Press Coverage

Role Of Prosecutor Brings Halt To Sifuentes-Ramirez Hearing

P. Christine Mills

Avalanche-Journal

Efforts by Alberto Sifuentes and Jesus Ramirez to overturn their murder convictions came to a halt Thursday.

The prosecutor in their original trials realized he remained the lead attorney in the current habeas corpus case and should not testify in this week's hearing.

Lamb County District Attorney Mark Yarbrough offered some testimony on Wednesday, but later reviewed a document he signed in May that he misunderstood, he said after Judge Marvin Marshall recessed the hearing in 99th District Court. He also testified briefly and on limited topics on Thursday morning.

Ramirez

The hearing will resume in a few weeks, after either Yarbrough recuses himself from the habeas corpus case or 154th District Court Judge Felix Klein forces Yarbrough to step down after a hearing on Sept. 9, said Barry F. McNeil, of Dallas law firm Haynes and Boone LLC, which represents Sifuentes and Ramirez.

"It's going to come down to that hearing on Sept. 9 at 10 (a.m.) to determine if my office is still going to be on the case," Yarbrough said.

Yarbrough said later that he will use the next week to consult with other district attorneys and to research the law before deciding whether to step down prior to or during the Sept. 9 hearing.

The document Yarbrough signed assigned state Attorney General's Office lawyers to assist him in the men's habeas corpus proceedings, but Yarbrough thought, at the time, that he relinquished to them the lead role, he said.

Sifuentes

Sifuentes and Ramirez each have served about seven years of life prison sentences for the murder of Littlefield Jolly Roger convenience store clerk Evangelina Cruz.

The men claim they did not rob and shoot Cruz on Aug. 6, 1996. Juries convicted the men in separate trials in 1998.

Haynes and Boone in 2002 filed writs of habeas corpus on behalf of Sifuentes and Ramirez.

The writs, which outline claims of new evidence that has come to light since Sifuentes and Ramirez were convicted, are the reason the men had another chance in court this week.

"We're disappointed that the prosecutor didn't step down," McNeil said after the hearing recessed.

"We believe that he has an ethical obligation to withdraw from the case because he's a witness."

Klein ordered a list of contested issues, which specified that Yarbrough and Assistant District Attorney Scott Say were to give live testimony on the issue of new evidence in the defendants' cases, Yarbrough said.

Yarbrough and Say were ordered to provide affidavits on other issues in the cases, he said. McNeil, he said, wanted to go into live testimony on those other issues.

"The prosecutor has known for years that he was to be a witness in this case ... and he told us only today that he would not testify," McNeil said.

"The prosecutor is standing in the way of (Sifuentes' and Ramirez's) due process and he may choose to step down between now and then."

Other testimony this week centered on an alibi witness, the presumption of two new suspects in the case, ineffective assistance of defense counsel and exculpatory evidence that was allegedly either hidden or missed.

Asked if the prosecution and the defense could work together to determine whether Sifuentes and Ramirez were wrongfully convicted, Yarbrough said, "That's exactly what we're doing."

McNeil remained certain of a positive outcome for his clients.

"We remain very, very confident that at some level, whether in state or federal courts, we will secure a new trial for Alberto and Jesus and they will not be retried because there is no evidence," McNeil said.