Executed January 10, 2007 06:21 p.m. CST by Lethal Injection in Texas
2nd murderer executed in U.S. in 2007
1059th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
1st murderer executed in Texas in 2007
380th murderer executed in Texas since 1976
(Race/Sex/Age at Murder-Execution) |
Birth |
(Race/Sex/Age at Murder) |
Murder |
Murder |
to Murderer |
Sentence |
||||
|
Carlos Alberto Granados H / M / 27 - 36 |
Anthony Jiminez H / M / 3 |
Citations:
Granados v. State, 85 S.W.3d 217 (Tex.Cr.App. 2002) (Direct Appeal).
Granados v. Quarterman, 455 F.3d 529 (5th Cir. 2006) (Habeas).
Final/Special Meal:
Fried chicken, pizza and a soft drink.
Final Words:
"Kathy, you know I never meant to hurt you. I gave you everything and that's what made me so angry. But I never meant to hurt you. I'm sorry."
Internet Sources:
Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Carlos Granados)
Inmate: Granados, Carlos
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
"Texas executes man who murdered 3-year-old." (Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:54 PM ET)
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - A man convicted of murdering his girlfriend's 3-year-old son was put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday in Texas' first execution of the year.
Carlos Granados, 36, was condemned for killing Anthony Jiminez with a large kitchen knife during an argument with the boy's mother, Katherine Jiminez, on September 13, 1998, at their home in Georgetown, near Austin. The mother was stabbed nearly 30 times, but survived and testified against Granados.
In a final statement while strapped to a gurney, Granados addressed his girlfriend, who witnessed the execution. "Kathy, you know I never meant to hurt you," Granados said. "I gave you everything and that's what made me so angry."
For his last meal, Granados requested fried chicken, pizza and a soft drink. Granados was the 380th person put to death in Texas, which leads the nation in executions, since it resumed capital punishment in 1982. He was the first of five people scheduled for execution this month in the state. So far, 13 more executions have been scheduled in 2007.
Thursday, January 4, 2007 - Media Advisory: Carlos Granados Scheduled For Execution
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information about Carlos Alberto Granados, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 10, 2007. A Williamson County jury sentenced Granados to death for the 1998 murder of his girlfriend’s three-year-old son, Anthony Jiminez.
FACTS OF THE CRIME
On Monday, Sept. 14, 1998, Georgetown police went to Katherine Jiminez’s Georgetown, TX, apartment and found Katherine and her son, Anthony, on the floor. Katherine had been stabbed numerous times and Anthony had been stabbed to death.
Katherine told authorities that following an argument on Sunday, her live-in boyfriend, Carlos Granados stabbed her repeatedly with a long kitchen knife. Granados then left the room, and Katherine heard Anthony scream, “I don’t want to die. Don’t kill me. I don’t want to die.” Stabbed in the chest, Anthony died moments later.
Meanwhile, Katherine’s family became worried that they had not heard from her, so they contacted Georgetown police, who visited Katherine’s apartment Monday morning. Officers knocked on Katherine’s apartment door and called her apartment but received no response in either case. Authorities then pried open the apartment door. On entering the apartment, an officer saw Granados with a large kitchen knife covered in blood. The officer ordered Granados to release the knife, but Granados told police, “Shoot me, just shoot me.” Granados eventually dropped the knife and was handcuffed.
A physician later determined that Katherine, who was pregnant at the time of the attack, had nearly 30 stab wounds and a spinal cord injury that caused loss of feelings in her legs. A county jail inmate testified at Granados’s trial that Granados calmly admitted in a jailhouse conversation that he stabbed Katherine and killed her baby.
CRIMINAL HISTORY
The prosecution presented evidence that revealed Granados’s violent history. A girlfriend of Granados testified that he physically assaulted her by punching her, grabbing her neck, and choking her. The witness also stated that she caught Granados kissing her thirteen-year- old sister, and that she found bite marks and bruises on her three-year-old son after he visited Granados. Granados admitted to a case worker that he bit the boy and had spanked him, leaving bruises. A different girlfriend testified that Granados fathered a child with her but provided no financial support for his child. Additional testimony established that Granados assaulted a family member with a beer bottle, causing injury.
Testimony from Williams County correctional officers showed that Granados refused to follow orders in the county jail, and that Granados repeatedly said he did not care if he was disciplined for misconduct Finally, Katherine’s mother testified that after the stabbing, Katherine became scared to be by herself. Anthony’s death affected the entire family.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
04/25/99 --A Williamson County jury sententenced Granado to death on his capital murder conviction.
05/08/02 -- Granados’s conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal.
03/24/02--The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review of the Texas court’s decision on direct appeal.
09/18/02--The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Granados’s writ application.
01/15/04 -- Granados filed a federal writ of habeas corpus petition.
02/17/05 -- A U.S. district court adopted a magistrate’s report and recommendation, and denied habeas relief.
03/09/05--The U.S. district court denied a certificate of appealability (“COA”).
07/05/06--The 5th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a COA and affirmed the denial of habeas petition.
07/19/06--The 277th District Court in Williamson County scheduled Granados’s execution for Wednesday, January 10, 2007.
12/04/06--The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review of the 5th Circuit Court’s decision.
"Convicted murderer of toddler executed in Huntsville." (Associated Press Jan. 10, 2007, 7:04PM)
HUNTSVILLE — A New York man convicted of the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son was executed this evening.
In a brief final statement, Carlos Granados, 36, expressed love to his family and others and addressed Katherine Jiminez, his former girlfriend and the mother of the child he killed more than eight years ago. "Kathy, you know I never meant to hurt you," he told the woman who also suffered 27 stab wounds during the attack. "I gave you everything and that's what made me so angry. But I never meant to hurt you. I'm sorry." She stood up against the death chamber window as he made his statement, but Granados never looked at her.
