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Thread: Brian Flores Sentenced to LWOP in 2015 TX Murder of Joshua Rodriguez and Victoria Dennis

  1. #1
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Brian Flores Sentenced to LWOP in 2015 TX Murder of Joshua Rodriguez and Victoria Dennis


    Joshua Rodriguez and Victoria Dennis





    San Antonio death penalty case ends in mistrial over attorney’s health

    By Elizabeth Zavala
    San Antonio Express-News

    A lawyer’s injury prompted a judge Thursday to declare a mistrial in what would have been the first capital murder case tried in San Antonio since 2015, when a man got death for killing a Bexar County sheriff’s sergeant.

    Brian Flores was 33 and already in jail on two other charges when he was arrested and charged with capital murder-multiple persons in the deaths of Joshua Rodriguez, 18, and Victoria Dennis, 17. The homicides occurred at the Churchill Park apartments complex in the 1200 block of Patricia Drive on Sept. 29, 2015.

    The teens allegedly were killed over a sex tape that involved Rodriguez and a female not identified in an arrest warrant affidavit released at the time. Reports indicate that Rodriguez was threatened over social media involving a photograph of him and another woman. That woman told authorities that her boyfriend might have asked Flores to intervene.

    Prosecutors Jason Goss and Gretchen Flader began jury selection weeks ago with Flores’ attorneys, Ed Camara and David Woodard. However, Camara recently suffered a concussion after he fell and hit his head June 18, which delayed proceedings. His doctor, Burton Shaw, said he examined Camara, 77, on Monday and that he has post-concussion syndrome, can’t walk a straight line, and “is a little slower and muted in his responses.”

    In a hearing Thursday, Goss and Woodard argued before Visiting Judge Susan Reed, who is presiding over the case, about Camara’s competency since the injury. Each questioned Shaw on Camara’s health and whether he could continue seating a jury, which, in a death penalty case, can take up to a month, as compared to one day to seat a panel for other cases.

    “I think you’d have difficulty making the case that he’s competent,” Shaw said under direct questioning by Goss. “Sometimes (recovery time for concussions) can be a matter of weeks, sometimes months. Most people, three months.”

    Shaw did say he felt that Camara could do “office work” and sit at a desk, and he agreed with Goss that he likely could continue picking a jury. But Woodard contended that the doctor had no idea what goes into jury selection.

    Goss asserted that Flores’ attorneys were attempting to drag out the case with continuances.

    “He wants a continuance that takes us into the next (district attorney) administration,” Goss told Reed. “Even with this break, we still can seat a jury in August. We can finish it (the trial) before September. As the doctor testified, this is a bump on the head.”

    Goss also stressed that the state had subopoenaed more than 100 witnesses and that if proceedings halted, they would have to find them all over again.

    Woodard countered that the court should grant a mistrial because there’s no telling when Camara will be ready.

    “This is a 77-year-old man with a concussion. We’re not talking about a small child or a teen,” Woodard said.

    He also accused the state of rushing to put Flores, now 36, to death and without the attorney requirements for defendants facing execution.

    Texas law holds lawyers representing capital murder defendants to a higher standard and gives specific experience requirements for first- and second-chair attorneys.

    “We need to take our time,” Woodard said. “He (Flores) only has one attorney.”

    Reed acknowledged that four jurors already had been seated but said she would order them to be released.

    “If we want to call it a mistrial, that’ll be what it’s called. Mr. Camara is removed, another (attorney) will be appointed,” she said.

    Reed was expected to set a hearing for a later date.

    Flores’ case would have been the first death penalty case in Bexar County since 2015, when a jury sent Mark Anthony Gonzalez to death row for killing Sgt. Kenneth Vann. On May 28, 2011, Vann was shot 26 times and nearly decapitated while he sat at a stoplight in Southeast Bexar County.

    https://www.expressnews.com/news/loc...l-13052128.php
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  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Rushed justice is no justice

    By Josh Brodesky
    mySanAntonio.com

    In the end, Visiting Judge Susan Reed did the right thing, albeit reluctantly, in granting a mistrial in the death penalty case of Brian Flores.

    It doesn’t matter if the mistrial pushes a new trial into the administration of the next district attorney, as prosecutor Jason Goss argued at a recent hearing. By going forward with jury selection when Flores’ lead attorney, Ed Camara, was out with a concussion, Reed had set up what would have been an unusually strong appeal for someone charged with murdering two teenagers.

    It also doesn’t matter that attorneys with Texas Defender Services, a nonprofit focused on death penalty cases, are assisting Flores’ counsel in this case. Bexar County did not appoint Texas Defender Services to represent Flores. The county is not paying attorneys with the nonprofit. The county appointed Camara as lead counsel and David Woodard as second chair.

    Those are his attorneys, regardless of outside assistance. State law requires two appointed attorneys in death penalty cases, including a qualified lead. Not only this, but standards for the State Bar of Texas and the American Bar Association call for two attorneys.

    A second chair is not like a backup quarterback who fills in when the starter goes down. A second chair is a qualified attorney but is also learning from the lead.

    With Camara out with a concussion during jury selection, Flores had one attorney, the second chair. That’s not enough, which is why Reed had to grant the mistrial.

    From the bench, Reed acknowledged “the scrutiny that is given to capital murder cases, and the Texas statute that requires first chair designation and all of that. ... It is concerning.”

