Prosecutors appeal judge’s order to pay for Serrano defense work

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office appealed a St. Louis judge’s decision that prosecutors pay for part of Pablo Serrano’s defense work.

Judge Steven Ohmer ordered the state to pay $40,000 for mitigation research requested by Serrano’s defense team. The Missouri State Public Defender’s Office would be responsible for paying the other $19,000. The mitigation research, defense attorneys argue, is crucial to Serrano getting a fair trial, but the office cannot afford to send someone to his birth country to gather information.

Serrano faces the death penalty, accused of murdering Randy Nordman in Montgomery County in 2016. Serrano, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was arrested months earlier, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials sent an order to keep Serrano detained to the wrong agency.

The attorney general’s office said Ohmer’s order created a conflict of interest for the case. Shaun Mackleprang and Gregory Goodwin, two assistants in the office, said that the appearance of impropriety may plague the case when a jury hears it.

“Jurors — who will no doubt be aware of this fact — will wonder why the prosecutors have elected to pursue the death penalty while simultaneously funding a witness whose function is to present evidence that the death penalty should not be imposed,” the attorneys wrote.

Don Catlett and Heather Vodnansky, attorneys for Serrano, asked the court March 7 to preclude the death penalty if the state was not going to pay for the mitigation work.

The results of the mitigation research would potentially be used during the penalty phase of a case involving capital punishment. Researchers dig into the defendant’s character, family history and personal life to find evidence that might persuade a jury to consider a punishment less than death, according to the American Bar Association guidelines on death penalty cases.

The public defender system has two mitigation researchers, but leaders testified in January that the Serrano case was too dangerous and costly for them to take on. Instead, the office sought the help of Kristina Bishop, a mitigation researcher fluent in Spanish and willing to travel to Mexico for $59,000.

Judge Ohmer said in January that the work was necessary for a fair trial since prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. The public defender’s office would have to pay $19,000 for the work, while the state paid the remaining $40,000.

The attorney general’s office argued that the judge ordering money move from one state agency to another violated the separation of powers. The General Assembly is in charge of each agency’s budget, they said, and the appropriation for the Missouri State Public Defender System as a whole satisfies their obligation for a fair trial.

Serrano’s case is also the subject of a federal lawsuit in Kansas. Police believe Serrano killed four people in Kansas City a day before Nordman’s death. The Nordman family and family members of two of the victims in Kansas sued ICE for failing to deport Serrano when they had the chance. Serrano was deported at least one time before, when he was convicted in California for assault. Federal officials say they are not sure when Serrano re-entered the United States.