At 6:21 p.m., seven minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing, he was pronounced dead. He was the first person to be executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state, where 24 convicted killers were put to death last year and where more than a dozen already are scheduled to die in 2007. Four more executions are set for this month.
Granados was convicted of using a large kitchen knife to kill Anthony Jiminez during a stabbing frenzy. His mother survived the 1998 attack at her apartment in Georgetown, just north of Austin. She testified against Granados at his capital murder trial. "With everything coming up and all the emotions, the varied emotions, sometimes you try to put things away, especially the hurtful things — the screams, the last moments," she said in an interview on Tuesday. "And right now, all of it has come up again and it's brought a lot of those emotions back — the anger, the why, the what-if. "Do I want the courts to stop it? Absolutely not. It needs to happen."
The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to review Granados' case. Lawyers this week went to the state courts, arguing Granados had poor legal help from a state-appointed attorney who filed only a meager two-page appeal in the critical early stage of his appeals. "Mr. Granados never received even the pretense of a meaningful state court review of his conviction or sentence," his lawyers said in a request that sought a reprieve from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The court late Wednesday morning rejected the appeal.
Prosecutors said Granados had excellent legal help, but the evidence against the Manhattan native was strong, especially with the victim's mother testifying. "There's certainly no question of guilt in this particular case," said John Bradley, the Williamson County district attorney.
Jiminez's relatives called police after she failed to drop off her son at her grandmother's house and report for work. Officers who went to her apartment found it locked from the inside and summoned firefighters to break it open. Inside, authorities found Granados, his wrists slashed, holding a bloody knife and urging them to "Shoot me, just shoot me." The child was dead and his mother near death.
Jiminez, who has remarried and now has two small children, said she willed herself to keep living. "I'm going to survive so this person doesn't get away with this, and really for the sake of my son," she said in an interview this week. "I knew he wasn't alive."
Testimony showed the stabbings were the result of an escalating argument after Granados refused his girlfriend's order to leave. The pair had dated before she married and had Anthony. When her marriage ended, they began seeing each other again and he moved from New York to Texas to be with her.
At his trial, prosecutors showed Granados, who had no previous prison record, did have a history of violence, including assaulting a former girlfriend, biting and bruising a 3-year-old boy, and assaulting a relative with a beer bottle.
Scheduled for execution next in Texas is Johnathan Moore, 32, set to die Jan. 17 for the 1995 fatal shooting of Fabian Dominguez, a San Antonio police officer.
"Convicted murderer of 3-year-old boy put to death," by Michael Graczyk. (Ap 01/11/2007)
More than eight years after a stabbing tirade left Katherine Jiminez severely injured and her 3-year-old son dead, the Georgetown woman watched the man convicted of the attack be put to death. Jiminez stood a few feet away from Carlos Granados, 36, watching through a window as her former boyfriend received lethal injection Wednesday evening, making him the first condemned killer of the year to be executed in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
"Kathy, you know I never meant to hurt you," he told the woman who suffered 27 stab wounds during the frenzy, but survived to testify against him. "I gave you everything and that's what made me so angry. But I never meant to hurt you. I'm sorry." As he spoke, Granados never looked at her. Seven minutes later, he was pronounced dead.
Jiminez, 34, declined to speak with reporters following the execution but said earlier in the week she wondered if he had remorse for killing her son, Anthony, with a large kitchen knife. "It doesn't really change anything," she said. "But there are always those unanswered questions that you have, and sometimes if there is an answer, maybe it would help with healing. "There are some questions. The biggest one would be, most obviously: Why? Why would you kill an innocent child that had nothing to do with anything?"
The U.S. Supreme Court refused last month to review Granados' case. Lawyers went to the state courts this week, arguing Granados' execution should be stopped and he get more time for appeals because he had poor legal help from a state-appointed attorney who filed only a meager two-page appeal in the critical early stage of his appeals. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the request earlier Wednesday. Prosecutors said Granados had excellent legal help and pointed out the evidence against the Manhattan native was strong, especially with the victim's mother testifying.
Jiminez's relatives called police after she failed to drop off her son at her grandmother's house and report for work. Officers who went to her apartment found it locked from the inside and summoned firefighters to break it open. Inside, authorities found Granados holding a bloody knife and urging them to "Shoot me, just shoot me." The child was dead and his mother near death.
Testimony showed the stabbings were the result of an escalating argument after Granados refused his girlfriend's order to leave. The pair had dated before she married and had Anthony. When her marriage ended, they began seeing each other again and he moved from New York to Texas to be with her. At his trial, prosecutors showed Granados had a history of violence, including assaulting a former girlfriend, biting and bruising a 3-year-old boy and assaulting a relative with a beer bottle.
Four more executions are set for this month in Texas, where 24 convicted killers were put to death last year. They're among more than a dozen already scheduled to die in 2007. Next on the schedule is Johnathan Moore, 32, facing injection Jan. 17 for the 1995 fatal shooting of Fabian Dominguez, a San Antonio police officer.
"Man executed in stabbing of 3-year-old," by Jay Ermis. (January 10, 2007 11:42 pm)
A New York man on Wednesday evening became the first Texas death row inmate to be executed in 2007. Carlos Granados, 36, convicted in the stabbing death of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son, was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. — seven minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing.
Four more executions are scheduled in January and 14 through mid-August. In 2006, 24 convicted killers were put to death at the Walls Unit.