    But she seemed more concerned about the requirement of having two attorneys since Texas Defender Services is assisting with the case.

    “I think the Legislature needs to take another look at that based on Texas Defender Service, who is essentially working with you, and I think it would be disingenuous to say they are not.

    Because they are.”

    Immaterial.

    Reed’s hands were tied — but only because she tied her own hands. On June 20, Camara blacked out in the shower (due to a change in blood pressure medicine), hit his head and suffered a concussion.

    Jury selection was continued until June 25, but according to court filings, when the trial resumed, Camara was unsteady and lightheaded. A motion was filed to continue the trial, but Reed denied it.

    During jury selection, Camara felt nauseous and worried he would collapse. Under advice of his doctor, he went home at lunch.

    That left Woodard as the sole attorney. He asked for a continuance, which Reed rejected. She pointed at two attorneys with Texas Defender Services and said Flores had three attorneys, the motion for mistrial says.

    Even though Woodard said he was not qualified to lead jury selection, Reed ordered him to proceed. In doing so, she basically gift-wrapped an appeal if the trial continued.

    Don Flanary, president of the San Antonio Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, was aghast. Reed’s initial actions, he said, violated Flores’ Sixth Amendment rights to effective counsel.

    It’s a point that Camara’s doctor, Burton G. Shaw, raised at the recent mistrial hearing.

    “In the case that someone’s life is at issue, I would want my attorney to be completely competent,” Shaw said. “And I am not sure that (Camara) is.”

    But more was at play than the rights of Flores. Let’s not lose sight of the victims and their families.

    “Let’s say this guy is guilty,” Flanary said. “This (would have) caused an error.”

    And an error would have meant a potential reversal. But a mistrial during jury selection only means a do-over, which is a hassle, but not an injustice.

    “No court should be conducting trial proceedings with impaired counsel,” said Amanda Marzullo, executive director of Texas Defender Services.

    Much like tolerating hate speech as a consequence of (true) free speech, it’s crucial to hold the line in death penalty cases. The stakes are so high, and there have been wrongful convictions.

    But also, in the most horrific crimes, it’s essential proper practices are followed. In other words, it’s a reflection of us, not the defendant.

    In this case, rushed justice would have only expedited a very strong appeal.

    https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion...e-13074002.php
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    August 8, 2018

    Judge reinstates injured lawyer in San Antonio capital murder case

    By Elizabeth Zavala
    mysanantonio.com

    A judge on Wednesday appointed a new attorney and reinstated an injured lawyer who had been removed from a capital murder death case that ended last month in a mistrial while the jury was being selected.

    Brian Flores, 36, will continue to be represented by Ed Camara, who suffered a concussion when he fell and hit his head in June. State District Judge Joey Contreras, who is presiding over the case, also appointed John Fahle to assist the defense team headed by Camara and David Woodard.

    “This case has been delayed for far too long. We need to proceed,” Contreras said during a hearing to discuss the status of the case.

    Flores is accused of capital murder-multiple persons in the deaths of Joshua Rodriguez and Victoria Dennis on Sept. 29, 2015. They were killed at the Churchill Park apartment complex in the 1200 block of Patricia Drive.

    Prosecutors Jason Goss and Gretchen Flader began jury selection in early June, but proceedings were delayed after Camara’s accident June 18.

    Visiting Judge Susan Reed, former Bexar County district attorney, declared a mistrial in July after Camara’s physician, Burton Shaw, said Camara, 77, had post-concussion syndrome, couldn’t walk a straight line and “is a little slower and muted on his responses.”

    Contreras took over after Reed, who was appointed judge after Steven Hilbig retired from the bench last year, withdrew from the case.

    Goss and Flader argued Wednesday that they are ready to go to trial in September, but Woodard told the judge they need more time because Fahle needs to get to know their client and get up to speed on the case.

    Contreras set a hearing for Aug. 15 to reconvene with all attorneys to discuss going to trial in October.

    https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...m-85307-tbla-5

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    July 10, 2019

    Plea agreement allows convicted killer to avoid death penalty


    Bexar County district attorney calls Brian Flores 'worst of the worst'

    By Paul Venema
    KSAT News

    SAN ANTONIO - On a September night in 2015 Brian Flores, 32, burst into an apartment in the 1200 block of Patricia and shot Joshua Rodriguez, 18, and Victoria Dennis, 17, to death.

    He would later say that he killed Rodriguez at the request of a friend and shot Dennis “because he didn’t want to leave a witness.”

    “I don’t know how I can forgive you, sorry,” Dennis’ mother, Dorothy Castro, said to Flores during his sentencing hearing on Wednesday.

    As part of a plea agreement, Judge Stephanie Boyd sentenced Flores to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    During the victim impact statement, Castro stared at Flores and said, “I am a Christian woman and God says I have to forgive you.”

    She added, “So now I forgive you halfway, but not fully, because I don’t know how to.”

    Following the hearing, District Attorney Joe Gonzales called Flores “the worst of the worst," noting that he has an extensive criminal history of violence and drug offenses.

    “This individual is a menace to society, but this individual will never become a menace on the streets of Bexar County or anywhere else because he will die in prison,” Gonzales said.

    https://www.ksat.com/news/crime/plea...death-penalty#

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