ATTEMPTED MURDER CONVICTION OVERTURNED AGAIN
Court finds Roberto Flores should have had new attorney for retrial
A state appeals court this week reversed the attempted murder conviction of a man accused of intentionally ramming into an Oceanside motorcycle officer — the second time his case has been reversed on appeal.
The 4th District Court of Appeal
in San Diego reversed Robert Ignacio Flores’ conviction, citing abuse of discretion by two different judges who handled the case. The three-justice panel found the judges should have agreed to appoint a new lawyer for Flores for retrial.
Flores had wanted to fire his attorney — the same attorney had represented him at the first trial.
Flores was convicted at trial in 2017. But in 2019, the appeals court reversed the convictions because Flores’ lawyer did not follow the approach that Flores wanted, which was to insist that he was innocent, even though that may not have been the best legal strategy.
For the retrial in 2021, Flores refused to work with the same attorney and repeatedly told the court of his concerns, according to the unanimous opinion written by Administrative Presiding Justice Judith McConnell and issued Tuesday.
The opinion found that Flores “did not receive effective representation because he had a fundamental mistrust” of his attorney.
“Rather than accept that this obvious conflict existed, the trial court repeatedly rejected Flores’s concern . ... The crime in the case is undoubtedly heinous, but Flores was entitled to counsel with whom he did not have an intractable conflict and fundamental mistrust based on the prior proceedings,” the opinion reads.
The District Attorney’s Office provided the following statement in response to a request from the Union-Tribune: “In the face of the reversal of the jury conviction by
the Appellate Court and the burden a new trial places on the victim and witnesses, we will prepare for another trial and are determined to deliver justice in this disturbing case of attempted murder of a police officer.”
Authorities say Flores was driving a Dodge Neon when he spotted Oceanside police Officer Brad Hunter in full uniform standing alongside a car he had pulled over on Foussat Road just south of Oceanside Boulevard.
Deputy District Attorney Keith Watanabe said Flores intentionally veered the Dodge and hit Hunter, whom he did not know. The officer smashed into the hood and flew over the roof of the Dodge.
The Dodge driver sped off, leaving Hunter unconscious in the road.
Police found the Dodge abandoned a few blocks from the crash site, with Hunter’s handheld radio embedded in the windshield. They found Flores at a nearby Sprinter station.
While in jail that night, Flores bragged to others in custody — they were actually an undercover officer and an informant — that he hit Hunter because he was a law enforcement officer. The 45-minute jailhouse conversation was recorded.
At the time of the crash, Flores was free on bail on a separate matter: a charge of possessing a semi-automatic rifle — a ghost gun assembled by hand. Because Flores had a felony on his record, he was not allowed to possess firearms.
He was found guilty at both trials.
Following his second trial, Flores was sentenced to the maximum of 28 years to life.