Granados, who has been on death row since May 1999, expressed love to his family and others in a last statement. His statement included a comment to Katherine Jiminez, his former girlfriend and mother the child he stabbed to death Sept. 13, 1998, in Georgetown, north of Austin. “Kathy, you know I never meant to hurt you,” Granado said, looking at the ceiling, but never to his left, where Jiminez was standing against the death chamber window. “I gave you everything and that’s what made me so angry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I am sorry.”
The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to review Granados’ case. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a request for stay of execution late Wednesday morning.
Granados was convicted of using a large kitchen knife to kill Anthony Jiminez during an argument between Granados and Jiminez, who suffered 27 stab wounds during the attack at her apartment. Jiminez’s relatives called police Sept. 14, 1998, after she failed to drop off her son at her grandmother’s house and report for work. Officers who went to her apartment found it locked from the inside and summoned firefighters to break it open. Inside, police found Granados, his wrists slashed, holding a bloody knife and urging them to “Shoot me, just shoot me.” The child was dead and his mother near death.
Jiminez, who has remarried and now has two small children, testified against Granados at his capital murder trial. Testimony showed the stabbings were the result of an escalating argument after Granados refused his girlfriend’s order to leave. The pair had dated before she married and had Anthony. When her marriage ended, they began seeing each other again and he moved from New York to Texas to be with her.
At his trial, prosecutors showed Granados, who had no previous prison record, did have a history of violence, including assaulting a former girlfriend, biting and bruising a 3-year-old boy, and assaulting a relative with a beer bottle. (The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson.
Carlos Alberto Granados, 36, was executed by lethal injection on 10 January 2007 in Huntsville, Texas for stabbing his girlfriend's 3-year-old son to death.
On 13 September 1998, Granados, then 27, had an argument with his girlfriend, Katherine Jiminez, in her Georgetown apartment, where he had also been living for a few weeks. On that afternoon, both Granados and Jiminez were scheduled to work. Jiminez had arranged to drop off her son, Anthony, at her mother's house, and to pick him up the following morning. According to Jiminez's testimony, the argument began when Granados asked her to take a nap with him before they left for work. Granados became angry when Jiminez told him she didn't want to take a nap at that time. He knocked a plate of food from her hand, then they began arguing in the bedroom. Jiminez then told Granados to take his belongings and leave the apartment.
A brief cooling off period ensued, and the couple began talking again. Jiminez's sister, Elizabeth, called, but Granados answered the phone, told her Katharine was busy, and hung up the telephone. Jiminez again told Granados to gather his belongings and leave. Jiminez testified that Granados then left the room, then came back and asked, "You want me to leave?" When she answered that she did, he cursed and attacked her with a long kitchen knife, stabbing her repeatedly and slashing her throat. After a while, Granados began crying, afraid that he would go to jail. Jiminez told him she loved him and would lie about her injuries if he would leave.
Jiminez then tried to telephone the police and escape, but Granados caught her and dragged her to the kitchen. He stabbed her some more, and she feigned death. Granados then left the kitchen. Jiminez heard her 3-year-old son, Anthony, who was watching television in the living room, scream, "I don't want to die! Don't kill me! I don't want to die!" Granados then stabbed Anthony to death. Jiminez testified that she later heard her sister outside the apartment, but was afraid to scream for help. Later, Granados came to the kitchen and showed her that he had slashed his wrists, saying, "Look, I'm going to die with you." Later, Granados telephoned his father. Several hours later, believing her death was imminent, Katharine dragged herself toward her son's body so that she could die by his side.
The following morning, family members, concerned that Jiminez had not reported to work or dropped Anthony off at her mother's as planned, called Georgetown police. Corporal Gregory Brunson and another officer arrived, knocked on the door, and called the telephone, but received no answer. The apartment manager was unable to open the door because of an interior deadbolt, so Brunson called the fire department, which had a tool for opening deadbolted doors.
Upon entering the apartment, one of the firefighters exclaimed that a man inside had a knife. According to his testimony, Corporal Brunson drew his revolver and went inside. He saw Granados covered in blood, keeping his right hand hidden. In response to Brunson's orders, Granados raised his hand, in which he held a bloody kitchen knife. Brunson ordered Granados to drop the knife, but Granados shouted back, "Shoot me, just shoot me!" Granados eventually dropped the knife and was handcuffed and taken outside. Brunson then re-entered the apartment and saw Anthony Jiminez's body. He then found Katharine Jiminez, covered in blood. Brunson testified that Jiminez said to him, "He killed my baby, and I have been waiting for you to come." Katharine Jiminez was taken to a hospital. She suffered 27 stab wounds. One of them damaged her spinal cord and caused a loss of feeling in her legs.
Granados had no prior criminal convictions, but prosecutors presented evidence of a history of domestic violence. A former girlfriend testified that Granados punched and choked her, and that she found bite marks and bruises on her three-year-old son after he visited Granados. Granados admitted to a case worker that he bit the boy and had spanked him, leaving bruises. Other testimony showed that Granados once injured a family member by assaulting him or her with a beer bottle.
In Texas, killing a child under the age of 6 is a capital offense. A jury convicted Granados of capital murder in April 1999 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in May 2002. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.
Jiminez watched Granados' execution from a viewing room reserved for victims and their families. In his last statement, Granados spoke to her while looking at the ceiling. "Kathy, you know I never meant to hurt you," he said. "I gave you everything, and that's what made me so angry. But I never meant to hurt you. I'm sorry." Granados also expressed love to his family and supporters. The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.
Katherine Jiminez testified at trial and described Carlos Granados's actions in detail. She indicated that she first met Granados in 1993. The two became friends, spent time together socially, and dated for a short time. They parted ways soon thereafter, but remained in friendly contact. Katherine then married Anthony Jiminez in April of 1994, and on June 13, 1995, she gave birth to a son, Anthony. Katherine and her husband eventually separated, and in late 1997, she re-established a relationship with Granados, who then lived in New York.
