When an inmate, who had met with law enforcement about exchanging information for leniency, talked to Caballero, he was in the same role as a person in law enforcement and Caballero was entitled to have his lawyer present, the judge said.
SPRINGFIELD – They are sometimes called jailhouse rats, or snitches, or – in more neutral language – informants.
It is not uncommon, particularly in serious cases, for jurors to hear someone testify a defendant admitted guilt when they were chatting while locked up together.
Nathan CaballeroHampden Superior Court Judge Richard J. Carey, in a recent ruling, kicked out the testimony of one man who was to testify Nathan Caballero admitted his involvement in the 2009 killing of Raymond Diaz Jr. in Holyoke.
Carey said the man, whose name was expunged from the decision, had met with law enforcement about exchanging information for leniency.
So when the inmate talked to Caballero, he was in the same role as a person in law enforcement and Caballero was entitled to have his lawyer present, Carey said.
Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said Carey’s decision follows the law set by the state Supreme Judicial Court in a 2007 case.
Mastroianni said he will not appeal Carey’s ruling and the case will have to proceed without that testimony. The trial was postponed and a new date has not been set.
“We’re of course not happy with the ruling. We’d certainly very much rather have a different ruling. We can’t appeal something just because we don’t like the ruling. We have to appeal something on a perceived legal error,” Mastroianni said.
Mark MastroianniMastroainni said the use of jailhouse informant testimony is more important in cases where the actual witnesses to a crime aren’t talking.
Carey’s decision, like the earlier decisions his was based upon, does not preclude testimony of jailhouse informants, but it lays out ground rules about what can be used, he said.
Mastroianni said because interactions between law enforcement and this particular inmate were not documented, the state could not argue to Carey the man was really not an agent of the state.
Documenting the interactions between law enforcement, as his office is doing, will in the future help the state argue a jailhouse informant was not asked to shop for information from other inmates in exchange for leniency, Mastroianni said.
The man claimed he talked with Caballero, of Holyoke, while in the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow awaiting trial.
Police at the time said Diaz, 22, of Springfield, was shot “execution style” Oct. 6, 2009, about eight times near a park off South Bridge Street in a drug-related shooting.
Defense lawyers Linda J. Thompson and Bonnie Allen argued the jailhouse informant was acting as an “agent” of the prosecution.
Carey said even if the man was not asked to target a specific person, he “deliberately elicited incrimination statements from the defendant.”
That violated Cabellero’s right to counsel under state and federal laws, Carey said.
Carey said the man, already an experienced cooperating witness in a previous case, faced a possible life sentence for violation of probation on his armed robbery case.
The judge said the man “had ample reason to see the defendant as his key to freedom.”
Past state high court decisions, Carey said, prevent a situation where an informant who has an agreement with the government for a specific benefit or promise, “then trolls the jail for victims.”
Commonwealth vs. Nathan Caballero Order on Motion to Exclude Testimony
Carey’s ruling followed several days of hearings, including testimony from Holyoke and state police, two former Hampden County assistant district attorneys and a probation officer, among others.
Carey said Assistant District Attorney Matthew J. Shea, who was assigned the case after Mastroianni took office, “has taken laudable steps. ... to assure that all of the facts involving this issue be revealed.”
According to Carey’s ruling, the inmate said Caballero, referring to the murder charge against him, said “he would do like 10 years.”
The inmate said Caballero said he and the victim were friends before “and used to do business together, then this altercation happened that this dude (the victim) sliced” Caballero’s face and “shot his cousin.” According to the inmate, Caballero said “he did what he had to do for his people.”
Mastroianni said the goal is to find ways to get people who witness crime to come forward and to depend less on people who were incarcerated with a defendant.