Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/51/125.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 08:56:30+00:00

Document:
Alan M. Caplan, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General, Jack R. Winkler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Arnold O. Overoye, Willard F. Jones and Peter J. McBrien, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Defendant's appeal challenges only the murder conviction. Our review of the record persuades us that defendant's assignments of error must be rejected and the conviction affirmed.
On December 2, 1973, defendant was employed as a guard at the Laura Scudder processing plant at Tracy, California. At approximately 1 a.m., Joseph Machado, age 16, came to the guard shack at the plant to see defendant. Defendant was there with the victim, Allen McClelland, whom he introduced to Machado as his "buddy."
A few minutes later defendant, accompanied by his two companions, went on a routine inspection of the buildings. McClelland had a bottle of whiskey from which he took occasional drinks as the trio toured the premises. He imbibed to the point that he staggered and had difficulty standing. He also became quite voluble, talking incessantly to Machado.
Soon after completing the rounds and returning to the guard shack, it became apparent that McClelland's constant conversation had taken its toll on defendant. The two exchanged irritable words during which McClelland assumed a fighting stance, offering encounter to defendant. Defendant kicked McClelland several times about the chest, unholstered his gun, cocked it and shook it at McClelland, telling him that if he wanted a fight, he (defendant) would "whoop" him again. With his gun out, defendant stated, "Don't try to fight me or I'll shoot you." McClelland demurred and defendant returned his gun to its holster.
McClelland then announced that he wanted to talk with Machado, but defendant admonished that he, Machado, had no interest in conversation. McClelland turned toward defendant and again assumed a pugnacious stance, whereupon defendant unholstered his gun, stepped forward with arm extended and fired one shot into McClelland.
Machado went to his car. Before he could start it, defendant approached and told him that McClelland was going to die and that he and Machado should have consistent stories to the effect that McClelland had tried to attack him (defendant) with a pipe.
In response to a telephone call, officers arrived at the plant at approximately 1:30 a.m. The victim was dead, lying on the ground with the pipe in his left hand. (The victim was right-handed.) Cause of death was a gunshot wound in the neck. At the scene of the shooting, Officer Crowder noticed an odor of alcoholic beverage on defendant's breath. As a result he tested defendant on an intoxilizer at the police station. Two samples were taken showing a .11 and .12 blood alcohol level. Crowder noticed no impairment of defendant's ability to communicate or otherwise function. Defendant told Crowder that he had had a couple of beers. Machado testified that defendant staggered as he walked, and in his opinion defendant had had more than one beer.
Without citation of authority, defendant would have this court apply the statutory "drunk driving" presumption to establish a defense in a situation not covered by the plain meaning of the statute. Defendant obviously seeks the benefit of this presumption to establish a degree of intoxication that would bolster the credibility of his diminished capacity defense. However, the level of intoxication at which one is presumed to be under the influence of intoxicants so as to impair his ability to drive a vehicle is not relevant to a defense of diminished capacity in a murder prosecution. The court was clearly under no duty so to instruct.
 Defendant contends that the district attorney's closing argument to the jury contained comment upon his failure to testify of the kind prohibited by Griffin v. California (1965) 380 U.S. 609 [14 L. Ed. 2d 106, 85 S. Ct. 1229]. Two particular passages are singled out for condemnation. To preserve the context, we quote somewhat more extensively from the district attorney's argument than does defendant in his brief. The portions of which defendant complains are identified by italics. The district attorney stated: "I wanted to talk just a little bit about counsel's remarks about a lot of issues, a lot of conflicts. What conflicts are there in this case? This is a kind of a unique case, there are no conflicts to speak of. Are there any conflicting witnesses as to what happened? The whole evidence in this case is consistent with exactly what happened at what time or the approximate time.
"This was the point that he [defense counsel] claimed that you cannot rely on Joe Machado's testimony. I submit that the evidence is consistent [51 Cal. App. 3d 136] in this case and there is no confliction. There is not two or four or five witnesses saying it's this way, it's this way and it's that way. The evidence before this court is consistent and the evidence of Joe Machado indicates that he was very, very reliable in the details and in the description of what he observed."