In January of 1998, Katherine moved into an apartment of her own in Georgetown. In March, Granados visited her from New York. After another visit in July of 1998, Granados decided to return to Texas. Katherine and Granados agreed that they would live together until Granados got on his feet. In late August, he began living with Katherine and three-year-old Anthony in Katherine's apartment.
Less than a month later, on Sunday, September 13, 1998, Katherine, Granados, and Anthony returned to Katherine's apartment after having lunch at Granados's brother's house. Katherine and Granados were both supposed to go to work that evening. Katherine planned to drop Anthony off at her mother's house, where he would remain until Katherine could pick him up the next morning. Granados wanted Katherine to join him in a nap that afternoon, but she refused, because she still needed to finish chores around the apartment and because she did not want to take a nap while Anthony was awake. Meanwhile, Anthony was in the living room watching television.
Granados, angry that Katherine would not take a nap with him, knocked a plate of food from her hand. The two then retreated to the bedroom where they began arguing. At that point, Katherine told Granados, "I don't even want to talk to you anymore. I don't want to look at you. I don't want you to be around me. . . . I don't want you here. Just get your things and leave." Granados said, "You want me to leave?" and Katherine said, "Yeah, I want you to leave." A brief cooling off period ensued, and the two began talking again. During this time, Katherine's sister Elizabeth called, but Granados said Katherine was busy and hung up the telephone. Katherine told Granados to "get his stuff and leave." Katherine then repeated that she wanted him to leave. Granados left the room, and when he came back asked again, "You want me to leave?" and she said that she did.
Angered, Granados said, "F*ck it. F*ck it," and attacked Katherine with a knife. He stabbed her repeatedly and slashed her throat. Then, apparently, the knife broke. Katherine struggled and attempted to placate Granados by telling him that she loved him. Eventually, Granados began crying, afraid that he would go to jail. Katherine said that she would contrive a false story about her injuries if Granados would simply leave. Katherine tried unsuccessfully to telephone the police and to escape, but Granados caught her and dragged her to the kitchen. He stabbed her again repeatedly, and she feigned death. Granados left the kitchen, and Katherine heard Anthony scream, "I don't want to die. Don't kill me. I don't want to die." Stabbed in the chest, Anthony died within moments.
Later, Katherine heard her sister and her nephew outside the apartment. Afraid Granados would finally kill her if she screamed for help, however, she remained silent. Granados stayed active throughout the night. He came to the kitchen where Katherine lay and showed her that he had slashed his wrists, stating, "Look, I'm going to die with you." Later, he telephoned his father. Several hours later, believing that her death was imminent, Katherine dragged her body toward her son, wanting to die by his side.
Meanwhile, Katherine's family became worried that they had not heard from her, that she had not arrived for work, and that she had not left Anthony with her mother at the regularly scheduled time. Elizabeth, one of Katherine's sisters, testified that, after she called Katherine's apartment, left messages on her answering machine, visited the apartment, and received no response to her knock, she telephoned the apartment manager and Georgetown Police. Early Monday morning, two officers visited the apartment on a welfare concern call. One testified that he noticed both Katherine's and Granados's vehicles in the parking lot of the apartment complex. He also confirmed information about who was paying utilities at Apartment 3206, Katherine's apartment.
The officers approached the apartment door and knocked, but received no response and heard no noise inside the apartment. They did not see any lights and could not see inside the apartment windows when looking from the north side of the building. They telephoned the apartment but received no answer. Upon a request from the officers, the apartment manager arrived with a key but was unable to enter the apartment because of an interior deadbolt. At this point, seeing no other means of opening the door, the officers telephoned the fire department for assistance. Three firefighters arrived with a doorjamb spreader, which is used to open dead-bolted doors. After approximately five minutes, the firefighters opened the apartment door.
Upon entering the apartment, one of the firefighters exclaimed that Granados had a knife. One of the officers drew his revolver, approached the door, and saw Granados, whose right hand was initially hidden. In response to the officer's orders, Granados raised his right hand, in which he held a large kitchen knife covered in blood. After ordering Granados out of the apartment, the officer repeatedly asked Granados to release the knife. Granados eventually did so and was handcuffed. Inside the apartment, the officer saw Anthony's body, Katherine's bloody arms protruding from beyond a chair, and blood stains covering the carpet and walls near the kitchen. Once the officers determined that no one else was in the apartment, they allowed medical personnel to enter and begin treating Katherine, who said to police, "He killed my baby, and I have been waiting for you to come."
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Carlos Granados, Texas - Jan. 10, 2007
Do Not Execute Carlos Granados!
Carlos Granados was convicted for the Sept. 1998 murder of Anthony Jiminez. Jiminez was the three year old son of Katherine Jiminez, with whom Granados was temporarily living. Granados attacked both Katherine and Anthony after a fight with Katherine.
Granados should not be executed for his role in this crime. Executing Granados would violate the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and constitute the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. A clemency petition has been filed with the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles.
Carlos Granados (From Jacci Howard Bear)
Carlos Granados is on death row for stabbing his girlfriend and killing her 3-year old son in Georgetown in 1998. On Texas Death Row: Carlos Granados, Texas Department of Criminal Justice Number 999307, was received at TDCJ on May 6, 1999. Originally scheduled for execution on July 18, 2003 he received a stay of execution and remains on death row. Execution set for: January 10, 2007.
