Murder Conviction Overturned Because of Attorney’s Actions

A state appeals court has overturned the murder conviction of a man found guilty in the slaying of his wife, ruling that the man was denied adequate representation because his lawyer had received drugs from a key prosecution witness.

The 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that Armando Magana Cuevas of Santa Ana did not get a proper defense in the case because of the secret relationship between his lawyer and the witness. The court noted that former Riverside defense lawyer Richard Ramos had received small quantities of cocaine at least three times from the witness, a cousin of the defendant.

The witness testified that Cuevas made incriminating statements after the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Eduveges Cuevas. Ramos was “less than vigorous in his cross-examination of this important prosecution witness,” the court found.

In questioning the cousin during the trial, Ramos chose “self-preservation” over the needs of his client, said attorney Richard Schwartzberg, who handled Cuevas’ appeal. Schwartzberg said the relationship between Ramos and the witness started well before the shooting, and that the cousin later arranged for the attorney to represent Cuevas.

Ramos has since been disbarred and was sentenced in 1993 to 27 years in federal prison for his role in a drug-distribution operation in the Inland Empire. The sentence was the longest ever imposed in California on a former lawyer in a drug-related case.

The appellate court said prosecutors are free to retry Cuevas.