Mario Catalan v. Anthony Hedgpeth

MEMORANDUM

Mario Catalan appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253, and we affirm.

Catalan was tried jointly with Jose Le-desma in connection with two murders. Both defendants were implicated in the first murder, but only Ledesma was implicated in the second murder. After testifying at a pre-trial hearing, a witness to the second murder was murdered. Ledesma had previously solicited the witness’s murder. At trial, the prosecution was allowed to present evidence of Ledesma’s solicitation of the witness’s murder, but was not allowed to present evidence of the witness’s murder. The jury heard the witness’s testimony from the pre-trial hearing and was told only that the witness was “unavailable.”

During jury deliberations, Juror No. 12 informed the trial court that Juror No. 8 had learned of the witness’s murder on the Internet and had told Juror No. 12 about it. Juror No. 3 had also told Juror No. 4 about the murder. Juror No. 3 was dismissed for misconduct, and Juror No. 12 was dismissed because he did not think he could be impartial after learning of the witness’s murder. Over…