About Carlos Granados: Born in 1970, it was just days before his 28th birthday when he stabbed his girlfriend, Katherine Jiminez, and killed her young son, Anthony. Originally from New York, Granados had dated Katherine Jiminez prior to her marriage and the birth of her son and remained in contact after they broke up. After the breakup of the Jiminez marriage, Granados again began seeing Jiminez and he moved back to Texas from New York. In August 1998 he moved into Jiminez' apartment in Georgetown, Williamson County. About Anthony Jiminez: Anthony Jiminez was born June 13, 1995 to Anthony and Katherine Jiminez. In January 1998 after his parents separated, Anthony (son) and his mother moved into an apartment in Georgetown. Later that year, Carlos Granados moved into the same apartment. After repeatedly stabbing Anthony's mother, Granados then stabbed Anthony once in the chest, resulting in death.
More About the Stabbing of Katherine Jiminez and Murder of Anthony Jiminez: On September 13, 1998 Katherine Jiminez and Carlos Granados got into an argument and Jiminez told Granados she wanted him to leave. Jiminez and Granados were in the bedroom while 3 year old Anthony was watching television in the living room. There was a brief period where the argument had subsided and Jiminez spoke briefly on the phone to her sister, Elizabeth. Granados left the room then returned with a knife and began stabbing Jiminez and slashing her throat. After an unsuccessful attempt to call the police, Granados dragged Jiminez to the kitchen and stabbed her again. He then left the kitchen and stabbed Anthony Jiminez once in the chest. He died moments later. Meanwhile family members became worried about Jiminez and her son because Anthony had not been dropped off at his grandmother's house for regularly scheduled child care and Jiminez had not showed up for work. Calls and visits to the apartment went unanswered. After police and firefighters arrived at the apartment on September 14, 1998 and broke down the door they found Katherine Jiminez alive but with multiple stab wounds, Anthony dead, and Carlos Granados holding a bloody knife. Katherine Jiminez told officers "He killed my baby, and I have been waiting for you to come."
A more detailed description of the events of September 13/14, 1998 can be found within the Opinion delivered May 8, 2002 in response to the Appeal of Carlos Granados (his conviction and death sentence were affirmed).
Granados v. State, 85 S.W.3d 217 (Tex.Cr.App. 2002) (Direct Appeal).
Defendant was convicted in the 277th District Court, Williamson County, John R. Carter, J., of capital murder and was sentenced to death. On appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals, Keller, P.J., held that: (1) as a matter of first impression, the defendant no longer had an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in victim's apartment when police officer entered apartment nearly twelve hours after the tenant had asked him to move out; (2) rules of evidence, except with respect to privileges, do not apply in suppression hearings; (3) granting state's challenges for cause was permissible; and (4) juror's note asking for judge's permission to read definition of murder and Bible verses about killing and punishment to other jurors did not require a mistrial or an examination of the juror. Affirmed. Meyers, J., dissented and filed opinion.
The facts of this crime are particularly relevant to appellant's fifth point of error, which challenges the admission of evidence obtained at the crime scene, and his fourth point of error, which challenges the admissibility of certain statements by a police officer introduced at a hearing on appellant's motion to suppress the crime scene evidence.
Katherine Jiminez testified at trial and described appellant's actions in detail. She indicated that she first met appellant in 1993. The two became friends, spent time together socially, and dated for a short time. They parted ways soon thereafter, but remained in friendly contact. Katherine then married Anthony Jiminez in April of 1994, and on June 13, 1995, she gave birth to a son, Anthony. Katherine and her husband eventually separated, and in late 1997, she re-established a relationship with appellant, who then lived in New York. In January of 1998, Katherine moved into an apartment of her own in Georgetown. In March, appellant visited her from New York. After another visit in July of 1998, appellant decided to return to Texas. Katherine and appellant agreed that they would live together until appellant got on his feet. In late August, he began living with Katherine and three-year-old Anthony in Katherine's apartment.
Less than a month later, on Sunday, September 13, 1998, Katherine, appellant, and Anthony returned to Katherine's apartment after having lunch at appellant's brother's house. Katherine and appellant were both supposed to go to work that evening. Katherine planned to drop Anthony off at her mother's house, where he would remain until Katherine could pick him up the next morning. Appellant wanted Katherine to join him in a nap that afternoon, but she refused, because she still needed to finish chores around the apartment and because she did not want to take a nap while Anthony was awake. Meanwhile, Anthony was in the living room watching television. Appellant, angry that Katherine would not take a nap with him, knocked a plate of food from her hand. The two then retreated to the bedroom where they began arguing. At that point, Katherine told appellant, “I don't even want to talk to you anymore. I don't want to look at you. I don't want you to be around me···· I don't want you here. Just get your things and leave.” Appellant said, “You want me to leave?” and Katherine said, “Yeah, I want you to leave.”
A brief cooling off period ensued, and the two began talking again. During this time, Katherine's sister Elizabeth called, but appellant said Katherine was busy and hung up the telephone. Katherine told appellant to “get his stuff and leave.” Katherine then repeated that she wanted him to leave. Appellant left the room, and when he came back asked again, “You want me to leave?” and she said that she did. Angered, appellant said, “Fuck it. Fuck it,” and attacked Katherine with a knife. He stabbed her repeatedly and slashed her throat. Then, apparently, the knife broke. Katherine struggled and attempted to placate appellant by telling him that she loved him. Eventually, appellant began crying, afraid that he would go to jail. Katherine said that she would contrive a false story about her injuries if appellant would simply leave.
