Corpus Christi man sentenced to life in prison for murder requests conviction be overturned
A Corpus Christi man sentenced to life in prison in connection to the gang-related shooting deaths of two men in 2002 is requesting his conviction be overturned.
State District Judge Inna Klein heard closing arguments in an evidentiary hearing for Joe David Padron on Friday. Padron appeared in the 214th District Court after his attorneys filed a writ of habeas corpus last fall to determine if he was wrongly convicted of capital murder.
Padron was convicted in 2004, two years after 19-year-olds Jesus Omar Gonzalez and John Commisky were fatally shot inside a Corpus Christi home in what police believed to be a gang-related dispute.
Mike Ware, attorney and executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas, summarized the evidence presented during the hearing process, including testimony from a new witness who claimed to be one of four involved in the crime, evidence of perjured witnesses at the original trial and unreliable jailhouse informants.
The Innocence Project of Texas, a nonprofit that works to correct injustices and prevent wrongful convictions, has exonerated or freed 30 people since its inception in 2006.
Padron’s attorney claimed his original trial was unfair due to false testimony from state witnesses, including jailhouse informants who allegedly lied about Padron’s involvement in the shootings to blackmail his family. Ware argued that the state’s unknowing use of the false testimony violated Padron’s 14th Amendment right to due process.
Other evidence included testimony from a witness who claims another man confessed to being involved in the shooting and knowing Padron was not one of the individuals in the vehicle driven to the house where Gonzalez and Commisky were killed.
Douglas Norman, chief of appeals for the Nueces County District Attorney’s Office, argued that the testimonies of the jailhouse informants should be believed because the stories were not dissimilar enough to contradict one another but not similar enough to indicate a fabricated story.
The district attorney’s office also argued that the new witnesses who testified at the writ hearing may have been motivated to do so by a trip home to Nueces County to see friends and family, to help out a fellow gang member or to feel important.
Padron’s attorney will request a 45-day extension for Klein, the judge, to make a judgment on the writ. That decision will be sent to the Court of Criminal Appeals.
About the case
Padron, now 46, was arrested in November 2002 in connection to the shooting deaths.
Padron and Martin Robles, both 25 at the time, were accused of entering a house in the 2900 block of Mary Street and fatally shooting Gonzalez and Commisky. During the original trial, prosecutors presented testimony that the teenagers were selling crack cocaine on the turf of Raza Unida, a rival gang of which Padron was allegedly a member.
Padron was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to life in prison. Before the shooting, Padron served a 10-year sentence on an involuntary manslaughter charge.
Robles was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. He was executed in 2011.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Joe David Padron requests capital murder conviction be overturned
