of prior contact with the justice system, status as a recent immigrant to the United States, and the short of amount of time which Detective Cruz spent reading Madrid the Miranda advisement—which Madrid calculated at 36 seconds—added up to circumstances under which the court should conclude that his waiver of rights was neither knowing nor voluntary, and the incriminating statement was not made...