State v. Roberts

553 P.3d 1122

STATE of Washington, Respondent and Cross Appellant,

v.Mical Darion ROBERTS, Appellant and Cross Respondent.

No. 84352-4-1

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

Filed August 12, 2024

Honorable Ronald Kessler, Judge.

Kate Huber, Washington Appellate Project, 1511 Third Avenue, Suite 610, Seattle, WA, 98101, for Appellant.

Donna Lynn Wise, King County Prosecutor’s Office, 516 3rd Ave. Ste. W554, Seattle, WA, 98104-2362, for Respondent.

PUBLISHED OPINION

Hazelrigg, A.C.J.

¶1 Mical Roberts appeals his conviction on one count of murder in the first degree—felony murder—predicated on the underlying offense of burglary in the first degree as an accomplice. He raises numerous challenges to his conviction including claims of insufficient evidence, ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, and evidentiary error. The State cross appeals only the sentence. Because Roberts fails to show any error or constitutional violation, we affirm. However, the court exceeded its statutory authority as to the term of incarceration it imposed and we remand for correction of Roberts’ judgment and sentence. Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.

FACTS

¶2 The State alleged that, on November 19, 2018, Mical Roberts committed or attempted to commit burglary in the first degree and, in the course of that crime, caused the death of Ricardo Villaseñor. Roberts waived his right to a jury and his case proceeded to a bench trial at the conclusion of which he was convicted as charged.

¶3 Jennifer Bolanos was dating Villaseñor at the time of the incident and later testified to her recollection of that night. After Bolanos got off work on November 19, 2018, she picked up food around 7:00 p.m. and drove to Villaseñor’s house in White Center. Villaseñor and his roommate, Javier Zamora, lived in the downstairs portion of the house and Abraham Madrigal, his wife Ana Lugo Rivera, and their three children lived upstairs. Bolanos entered through the exterior basement door and Villaseñor was the only person in the house when she arrived. The two went into Villaseñor’s room, laid down on his bed, and talked about plans for Thanksgiving. Approximately 15 minutes later they heard a noise that sounded like "someone kicked in the front door" on the main floor, followed by "shuffling upstairs." Bolanos explained that she "could hear someone going into the rooms and running into room to room" and that it sounded like they were looking for something. Bolanos thought there were at least two people upstairs because there was "a lot of shuffling and a lot of movement." Less than a minute later, Bolanos heard someone kick the interior door at the top of the stairway that led to the basement and run down the stairs.

¶4 Both Villaseñor and Bolanos, who were still in Villaseñor’s bedroom with the door closed, stood up and Villaseñor locked the door and "grabbed his gun" from a drawer in his nightstand. Then, someone kicked the outside of the bedroom door and began shooting into the room, at which point Villaseñor returned fire. The exchange of gunfire lasted for about 10 seconds and involved "more than [10] to 20" gunshots. Villaseñor was shot and fell onto the bed and Bolanos "ran into the closet" and "started dialing 9-1-1." Bolanos never heard anyone outside of the bedroom say anything and she did not see who was on the other side of the door. After the gunshots ended, Bolanos "heard them run upstairs," briefly shuffle around, and "leave through the front door." According to Bolanos, the entire sequence of events, from hearing the front door being kicked in upstairs to the intruders leaving the house, occurred within a span of two minutes.

¶5 Multiple deputies and detectives from the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) who had responded to the shooting later testified to the circumstances they observed at the scene. The front door was open when law enforcement arrived and the door frames of both the front door and Villaseñor’s bedroom door were broken. The responding officers found Villaseñor laying on his bed; he had been shot five times and was unresponsive. Deputies and paramedics attempted to resuscitate him but were unsuccessful, and ultimately, Villaseñor was pronounced dead at the scene.