Defendant makes the point that since the crime was witnessed by just three persons, one of whom, Machado, testified for the People and one of whom, the victim, is dead, the only other eyewitness who could have testified but did not was the defendant. The prosecutor's reference to lack of conflicting witnesses, defendant maintains, is an impermissible allusion to his failure to testify. There are no cases to our knowledge in which the point at issue has been directedly presented and authoritatively decided. Support for this resourceful but rather fanciful analysis is thus sought from dicta in People v. Northern (1967) 256 Cal. App. 2d 28 [64 Cal. Rptr. 15]. There, a similar argument was made to which the court briefly referred in passing, observing, however, that the appeal turned not upon the validity of that contention, which the court apparently found somewhat intriguing, but upon the import of direct references to defendant's failure to testify. The court then found Griffin error in the prosecutor's statements that the evidence had "not been refuted by the Defendant;" that "no evidence [had been] offered by the Defendant" although "the defense has an opportunity" to do so (at p. 30).
[5a] Defendant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the second degree murder conviction on two grounds. He argues first that the evidence showed a quarrel between the victim and himself which would operate to reduce the crime from murder to manslaughter, and second, that evidence of diminished capacity should similarly reduce the crime from second degree murder to voluntary manslaughter. We consider the standards by which an appellate court evaluates the evidence when the sufficiency thereof to sustain a conviction is challenged.
Moreover, the evidence does not suggest a quarrel resulting in provocation followed by a killing motivated by the heat of passion. Furthermore, evidence of defendant's intoxication, essential to a diminished capacity defense, was sketchy at best. Accordingly, we cannot fault the jury's decision to reject it.
[9a] Defendant contends that his post-arrest statement to Officer Crowder that he "had a couple of beers," as well as the results of the breath alcohol tests given him, should not have been received in evidence because prior thereto he had not been advised of nor had he waived his rights (Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974]). The elicitation of defendant's statement occurred after defense counsel first broached the subject of defendant's intoxication in cross-examination of Officer Crowder in an obvious effort to establish that defendant was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the killing. The cross-examination developed that upon arrest defendant had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, as a result of which he was given two successive breath alcohol tests disclosing blood alcohol levels of .11 and .12, respectively.
Thereafter, on redirect, Officer Crowder testified that at the time the breath tests were given, defendant stated that he "had a couple of beers." There was no objection for lack of proper foundation until after this testimony was received although the preceding questions were obviously prefatory to elicitation of an admission. After the objection, however, Officer Crowder testified that he did not ask defendant any questions other than whether he would submit to a breath test (defendant replied that he would) and that defendant volunteered a statement about his drinking. At that point the matter was dropped and not again adverted to. There was no motion to strike the testimony to which belated objection had been made. Accordingly, we conclude that counsel was satisfied that adequate foundation therefor had been laid.
Defendant cites no authority for his assertion that evidence of his blood alcohol level should have been excluded.  The Fifth Amendment protects communicative or testimonial evidence, but does not embrace the use of the suspect's body as a source of physical evidence. Likewise, the Sixth Amendment affords no basis to deny admission of evidence of intoxication derived from examination of defendant's body. (See generally, Schmerber v. California (1966) 384 U.S. 757, 760-766 [16 L. Ed. 2d 908, 913-917, 86 S. Ct. 1826]; United States v. Wade (1967) 388 U.S. 218, 227-228 [18 L. Ed. 2d 1149, 1157-1158, 87 S. Ct. 1926].) [9c] Moreover, evidence of the blood alcohol levels was elicited by defense counsel. There was no error in admitting evidence of the defendant's blood alcohol level.
Defendant further argues that the trial court should have given the jury a "not guilty" verdict form for each offense for which it received a [51 Cal. App. 3d 141] "guilty" verdict form. The trial court instead gave the jury one "not guilty" verdict form, to be used in the event of an acquittal. There is no error in such a procedure. People v. Schindler (1972) 23 Cal. App. 3d 369 [100 Cal. Rptr. 110], relied upon by defendant, is inapplicable on its facts and therefore does not require further discussion.
 Two photographs of the victim, People's Exhibits Nos. 1 and 2, were received in evidence, the latter over the defendant's objection that it was "repetitive and accumulative." People's No. 1 was offered for identification of the victim and to show some injuries to his ear. Defendant specifically renounced any objection to Exhibit No. 1. People's Exhibit No. 2, taken from a slightly different angle, depicted the entry wound and was offered and, when received, was used in conjunction with the testimony of the autopsy surgeon to demonstrate the trajectory of the bullet. At the hearing on defendant's objection to Exhibit No. 2, the prosecutor observed without contradiction that it was not "a good identification photo."