Katherine tried unsuccessfully to telephone the police and to escape, but appellant caught her and dragged her to the kitchen. He stabbed her again repeatedly, and she feigned death. Appellant left the kitchen, and Katherine heard Anthony scream, “I don't want to die. Don't kill me. I don't want to die.” Stabbed in the chest, Anthony died within moments. Later, Katherine heard her sister and her nephew outside the apartment. Afraid appellant would finally kill her if she screamed for help, however, she remained silent. Appellant stayed active throughout the night. He came to the kitchen where Katherine lay and showed her that he had slashed his wrists, stating, “Look, I'm going to die with you.” Later, he telephoned his father. Several hours later, believing that her death was imminent, Katherine dragged her body toward her son, wanting to die by his side.
Meanwhile, Katherine's family became worried that they had not heard from her, that she had not arrived for work, and that she had not left Anthony with her mother at the regularly scheduled time. Elizabeth Ojeda, one of Katherine's sisters, testified that, after she called Katherine's apartment, left messages on her answering machine, visited the apartment, and received no response to her knock, Ojeda telephoned the apartment manager and Georgetown Police. Early Monday morning, two officers visited the apartment on a welfare concern call. Corporal Gregory Brunson testified that he noticed both Katherine's and appellant's vehicles in the parking lot of the apartment complex. He also confirmed information about who was paying utilities at Apartment 3206, Katherine's apartment. Corporal Brunson and Officer Vasquez approached the apartment door and knocked, but received no response and heard no noise inside the apartment. Corporal Brunson did not see any lights and could not see inside the apartment windows when looking from the north side of the building. Officer Vasquez telephoned the apartment but received no answer. Upon a request from the officers, the apartment manager arrived with a key but was unable to enter the apartment because of an interior deadbolt. At this point, seeing no other means of opening the door, Corporal Brunson telephoned the fire department for assistance. Three firefighters arrived with what Corporal Brunson described as a doorjamb spreader, which is used to open deadbolted doors. After approximately five minutes, the firefighters opened the apartment door.
Upon entering the apartment, one of the firefighters exclaimed that appellant had a knife. Corporal Brunson drew his revolver, approached the door, and saw appellant, whose right hand was initially hidden. In response to Corporal Brunson's orders, appellant raised his right hand, in which he held a large kitchen knife covered in blood. After ordering appellant out of the apartment, Corporal Brunson repeatedly asked appellant to release the knife. Appellant eventually did so and Corporal Brunson handcuffed him. Inside the apartment, Corporal Brunson saw Anthony's body, Katherine's bloody arms protruding from beyond a chair, and blood stains covering the carpet and walls near the kitchen. Once the officers determined that no one else was in the apartment, they allowed medical personnel to enter and begin treating Katherine, who said to Corporal Brunson, “He killed my baby, and I have been waiting for you to come.”
* * *
As we synthesize these cases, then, it is clear to us that an overnight guest's expectation of privacy is affected by the host's ability to control the use of the premises and the period of time that a guest will be permitted to stay. And as Olson and other leading Fourth Amendment decisions dictate, we must consider not simply whether appellant had some subjective privacy interest in the premises (he almost always will), but whether, once he had been instructed to gather his belongings and leave the premises, society would view his claim of privacy as reasonable.FN23 The cases indicate that our social traditions-that is, the customs and habits that characterize the relationship of guest and host in our culture-do not favor such a broad and charitable view of the reasonableness of one's expectation of privacy. Accordingly, we hold that once a person has been asked to leave the premises by one with authority to exclude him, and where that person has a reasonable opportunity to gather his personal effects prior to leaving, any expectation of privacy that he maintains in the premises is no longer one that society would view as reasonable.
Katherine asked appellant on several occasions to leave her apartment. Appellant, moreover, understood this request, for it was precisely this request that appeared to inflame him prior to his attack on Katherine and Anthony. Katherine gave appellant several opportunities to gather his belongings and vacate the apartment before the attack, and nearly twelve hours passed between the time Katherine asked him to leave and the time of the police intrusion. Appellant took normal precautions to protect his privacy (such as locking the front door and ignoring visitors) and he put the place to some private use. Nevertheless, aside from keeping his belongings in the apartment and establishing phone service in his name, appellant had no other property or possessory interest in the apartment itself; because he had been asked to leave, he was not legitimately in the apartment when the search occurred; he did not have dominion over the apartment with the right to exclude others; and, as we have explained in detail, his claim is not consistent with historical notions of privacy. Given these facts, appellant has failed to meet his burden of showing that his expectation of privacy was objectively reasonable. Appellant therefore lacks standing to challenge the search of the apartment and his fifth point of error is overruled.
* * *
Appellant's conviction and death sentence are affirmed. PRICE and JOHNSON, JJ., concurred in the result. MEYERS, J., filed a dissenting opinion.
Granados v. Quarterman, 455 F.3d 529 (5th Cir. 2006) (Habeas).
Background: Following affirmance of his state court capital murder conviction and death sentence, 85 S.W.3d 217, and denial of state habeas relief, petitioner sought federal habeas corpus relief. The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, Lee Yeakel, J., denied relief, and petitioner appealed.
Holdings: The Court of Appeals, Patrick E. Higginbotham, Circuit Judge, held that:
(1) defense counsel's decision to introduce expert testimony on issue of future dangerousness that included testimony about race or ethnicity as factor predictive of future dangerousness was reasonable trial strategy, and thus did not amount to ineffective assistance of counsel, and
(2) mitigation issue in capital proceedings, under Texas law, did not violate defendant's Sixth Amendment rights on ground that state was not required to prove absence of mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt.
Affirmed.
PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge: Sentenced to death in Williamson County, Texas, Carlos Granados appeals from a final judgment of the United States District Court, Western District of Texas, denying his petition for writ of habeas corpus claiming constitutional error in his conviction and death sentence. I The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction on direct appeal FN1 and the Supreme Court denied certiorari.FN2 Granados's ensuing petition for state habeas relief was denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in a per curiam order adopting the findings of the state trial Judge. FN3 The present federal proceeding followed. On recommendation of a federal magistrate judge, the district court dismissed Granados's petition and denied a certificate of appealability. We granted a COA on two issues, received full briefing, and heard oral argument. The two issues are: FN1. Granados v. State, 85 S.W.3d 217 (Tex.Crim.App.2002). FN2. Granados v. Texas, 538 U.S. 927, 123 S.Ct. 1578, 155 L.Ed.2d 321 (2003). FN3. Ex parte Granados, No. 51,135-01 (Tex.Crim.App.2002) (unpublished). 1. Whether Granados was denied his Sixth Amendment right to constitutionally effective counsel during the punishment phase of trial because counsel allowed her own expert witness, Dr. Walter Quijano, to testify concerning race or ethnicity; and 2. Whether Granados's Sixth Amendment rights under Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), and Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), were violated because the State was not required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a negative answer to the mitigation special issue. We now affirm the denial of federal habeas relief. II The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals set out the facts of the crime: Katherine Jiminez testified at trial and described appellant's actions in detail. She indicated that she first met appellant in 1993. The two became friends, spent time together socially, and dated for a short time. They parted ways soon thereafter, but remained in friendly contact. Katherine then married*532 Anthony Jiminez in April of 1994, and on June 13, 1995, she gave birth to a son, Anthony. Katherine and her husband eventually separated, and in late 1997, she re-established a relationship with appellant, who then lived in New York. In January of 1998, Katherine moved into an apartment of her own in Georgetown. In March, appellant visited her from New York. After another visit in July of 1998, appellant decided to return to Texas. Katherine and appellant agreed that they would live together until appellant got on his feet. In late August, he began living with Katherine and three-year-old Anthony in Katherine's apartment. Less than a month later, on Sunday, September 13, 1998, Katherine, appellant, and Anthony returned to Katherine's apartment after having lunch at appellant's brother's house. Katherine and appellant were both supposed to go to work that evening. Katherine planned to drop Anthony off at her mother's house, where he would remain until Katherine could pick him up the next morning. Appellant wanted Katherine to join him in a nap that afternoon, but she refused, because she needed to finish chores around the apartment and because she did not want to take a nap while Anthony was awake. Meanwhile, Anthony was in the living room watching television. Appellant, angry that Katherine would not take a nap with him, knocked a plate of food from her hand. The two then retreated to the bedroom where they began arguing. At that point, Katherine told appellant, “I don't even want to talk to you anymore. I don't want to look at you. I don't want you to be around me ···· I don't want you here. Just get your things and leave.” Appellant said, “You want me to leave?” and Katherine said, “Yeah, I want you to leave.” A brief cooling off period ensued, and the two began talking again. During this time, Katherine's sister Elizabeth called, but appellant said Katherine was busy and hung up the telephone. Katherine told appellant to “get his stuff and leave.” Katherine then repeated that she wanted him to leave. Appellant left the room, and when he came back asked again, “You want me to leave?” and she said that she did. Angered, appellant said, “Fuck it. Fuck it,” and attacked Katherine with a knife. He stabbed her repeatedly and slashed her throat. Then, apparently, the knife broke. Katherine struggled and attempted to placate appellant by telling him that she loved him. Eventually, appellant began crying, afraid that he would go to jail. Katherine said that she would contrive a false story about her injuries if appellant would simply leave. Katherine tried unsuccessfully to telephone the police and to escape, but appellant caught her and dragged her to the kitchen. He stabbed her again repeatedly, and she feigned death. Appellant left the kitchen, and Katherine heard Anthony scream, “I don't want to die. Don't kill me. I don't want to die.” Stabbed in the chest, Anthony died within moments. Later, Katherine heard her sister and her nephew outside the apartment. Afraid appellant would finally kill her if she screamed for help, however, she remained silent. Appellant stayed active throughout the night. He came to the kitchen where Katherine lay and showed her that he had slashed his wrists, stating, “Look, I'm going to die with you.” Later, he telephoned his father. Several hours later, believing that her death was imminent, Katherine dragged her body toward her son, wanting to die by his side. *533 Meanwhile, Katherine's family became worried that they had not heard from her, that she had not arrived for work, and that she had not left Anthony with her mother at the regularly scheduled time. Elizabeth Ojeda, one of Katherine's sisters, testified that, after she called Katherine's apartment, left messages on her answering machine, visited the apartment, and received no response to her knock, Ojeda telephoned the apartment manager and Georgetown Police. Early Monday morning, two officers visited the apartment on a welfare concern call. Corporal Gregory Brunson testified that he noticed both Katherine's and appellant's vehicles in the parking lot of the apartment complex. He also confirmed information about who was paying utilities at Apartment 3206, Katherine's apartment. Corporal Brunson and Officer Vasquez approached the apartment door and knocked, but received no response and heard no noise inside the apartment. Corporal Brunson did not see any lights and could not see inside the apartment windows when looking from the north side of the building. Officer Vasquez telephoned the apartment but received no answer. Upon a request from the officers, the apartment manager arrived with a key but was unable to enter the apartment because of an interior deadbolt. At this point, seeing no other means of opening the door, Corporal Brunson telephoned the fire department for assistance. Three firefighters arrived with what Corporal Brunson described as a doorjamb spreader, which is used to open deadbolted doors. After approximately five minutes, the firefighters opened the apartment door. Upon entering the apartment, one of the firefighters exclaimed that appellant had a knife. Corporal Brunson drew his revolver, approached the door, and saw appellant, whose right hand was initially hidden. In response to Corporal Brunson's orders, appellant raised his right hand, in which he held a large kitchen knife covered in blood. After ordering appellant out of the apartment, Corporal Brunson repeatedly asked appellant to release the knife. Appellant eventually did so and Corporal Brunson handcuffed him. Inside the apartment, Corporal Brunson saw Anthony's body, Katherine's bloody arms protruding from beyond a chair, and blood stains covering the carpet and walls near the kitchen. Once the officers determined that no one else was in the apartment, they allowed medical personnel to enter and begin treating Katherine, who said to Corporal Brunson, “He killed my baby, and I have been waiting for you to come.”