¶6 KCSO Detective James Belford testified that, when he entered the basement, he noted "there were [shell] casings¹ scattered throughout the common area outside the bedroom," inside the bathroom across the hallway from the bedroom door, and also inside of the bedroom. There were bullet holes through the bedroom door and in the bedroom wall, and there were also bullet holes through the bathroom door and in the bathroom wall. A total of 23 shell casings were recovered; 7 "SIG Sauer, 9-millimeter Luger" casings were found in the bedroom and 16 casings from "different manufacturers" fired from what a forensic firearms analyst later described as a "9-millimeter Luger caliber firearm" were discovered in the area just outside the bedroom. Belford also found drops of blood on the concrete steps at the front door of the house and in the street, blood on the wall by the stairwell that connects the basement apartment with the upstairs portion of the home, and blood on a "movie screen" in the common area down- stairs. The blood on the wall looked like "transfer and smear" stains which, Belford explained, indicated that someone had transferred the blood to the wall by touching or sliding against it. Belford collected samples of the different blood deposits and submitted them to the state crime laboratory for DNA testing.

¶7 Madrigal, Lugo Rivera, and their children arrived at the house and spoke with police shortly after 8:00 p.m. that night. Madrigal testified that the upstairs portion of the house was "trashed" and "turned upside down," but at least initially, he did not notice that anything was missing. He told deputies that there was about $60,000 in cash in his kitchen and officers ultimately found $83,530 in the pantry. Madrigal later realized and reported that the gun case for his handgun was missing, as well as some extended magazines that he had for it.

¶8 KCSO Detective Benjamin Wheeler, the lead on this case, testified to his role in the investigation. Shortly after the homicide, a unit within the Tacoma Police Department (TPD) contacted Wheeler and explained that they had an open, ongoing investigation involving Villaseñor’s residence such that TPD had placed a camera facing the house prior to the shooting. TPD provided the video to Wheeler, who described the footage of the hours surrounding the incident as "fairly dark. You could make out some shapes. You could see the lights of vehicles moving around, but details were—difficult." Wheeler was unable to see anything during the time of the homicide besides "some movement in a car that was in the driveway."

¶9 On November 25, 2018, Wheeler received an anonymous tip that someone named Sebastian Beltran may have been involved in the shooting. Wheeler discovered that Beltran had been arrested days earlier on an unrelated offense and that his car, a blue 2002 BMW, had been impounded. Wheeler called the towing company, Lange’s Towing, and a staff member confirmed the BMW was on the premises. Wheeler was at Lange’s on November 27 when Beltran arrived at the tow yard in a Toyota Prius, along with his mother and a woman who was later determined to be the protected party in an active no-contact order prohibiting Beltran from contacting her. Beltran was arrested on suspicion of violating the no-contact order and the Prius was impounded. A search warrant was authorized for the Prius and law enforcement found a gun box and an extended magazine in the vehicle that matched those that Madrigal had reported stolen. On December 6, the BMW was searched subject to a separate warrant and detectives found shell casings and live rounds in the trunk, along with what appeared to be blood on the inside passenger compartment. Crime scene analysts examined the BMW and took samples of the blood found in the back seat, which was later determined to be a match to Roberts’ DNA.

¶10 On December 7, 2018, the blood samples from the scene of the shooting came back as a match to Roberts’ DNA profile as well. On December 28, 2018, the State charged Mical Roberts with one count of murder in the first degree—felony murder—based on the predicate offense of burglary in the first degree, with a firearm enhancement. Wheeler contacted Roberts’ family members and known associates and monitored social media accounts in an effort to locate him. Additionally, the KCSO released information to the media and the case was profiled on Washington’s Most Wanted (WMW) with a picture of Roberts.

¶11 In January 2019, Wheeler discovered a social media account with a picture of Roberts that contained a direct link to a different page containing the picture of Roberts that had been released by the KCSO. The linked page also contained a reference to the WMW report that stated Roberts was wanted for "home invasion murder." The profile name on the social media account was "The Freshest" and included access to a music video in which Roberts raps about being seen on WMW, mentions the charge of "Murder 1," which was the charge he faced at the time, and says, "Kick his door, stick em’ up. Now I got base rock, but two powder packs is really cut."

¶12 On March 1, 2019, Roberts was arrested outside of an apartment complex in Tacoma. Roberts’ left hand was visibly injured and he told Wheeler that he had been shot in the hand "a couple months" prior. Detectives searched the two-bedroom apartment where Roberts resided incident to his arrest. In the closet of the room Roberts shared with his girlfriend, officers found a notebook with what appeared to be rap lyrics. Roberts’ bench trial began on October 11, 2021. At trial, the court admitted three lines of lyrics from one page from the notebook retrieved from the bedroom closet as exhibit 168. The lyrics...