Source: https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/people-v-hamilton-24281
Timestamp: 2020-08-14 03:32:13
Document Index: 271977397

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1420', '§ 1725', '§ 268', '§ 1730', '§ 268', '§ 4', '§ 268']

People v. Hamilton - 55 Cal.2d 881 - Thu, 05/25/1961 | California Supreme Court Resources
Citation 55 Cal.2d 881
People v. Hamilton , 55 Cal.2d 881
Raymond Marty Hamilton was charged with the murders of Estella Hamilton and Lorenzo Bernard. The jury found him guilty of both crimes, fixed the degree of the murders as first, and, as to each count, fixed the penalty at death. Motions were made to reduce the degree of the crimes, [55 Cal.2d 884] to reduce the penalty imposed, and for a new trial. Defendant appeals from the judgment and from the orders denying his several motions.
When Estella returned to Berkeley in September of 1956, she and the defendant began seeing each other again. Estella again became pregnant by him, but this child was prematurely born and died in April of 1957. In October of 1957 defendant was returned to prison for violation of parole and remained [55 Cal.2d 885] there for 11 months. While in prison he was frequently visited by Estella who represented herself to the prison authorities as defendant's wife. Following his release, the two attempted a reconciliation but they "couldn't make a go of it," and defendant left Estella in October of 1958. Thereafter, he went to live with Verna Baldwin again but continued to see Estella.
Early in May of 1959, defendant was involved in another altercation with Lorenzo Bernard at the California Hotel in Berkeley. He testified that he had previously given money to Bernard to pay to a bail bondsman by whom Bernard was employed. He met Bernard at the hotel and took a ride with him during which they had a dispute about the money. Defendant testified that Bernard pulled out "something like a knife," and defendant got out of the car and went back to the hotel. When Bernard came in later, defendant apologized [55 Cal.2d 886] to him and Bernard said "just get out of my way." He had a knife in his hand. A friend of the defendant pulled the defendant into an adjoining coffee shop.
He testified that he had difficulty in getting the car to start, and that he stopped at a pay telephone booth and called Estella again. Estella's attitude had changed. She told him that he should have been there earlier and that "it was no sense for him to come" at that late hour. Defendant, however, decided to go to Estella's house in order to get the matter "straightened out once and for all." From the tone of Estella's conversation the defendant believed that Bernard probably was at the house, and that there might be trouble. He stated that he determined to take a witness with him to "keep down the confusion." He drove to the apartment of Miss Letha Sheppard. She testified that when the defendant arrived he did not appear to be upset or excited. He told her that he wanted to talk with Mrs. Hamilton and possibly induce her to come back to Miss Sheppard's house with them. He asked Miss Sheppard to go with him to Estella's and also asked her to induce Estella to talk to them by making inquiries about the renting of an apartment, since Estella at that time was employed [55 Cal.2d 887] in that business. He offered to cancel a $40 debt Miss Sheppard owed him if she would agree, which she did.
The defendant parked the car around the corner from Estella's house. He and Miss Sheppard walked up to the front porch and rang the doorbell. Estella came to the door and looked out the glass windowpane. Miss Sheppard asked her if she would open the door so that she could talk to her about renting an apartment. Defendant stood to one side, out of Estella's vision, and said nothing. Estella refused to open the door and told Miss Sheppard to contact her the next morning. Defendant and Miss Sheppard then left the porch and started down the stairs. Miss Sheppard walked directly back to the parked vehicle. What thereafter occurred was witnessed only by the defendant, Estella and Bernard. The defendant states that he started to follow Miss Sheppard but looking back, saw Estella peeking out the front window. He then walked around the side of the house and went up on the back porch, which was located outside the kitchen and the bedroom. He knocked on the kitchen door and Estella asked him to come to the bedroom window. At the window he "stooped down" and had a conversation with her. She told him that he should have come earlier and that now it was too late. He told her that he could explain if she would just allow him to talk to her. However, she did not reply and walked away from the window. According to defendant he was "pretty frustrated and upset" because he had made the long trip from Los Angeles and now was refused admittance, so he kicked in the window. He then decided to go into the house and stepped in through the broken window. His gun was then in his pocket. He denied intending to harm anyone. He claims that immediately upon entering the bedroom he was struck on the head with "something," and was stunned and confused. He was wearing a hat when he entered. When hit he fell to his knees, got up on his feet and saw Estella and Bernard. The only light in the house was a single candle [55 Cal.2d 888] burning in the bedroom. Bernard started towards him and defendant ran to the kitchen and tried to get out, but the back door was locked. Bernard followed him and attacked him with a knife, cutting him. He then pulled the gun, pointed it at Bernard, and told him to get back. He fired the gun at Bernard in the kitchen, probably more than once. Then he ran back into the bedroom to a point near the broken window. Estella was between him and Bernard. She grabbed at his arm, trying to pull the gun down, and it discharged, and Estella slumped to the floor. Then defendant fired the gun again at Bernard, who ran back into the dark kitchen. Defendant says he heard a "knife or something dropping" when Bernard ran back. Then, he claims, wanting to take Estella to the hospital, he put her head out the broken window, but she kept slipping back. In order to get out of the window himself without cutting his clothes, he rested his knee on her body. Remembering his hat after he was halfway out the window, he came back in the bedroom looking for it. He did not find it, but did see a knife which he picked up, and which was later in his possession when he was arrested. Going outside of the house, again over Estella's body, he attempted to pull Estella out from the outside. He was trying to lift her but "she was hung up on the window." There was a lot of blood. He became scared and ran. He claims that he put the gun to his head on the back porch and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. He ran back to the car where Letha Sheppard was waiting.
