Oscar Gomez was convicted by a jury of first-degree premeditated murder and theft under five hundred dollars, receiving a life sentence for the murder and a concurrent six-month sentence for the theft. In his appeal, he argued that the evidence for premeditated murder was insufficient. The Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee rejected his claim and affirmed the trial court's judgment.
The incident occurred on March 21, 1999, at San Jose's restaurant in Nashville, where Gomez and others had been drinking. After leaving the bar, Gomez and his group encountered two Hispanic males, leading to a confrontation where Gomez and others yelled gang-related comments. Following this, Gomez and his companions pursued the men, leading to a violent altercation in a nearby parking lot. Witness Amber Majano testified that she observed Gomez hitting the victim and making stomping motions. She saw Gomez holding a concrete block and raising it, though she did not see it strike the victim. Immediately after the incident, Gomez reportedly expressed belief that the victim was dead and boasted about the act, showcasing blood on his shoes and instructing Majano to wash them.
Majano testified that the Defendant admitted to killing a victim, indicating the presence of the victim's tennis shoes at the scene. The Defendant allegedly returned to confirm the victim was dead and later sold the shoes for thirty dollars. He threatened Majano with the statement, "What happens in a gang stays in the gang," which she interpreted as a warning due to his affiliation with the MS13 gang, as confirmed by witnesses Caesar Corrales and Larry Melton. Melton recounted the Defendant's account of a fight on Nolensville Road, where he claimed to have struck the victim with a concrete block after being provoked. Monique Ells, who was driving, described how the Defendant instigated the confrontation with two men, leading to a physical altercation. After the incident, she observed blood on the Defendant's shoes and recalled him claiming to think he had killed someone.
The victim, Alejandro Diaz, was found deceased with blunt force trauma consistent with being hit multiple times with a concrete block. The medical examiner, Dr. Bruce Phillip Levy, confirmed that Diaz died from severe head injuries inflicted with considerable force, with evidence of defensive wounds. The Defendant’s appeal centers on the sufficiency of evidence for premeditated murder, governed by Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 13(e), which mandates that a conviction be overturned if the evidence does not support a guilty finding beyond a reasonable doubt when viewed favorably for the prosecution.
Conviction by a trier of fact eliminates the presumption of innocence and imposes a presumption of guilt, placing the burden on the convicted defendant to demonstrate that the evidence is insufficient. Appellate courts must view the evidence in the strongest light for the State, without re-evaluating the evidence or the credibility of witnesses, which is reserved for the trier of fact. Premeditation, defined as a killing carried out after reflection and judgment, requires that the intent to kill be formed before the act. Factors supporting premeditation include the use of a deadly weapon against an unarmed victim, the brutality of the killing, and the calmness of the perpetrator afterward. While multiple blows alone do not establish premeditation, particularly brutal repeated blows can support a jury's finding. In the case of Diaz, the circumstances indicated premeditation; the Defendant attacked the victim after a provocation, used a concrete block after the victim was down, and displayed a calculated approach during the attack. Afterward, the Defendant boasted about the killing and returned to the crime scene to confirm the victim's death and steal his shoes. These factors led to the affirmation of the trial court's judgment regarding premeditation.
