SUMMARY OF JUAN MELENDEZ'S CASE

On September 13, 1983, after closing his school of cosmetology Delbert Baker was murdered. His body was found at about 8:30 pm. after his male roommate had the police notified because Mr. Baker was late coming home. Some of Mr. Baker’s jewelry was missing, although the days receipts were still in his briefcase. Mr. Baker was homosexual and had been known to have encounters at the school after closing. The Medical Examiner estimated that the time of death was approximately 7:30 p.m.

Terry Barber had stopped by the school at a little before 6:00 pm. The door was unlocked and he walked in. Mr. Baker came out of the backroom a little surprised. Mr. Barber saw that Mr. Baker had company in the back. He told the police that he believed that Vernon James and his friend known as Bobo were the two males he saw in backroom. While incarcerated on other charges, Vernon James told another inmate that he and Mr. Baker had been having a sexual relationship. On the day of the killing, he and two other men had killed Mr. Baker. A law enforcement officer confronted Mr. James with this information, and Mr. James admitted his presence at the homicide. Even though Vernon James was a suspect, he was neither arrested nor charged with the homicide.

Instead, in February, 1984, Juan Melendez was arrested and charged with first degree murder and robbery on the basis of David Luna Falcon’s claim that Mr. Melendez had confessed the murder while they were doing cocaine together and after Mr. Falcon had bragged about being a gangster and having killed "maybe twenty" people in Puerto Rico. In late 1983, Mr. Melendez had befriended Mr. Falcon’s father and stepmother. The relationship was close; he called them "pa" and "mama." In December of 1983, Mr. Falcon’s father went to Puerto Rico and brought Mr. Falcon back with him because he was in trouble there. Mr. Melendez and Mr. Falcon did not get along. Mr. Melendez had a falling out with Mr. Falcon’s parents. Various people reported that Mr. Falcon announced his intention to get Mr. Melendez. Then in February, Mr. Falcon went to the police claiming that Mr. Melendez told him that someone drove him to Mr. Baker’s and that he and a third person went inside and killed Mr. Baker. After this conversation with Mr. Melendez, Mr. Falcon talked to people on the street and gathered information regarding Mr. Baker’s homicide, only then did he go to the police.

Mr. Melendez and John Berrien were then arrested. The charges against John Berrien were reduced to accessory after the fact to which he pled no contest and agreed to testify against Mr. Melendez in exchange for the possibility of probation as a sentence depending upon his testimony. Meanwhile in May of 1984, Mr. Falcon was accused of committing an armed home invasion, in which he fired a gun at an eight year old child. One of the victims, the child’s father, had a pending drug charge. As a result, a police officer obtained from the child’s mother a waiver of prosecution and the investigation against Mr. Falcon was dismissed.

The State's theory of the case at trial was that Mr. Melendez, John Berrien and George Berrien drove in John Berrien's car to the victim's beauty salon in the late afternoon of September 13, 1983. John Berrien testified that he dropped off Mr. Melendez and George Berrien in the vicinity of the beauty salon and returned for them two hours later. Neither Mr. Melendez nor George Berrien had any blood on them or their clothes. The next day, according to John Berrien, he drove George Berrien and Mr. Melendez to the train station, where George Berrien boarded a train for Wilmington, Delaware. At the train station, Mr. Melendez purportedly handed George Berrien some jewelry and a gun which George Berrien was supposed to sell in Delaware.

This theory rested solely on the testimony of John Berrien and David Luna Falcon. Mr. Falcon told the jury that when he was in Puerto Rico he had been working undercover for the Justice Department. No physical evidence connected Mr. Melendez to the victim's death or supported the theory regarding his participation in the offense.

In his defense, Mr. Melendez provided an alibi. Four witnesses testified that in the late afternoon through the evening of September 13, 1983, Mr. Melendez was with Dorothy Rivera. Mr. Melendez testified on his own behalf. George Berrien was also called by the defense to refute the allegations. Other witnesses testified that Mr. Falcon had a grudge against Mr. Melendez and had threatened to kill him before coming forward with Mr. Melendez's alleged confession.

Mr. Melendez also tried to call Vernon James to testify. However, Mr. James invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify. And the judge refused to allow the defense to call the law enforcement officer to whom Mr. James had admitted being there.

On the basis of the State's highly suspect case, Mr. Melendez was convicted and sentenced to death. John Berrien received two years probation. George Berrien was never charged with any offense, although he testified at the trial as a defense witness and thus was certainly available to authorities, and although the State argued at trial that he was "equally guilty" and "equally involved . . . in committing the murder".

Mr. Falcon and John Berrien were crucial witnesses for the State. However, substantial information undermining the credibility of Mr. Falcon and John Berrien existed which the jury did not know. The jury did not know that David Luna Falcon received $5000 for his testimony against Mr. Melendez. In addition, the jury did not hear that Mr. Falcon had been serving a forty-five year sentence in Puerto Rico for a homicide conviction. After escaping from prison and being apprehended Falcon agreed to testify against individuals in a New Jersey murder trial. After he testified, Mr. Falcon's sentence was reduced and he was released from prison.

As to John Berrien's testimony, the jury never heard that John Berrien told the police several stories that were inconsistent with the testimony he provided at trial.

In 1994, Mr. Melendez presented another four witnesses during his postconviction appeals, who testified that Vernon James had confessed to participating in Delbert Baker's murder. One of the witnesses was an attorney in whom Vernon James confided prior to Mr. Melendez's trial. Additionally at that hearing, John Berrien recanted much of his inculpatory testimony against Mr. Melendez.