Defendant now contends that admission of Exhibit No. 2 constituted prejudicial error in that he had not disputed the cause of death and therefore admission of the photograph would serve only to "inflame" the jury.
It is well established that the admission of photographs is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial court. (People v. Salas (1972) 7 Cal. 3d 812, 819 [103 Cal. Rptr. 431, 500 P.2d 7, 58 A.L.R.3d 832]; People v. Nye (1969) 71 Cal. 2d 356, 369-370 [78 Cal. Rptr. 467, 455 P.2d 395].) Here both photographs were viewed by the court before being admitted. Exhibit No. 2 was admissible and used to assist the jury in its understanding of the autopsy surgeon's testimony. No abuse of the trial court's discretion is established.
Friedman, J., and Janes, J., concurred.
FN 2. The court gave instruction No. 8.45 of California Jury Instructions -- Criminal (1970 ed.) (hereinafter CALJIC), defining involuntary manslaughter essentially in the language of Penal Code section 192; CALJIC No. 846, defining the phrase "without due caution and circumspection;" and the verbatim language of Penal Code section 417, brandishing a firearm in a rude, angry or threatening manner, advising the jury that such offense constituted a misdemeanor inherently dangerous to human life within the meaning of the definition of involuntary manslaughter upon which the jury was instructed.
FN 3. At defendant's request the trial court gave CALJIC No. 4.21 (as adapted) instructing that the jury should consider defendant's state of intoxication in determining whether he had the specific intent to kill with malice aforethought and, if the evidence raised a reasonable doubt as to his capacity to form such specific intent, the jury must find for defendant on that issue. The giving of the foregoing instruction rendered harmless the trial court's disregard of defendant's request that it instruct in the language of CALJIC No. 8.48, which enlarges upon CALJIC No. 8.45 by relating the potential effect of mental illness, mental defect or intoxication upon the mental capacity to harbor malice aforethought and to form an intent to kill. In any event, the only evidence suggesting diminished capacity was of defendant's voluntary consumption of alcoholic beverages shortly before the shooting.
FN 4. For that reason, the deletion by the trial court of the last paragraph of CALJIC No. 8.77 from the instructions to the jury was harmless. That paragraph declares that the jury cannot convict of either murder or voluntary manslaughter where it concludes that by reason of diminished capacity defendant did not harbor malice aforethought or have the intent to kill.
FN 5. CALJIC No. 8.47, the only standard CALJIC instruction designed to advise the jury of the relationship between involuntary manslaughter and voluntary intoxication-induced diminished capacity, is expressly addressed to situations where the defendant kills while unconscious from voluntary intoxication.
FN 6. The trial court deleted that part of CALJIC No. 8.11 that provides that malice is implied "when the killing is a direct causal result of the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate a felony inherently dangerous to human life."
FN 7. The quoted language was contained in the following instructions: CALJIC No. 2.02 (as adapted), sufficiency of circumstantial evidence to prove specific intent; CALJIC No. 3.31 (as adapted), concurrence of act and specific intent; and CALJIC No. 4.21 (as adapted), voluntary intoxication, when relevant to specific intent.
FN 8. No contention is made that the instructions given do not adequately relate diminished capacity to implied malice although the definitions given the jury of implied malice (CALJIC No. 8.11) and murder grounded on implied malice (CALJIC No. 8.31) do not reflect the teaching of People v. Poddar (1974) 10 Cal. 3d 750, 757-761 [111 Cal. Rptr. 910, 518 P.2d 342] (see, e.g., 1974 revisions of CALJIC Nos. 8.11 and 8.31 contained in 1974 cumulative pocket part to CALJIC). There is no error, however, because defendant did not request more specific instructions. (People v. Poddar, supra, at p. 760.) Moreover, as heretofore pointed out (fn. 4, ante), the jury was instructed in terms of the current version of CALJIC No. 8.77 as amended to incorporate the Poddar language.
FN 9. That instruction provides: "If the evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that the amount, by weight, of alcohol in the defendant's blood was one tenth of one percent (0.10%) or more at the time of the test as shown by a chemical analysis of his blood, breath, or urine, you should find that the defendant was under the influence of intoxicating liquor at the time of the alleged offense, unless from all the evidence you have a reasonable doubt that he was in fact under the influence of intoxicating liquor at the time of the alleged offense."

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