Irma Castillo Receives Award for Panel Excellence at SDAP Seminar

Irma “Carla” Castillo received the second annual Gerald Z. Marer Award for Panel Excellence at the May 3 SDAP Spring Seminar. Ms. Castillo has been a member of the SDAP panel since 1994. She came to the panel after seven years as an Alameda County Deputy Public Defender.

Admitted as an entry level panel member, Ms.Castillo steadily advanced as an appellate advocate. Her professionalism and commitment to the interests of the client quickly caught the attention of all who worked with her. Soon, the wins began accumulating: reversal of the denial of a suppression motion, reversal of an auto theft conviction, reversal of a Three Strikes drug conspiracy conviction.

Then in 2004 we assigned her the case of Jeffrey Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez had been convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The case seemed shaky from the start, as a jury had split 11-1 for acquittal at an initial mistrial. The case was based almost entirely on eyewitness identification. At the first trial defense counsel had called alibi witnesses and an eyewitness expert. At the second trial which resulted in conviction, he did neither.

The prosecution had, however, improved its case between the two trials. The robbery victim, after a conference with a police officer between trials, testified at the second trial that after viewing the videotape of the crime and looking at a jacket seized from Mr. Rodriguez after his arrest, he now recognized Mr. Rodriguez’s jacket as that worn by the robber, due to distinctive stitching on the sleeve.

Carla wrote an excellent opening brief, arguing for reversal due to ineffective assistance of counsel on the record. However, she did not stop there. She obtained a copy of the videotape of the robbery and examined the seized jacket. She found a video enhancement expert who enhanced and clarified the videotape and came to the opinion that the jacket worn by the robber and Mr. Rodriguez’s jacket were demonstrably different.

In 2006, the Court of Appeal reversed Mr. Rodriguez’s conviction due to ineffective assistance of counsel on the appellate record. But Carla’s efforts did not end with the reversal. She worked to make sure that the Deputy Public Defender selected for the retrial was an attorney with an excellent trial record. She worked with that attorney, Andy Gutierrez, to make sure he was aware of all the ways the videotape enhancement expert could assist in the retrial, and other investigative leads.

Then, Mr. Rodriguez caught a break. At both initial trials, a Santa Clara County criminalist had testified that he had analyzed an oil stain on a pair of jeans Mr. Rodriguez was wearing when arrested and found the stain was composed of both motor and vegetable oils. This was incriminating, because the robbery took place on a loading dock where there were receptacle for recycled motor and vegetable oil. However, in the interval between the first trials and the reversal, the criminalist had failed a recertification test. In preparation for retrial, the DA’s office sent the jeans to a state crime lab analyst, who disagreed with the county crime lab analysts’s opinion. They then sent them to a federal crime lab analyst, who also stated the county criminalist had overstated the value of his data.

At this point, the Santa Clara County DA’s office finally gave up and dismissed the case. However, they opposed Mr. Rodriguez’s motion for declaration of factual innocence, which was nonetheless granted. At a recent benefit dinner for the Northern California Innocence Project, Mr. Rodriguez stood with many others from around the country who had been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted, as Carla looked on with pride and joy.

Carla thus acquitted herself beautifully when put to the ultimate test of a criminal appellate defense lawyer: an innocent client sentenced to a lengthy term. Although she presented a strong case for reversal on appeal, she did not assume victory on appeal, but kept digging for ways to attack the case against her client. Her habeas petition demonstrated that the improvement in the prosecution case between the first two trials was factually erroneous. After reversal, she worked to insure that her client would have competent trial counsel who would use the results of her investigation, and worked with that attorney as he prepared for trial.

It is satisfying to see a person in any walk of life who has worked long and hard meet a critical situation and employ all the skill and experience acquired to create a masterpiece. The Jeffrey Rodriguez case was such a masterpiece and prompted the SDAP staff to recognize Carla’s efforts by making her the recipient of the second annual Gerald Z. Marer Award for Panel Excellence.

(June 10, 2008)

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