State v. Martinez-Garcia

Defendant was charged (or, as explained further below, alleged to be charged) with multiple offenses in six different cases. The charging instruments identified defendant by several different names. In an attempt to pin down defendant’s true identity, the trial court placed defendant under oath and asked him questions about his identity. In response, defendant invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, pointing out that identity would be an issue in the underlying cases. The trial court nonetheless ordered defendant to answer its questions and, when defendant refused to…