United States v. Catalan-Roman

585 F.3d 453 (2009)

Study Aids
Case Briefs Overview
Casebooks
Case Briefs
U
From our private database of 46,300+ case briefs, written and edited by humans—never with AI.

United States v. Catalan-Roman

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
585 F.3d 453 (2009)

RW

Facts

The United States government (plaintiff) prosecuted Lorenzo Catalan-Roman (Catalan) and Hernando Medina-Villegas (Medina) (defendants) on several counts in connection with an armored car robbery. The robbery led to the murder of one of the armored car's guards, Gilberto Rodriguez-Cabrera (Rodriguez), and the government sought the death penalty for that crime. Eluber Torres-Alejandro (Torres), the armored car's driver, was wounded in the incident. Police briefly interviewed Torres while he received hospital treatment for his wounds. At trial, Torres gave aggravating details of the murder that he had omitted during his hospital interview. The details showed Medina acted with premeditation when he killed Rodriguez. The defense attempted to introduce the hospital interview as evidence, arguing the aggravating details were so integral to any account of the incident that their absence from the hospital interview could indicate Torres fabricated the details later. The judge excluded the interview as extrinsic evidence of a collateral matter unrelated to whether Medina was the killer. The jury convicted Catalan and Medina, and the judge sentenced them to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, they argued the judge erred in excluding the hospital interview from evidence.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Lipez, J.)

What to do next…

  1. Unlock this case brief with a free (no-commitment) trial membership of Quimbee.

    You’ll be in good company: Quimbee is one of the most widely used and trusted sites for law students, serving more than 811,000 law students since 2011. Some law schools—such as Yale, Berkeley, and Northwestern—even subscribe directly to Quimbee for all their law students.

    Unlock this case briefRead our student testimonials

  2. Learn more about Quimbee’s unique (and proven) approach to achieving great grades at law school.

    Quimbee is a company hell-bent on one thing: helping you get an “A” in every course you take in law school, so you can graduate at the top of your class and get a high-paying law job. We’re not just a study aid for law students; we’re the study aid for law students.

    Learn about our approachRead more about Quimbee

Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:

  • Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
  • The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
  • Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
  • Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.

Access this case brief for FREE

With a 7-day free trial membership
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
  • Reliable - written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students
  • The right length and amount of information - includes the facts, issue, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents
  • Access in your class - works on your mobile and tablet
  • 46,300 briefs - keyed to 988 casebooks
  • Uniform format for every case brief
  • Written in plain English - not in legalese and not just repeating the court's language
  • Massive library of related video lessons - and practice questions
  • Top-notch customer support

Access this case brief for FREE

With a 7-day free trial membership

Casebooks

Evidence

Key Terms