Candice Braun's testimony - Angel Diaz

Further, the testimony implicating Mr. Diaz in the offense fell far short of showing that Mr. Diaz was the shooter.

Indeed, Candace Braun's testimony established the opposite, i.e., that Angel Toro was the shooter, not Angel Diaz.

Braun testified that on the evening of the shooting, she was present in her apartment along with Mr. Diaz, Angel "Sammy" Toro and two other men named Willie and Luisito (R. 880).

Braun testified that

"[h]e [Mr.Diaz] told me that Sammy thought somebody was reaching for a gun and shot a guy during a robbery" (R. 881).

Braun also testified that Sammy Toro, Willie, and Luisito were arguing in the apartment (R. 880), and that the reason she eventually came forward to the police was because she "was under the impression that Angel Toro was blaming the actual murder on Angel Diaz, and from my -- from what I had heard, overheard, and from what Papo [Mr. Diaz] later explained to me, Papo did not shoot anyone" (R. 889-90).

Braun later reiterated that she believed that Mr. Diaz "was being accused of doing the shooting in a robbery that I knew he did not do the shooting in" (R. 896).

Braun also explained that "[e]verybody was yelling at Sammy" (R. 913), and went on to detail the conversation she overheard in her apartment:

THE WITNESS: They were arguing. If they weren't arguing, I probably wouldn't have heard it. If they were talking in a normal voice, I probably wouldn't have heard anything, but they were definitely arguing.

Papo--when I walked into the room at one point, Sammy made a motion like this (indicating). Okay. He said words like, "disparan, tipo panikiado." Disparan is shot, shoot. Tipo is another word for person, for a guy. Panicado is panic.

When he said that, Papo said to him, yelling mad, that that wasn't necessary. That's all.

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Q. That what was not necessary?

A. Whatever Sammy did.

Q. What did Sammy do?

A. Apparently he shot somebody.

(R. 912). It cannot be said in light of the facts known at trial and the newly discovered evidence now known, that Mr. Diaz’s death sentence is proportionate.