02/26/2020 IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE Assigned on Briefs February 12, 2020 JUAN VARGAS v. STATE OF TENNESSEE Appeal from the Criminal Court for Davidson County No. 2010-B-1410 Cheryl A. Blackburn, Judge ___________________________________ No. M2019-00620-CCA-R3-PC ___________________________________ A Davidson County jury convicted Petitioner, Juan Vargas, of first degree murder, and the trial court sentenced him to life in prison. Petitioner appealed, and this court affirmed his conviction on direct appeal. Petitioner filed a pro se Post-Conviction Petition, and after a hearing, the post-conviction court denied relief. On appeal, Petitioner argues that ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial misconduct require a new trial. After a thorough review of the record and applicable case law, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Criminal Court Affirmed ROBERT L. HOLLOWAY, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which THOMAS T. WOODALL and ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JJ., joined. Timothy Carter, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Juan Vargas. Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Ruth Anne Thompson, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Glenn Funk, District Attorney General; and Doug Thurman, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. OPINION Factual Background On direct appeal, this court summarized the testimony presented at Petitioner’s trial as follows: [Petitioner] and his brother were indicted by the Davidson County Grand Jury in April of 2010 for first degree murder and employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. The incident giving rise to the indictment occurred on March 1, 2010, inside Las Potrancas Bar on Haywood Lane where Manual Santos Reyes, the victim, was shot. He died from a gunshot wound to the head several days later. Ahmad El-Assuli, a licensed armed security guard, was employed by the owner of the bar, which was primarily patronized by Spanish-speaking customers. At the time of the incident he had worked there approximately eight months. His job required him to search the customers coming in for “[a]ny guns, any weapons” and to “maintain[ ] peace inside the bar and watch[ ] the customers.” Mr. El-Assuli did not speak Spanish. On the evening of Sunday, February 28, 2010, business was slow inside the small bar, which was located in a building that used to be a Waffle House. A few “regular” customers, including the victim and his friend, Antonio Hernandez, were inside the bar playing pool. The victim was dating one of the servers, Laura Cervantes. Around 9:00 p.m., Mr. El-Assuli searched a man entering the bar. He did not recognize the man, who sat with several of his friends at a table in the back corner of the bar near the pool table. Mr. El-Assuli did not see any interaction between the men seated at the table and the victim during the evening. Around 2:15 a.m., Mr. El-Assuli checked the bathroom to make sure it was empty because it was approaching closing time. When he exited the bathroom, he ...
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