Fuentes

MEMORANDUM

Rogelio Fuentes appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under AEDPA.

The state trial court excluded Fuentes’ confession to Detective Nieves as the product of Nieves’ coercive interrogation. Shortly after confessing to Nieves, Fuentes confessed to his girlfriend, whom he requested to see after he confessed to Nieves, and to his mother, whom he requested be brought to the police station after he confessed to Nieves and to his girlfriend. The state trial court admitted Fuentes’ confessions to his girlfriend and his mother and the California Court of Appeal affirmed, holding that those confessions were sufficiently removed from the earlier coercion and thus voluntary.

Fuentes argues that the California Court of Appeal’s decision was based on two unreasonable factual determinations within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d)(2). First, that he initiated the conversations with his girlfriend and his mother of his own volition; and second, that the environment had changed by the time he confessed to them. Assuming arguendo that, as Fuentes contends, these are factual, not legal, questions, we are not “convinced that an appellate panel,…