OAG given until January to produce tests results

Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho gave the Office of the Attorney General until Jan. 6, 2014 to produce the test results concerning evidence in connection with the case against Joseph A. Crisostomo, who is facing charges for the murder of bartender Emerita Romero.

In an order issued on Monday, Camacho said with respect to the evidence that will be sent outside of the CNMI for laboratory testing, the OAG is ordered to produce the test results no later than one day after receiving such results.

“In no event is the Commonwealth to exceed the deadline of Jan. 6, 2014 at 4:30pm in providing these listed items,” the judge said.

The items referred to are shoeprint, footprint, hairs found on shirt, and evidence provided by a witness that was temporarily off-island.

Camacho ordered the CNMI government to produce all chain of custody documentation to Crisostomo’s counsel, Janet H. King, on or before today, Wednesday, at 12pm.

The OAG recently filed a motion to amend pretrial scheduling order to allow the prosecution additional time for discovery. King did not file a written opposition to the government’s motion.

The court held a conference on Friday where they discussed discovery issues.

In his order on Monday, Camacho said based on the counsels’ representation during the conference, he notes that all materials sought in Crisostomo’s Sept. 13 motion to compel have been provided to the defendant.

Camacho said the parties are cooperating and not in need of further court intervention regarding defendant’s counsel’s access to evidence room stored in the government’s evidence room.

Crisostomo, through his counsel King, wants to inspect and test by his designated experts, the purse and its contents belonging to Romero that were retrieved by investigators at the former La Fiesta Mall in San Roque where the victim’s body was found.

In the Sept. 13 motion to compel, King requested the court to issue an order compelling the government to produce the items in its possession and control at the Department of Public Safety’s evidence room for inspection, examination, photograph, and possible testing.

In the motion to compel, King said the items of evidence, collected by the government in the investigation of this case, are “material and relevant to the issues of guilty, innocence, degree of culpability, and effective cross-examination” of the Commonwealth’s witnesses against Crisostomo.

King said investigators retrieved Romero’s violet-colored purse at La Fiesta on April 25, 2012.

The defense counsel said the request for inspection, examination, and testing of the items is “essential to insure Crisostomo his right to a fair hearing, his right to confrontation, his right to prepare a defense in his own behalf, his right to effective counsel, and due process of law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.”

FBI agents found Romero’s body at the former La Fiesta Mall on Feb. 7, 2012, two days after she was last seen boarding a car near her house in Garapan. Investigators learned that the bartender mistook the car for a taxicab.