* * *
In recommending that habeas relief be denied, the state trial judge made explicit findings that neither of the two defense counsel nor the state's attorney made any mention of race or ethnicity or “suggested in any manner that a decision on future dangerousness should be based on race or ethnicity.” He rejected Granados's Strickland claim, persuaded that trial counsel “exercised reasonable judgement in deciding to use Dr. Quijano as an expert witness on the special issues of mitigation and future dangerousness.”
Turning to the reasonableness of counsel's strategy, we think it plain that counsel considered carefully how best to present the sentencing case, a difficult task considering the violent character of the crime. Counsel first retained a psychiatrist and psychologist, Dr. Cantu and Dr. Parker, to examine Granados and testify as experts regarding the probability of Granados committing violent acts in the future. Then counsel changed course, concluding that their testimony might be more harmful than helpful, a shift that led to the accused strategy. There is nothing to fault this initial decision not to continue with Drs. Cantu and Parker. To the contrary, that counsel must look at every witness he would call as a potential witness for the state is etched in the brain of every experienced trial lawyer and here there was more. By not offering expert testimony based on an examination of Granados, counsel cut off the state's opportunity to have its expert examine Granados and offer testimony. And when defense counsel informed the court that any expert testimony from the defense would not rest on examination by an expert witness, the court denied a pending state motion for examination of Granados by a state expert.
But counsel made a second and larger tactical decision than simply dropping two witnesses. They chose to change their approach at trial to future dangerousness-inevitably a brooding concern of jurors and most often the point of engagement between the prosecutor and defense. They elected to offer the jury clinical and statistical data on the question of future dangerousness in an effort to have the case viewed in those terms rather than remain focused on Granados and his bloody assaults, accented by the prosecution. The decision by counsel to approach the question in the relatively oblique and impersonal terms of a quantitative presentation lay at the heart of their trial strategy. It included facing the reality that blacks and latinos had a disproportionate presence in the state prisons, a social phenomenon about which counsel could not assume the jury was ignorant. This approach led directly to the hiring of Dr. Quijano, a clinical psychologist with a subspecialty in correctional psychology. He was prepared to speak about the statistics of recidivism, as well as prison life and conditions. And, with the use of hypothetical questions, Dr. Quijano was able to *536 relate the data to the life and conduct of Granados. And as we have noted, this approach avoided the necessity of personal testing and examination, the door opener to examination by experts engaged by the State. Dr. Quijano fit the bill. He had worked for federal and state prison systems and testified in about 90 capital murder cases, dividing his work evenly between State and defense. To the point, Dr. Quijano presented the case in quantitative terms more in the manner of clinical disinterest and less in the manner of subjective commentary and evaluation of Granados. FN9
FN9. Context is everything when evaluating Strickland claims. The use of Dr. Quijano's testimony here is very different from the situation in which he testified for the State and expressly linked the defendant's race to the likelihood of future dangerousness, cases in which the State confessed error. See, e.g., Saldano v. Roach, 363 F.3d 545, 549 (5th Cir.2004) (describing how Quijano “opined that there was a correlation between race and ethnicity and future dangerousness,” noting that the prosecutor “reminded the jury to consider the twenty-four factors laid out by Quijano,” and noting how the Attorney General of Texas confessed error, requiring resentencing); see also id. at 549 n. 2 (collecting other cases in which Quijano testified for the state and injected race into the proceedings).
Viewed through the AEDPA lens, we cannot conclude that the state court's application of Strickland and rejection of the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel was unreasonable. These are difficult and nuanced decisions the trial lawyer must make. That they were not successful does not make them unreasonable. We are not persuaded that these tactical decisions introduced an impermissible use of race or ethnicity or were otherwise objectively unreasonable. We reject the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.
Granados urges that the Texas mitigation issue is constitutionally flawed in that it does not require the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the absence of mitigating circumstances. As we understand the argument, this is because the absence of mitigating evidence is an aggravating circumstance whose presence increases the maximum punishment for capital murder from life to death.
The state replies, first, that this claim was never presented to the state courts and is procedurally defaulted. We will not pause to address this contention because we are persuaded that the claim is without merit and must be denied. Under AEDPA, we can deny unexhausted claims although we could not grant relief.
All the elements of capital murder were put to the jury with instruction that the evidence had to persuade them beyond a reasonable doubt. No finding by the judge was required to expose Granados to the death penalty. And the jury was instructed that it could give an affirmative answer to the special issues submitted to the jury in the sentencing phase, including future dangerousness, only if certain of their answer beyond a reasonable doubt. Finally, there is no contention in this case that Granados's evidence of mitigation could not find expression in the jury's answer to the question of future dangerousness.
In sum, the state was required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt every finding prerequisite to exposing Granados to the maximum penalty of death. We are not persuaded that Texas violated any principle of Apprendi or Ring in the trial of this case. Specifically, it did not do so by not asking the jury to find an absence of mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt in addition to questions it *537 required the jury to answer.FN10 Put another way, a finding of mitigating circumstances reduces a sentence from death, rather than increasing it to death. FN10. Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000); Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002).
Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the district court denying relief and dismissing the petition for habeas corpus.