Mr. Clarence Burkes testified that he also lived next door to Estella. On the night of the shooting he heard first what [55 Cal.2d 889] sounded like the breaking of glass and then three shots in rapid succession. Mr. Burkes gave conflicting testimony as to the elapsed time between the breaking of the glass and the firing of the last shot but finally testified that the interval was about four and one-half seconds.
After the trial judge had ruled that such declarations were [55 Cal.2d 890] admissible, he then, and several times thereafter, carefully pointed out to the jury that the evidence was being admitted for the limited purpose of showing the declarant's state of mind, and that the jury was not to consider it for any other purpose. In the instructions to the jury the court again restated these principles.
Inspector Bishop of the Berkeley police identified certain pages of a diary kept by Estella and found in her bedroom after her death. Those pages of the diary were then read to the jury by the prosecutor. The dates of those entries are important. Estella was killed on May 20, 1959. The entries read to the jury all were made in the month prior to May 20th. [55 Cal.2d 891] Entries as of April 21, 22, and May 6, were read to the jury. Under date of April 21, the diary states that Hamilton came to Estella's house; that at first she refused to open the door; that he then offered her some money for their child and she opened the door; that he then "grabbed me, forced his way in, ran off my friends, and took me to San Francisco." Under date of April 22, the diary states that Hamilton met her when she came out of a doctor's office and "forced me to get in his car, took me to a friend's house, threatened to put a needle in my arm, forced me to accept him, slapped me, and threatened to kill me and family, then cried and said how much he loved me." As of May 6th the diary states that while Estella was in the hospital being prepared for surgery Hamilton forced his way in to the room and told her that he was "going to kill everyone, my mother, stepfather, Mr. Bernard. He told me how easy it would be to kill me and be in China before the police would catch him."
Inspector Bishop also testified to certain conversations he had with Estella in 1958 and 1959. The officer stated that Estella asked for police help in keeping defendant away from her, and stated that defendant was continually coming to her house against her wishes "and forcing himself on her sexually" and would threaten her with bodily harm, and "[s]he stated that she was very much afraid" of defendant "because he would probably kill her." The officer also testified that she said that defendant "had again threatened her with bodily harm, and she was afraid of him." Again, "She was asked or explained that she had been carrying a gun because she was in fear of her life, that Ray Hamilton would kill her on the street if he saw her. ... She went on to relate a whole series of incidents and troubles of his forcing himself into the house and forcing her to go with him allegedly at knife-point to San Francisco. ..." [55 Cal.2d 892]
David Dutton, a deputy district attorney testified that in [55 Cal.2d 893] explanation of why Estella was carrying a gun "she just stated that she was carrying the gun around in her purse because she was afraid that Ray was going to kill her and that she knew she wasn't supposed to do it, but she was carrying it around because she thought she had to." Dutton also said that Estella had told him about the San Francisco incident "where he had forced her to go to a hotel or a motel and stay or sleep with him, and that he had threatened her with bodily harm."
[1] Undoubtedly, in a proper case, and in a proper manner, testimony as to the "state of mind" of the declarant, where there is an issue in the case is admissible, but only when such testimony refers to threats as to future conduct on the part of the accused, where such declarations are shown to have been made under circumstances indicating that they are reasonably trustworthy, and when they show primarily the then state of mind of the declarant and not the state of mind of the accused. [2] But there are and should be rigid limitations on the admission of such testimony. One of these limitations is that such testimony is not admissible if it refers [55 Cal.2d 894] solely to alleged past conduct on the part of the accused. This is so because to try and separate state of mind from the truth of the charges is an almost impossible task. The serious prejudice from such evidence is obvious. [3] When the declarations are of such a nature as to be obviously prejudicial, and where any possible proper benefit to the prosecution is far outweighed by its prejudicial effect to the accused, such evidence should be excluded. As was said in Estate of Anderson, 185 Cal. 700, 719 [198 P. 407], in reference to just such declarations: "Under such circumstances, where the true evidentiary bearing of the evidence is at best slight and remote, and yet the evidence is of a nature such as to make it very prejudicial to the party against whom it is offered, the evidence should be excluded."
[4] This court has declared that "under certain circumstances declarations are admissible to prove a state of mind at a particular time although uttered before or after that time, apparently on the theory that under these particular circumstances '[t]he stream of consciousness has enough continuity so that we may expect to find the same characteristics for some distance up or down the current.' [Citing authorities.]" (People v. One 1948 Chevrolet Conv. Coupe, 45 Cal.2d 613, 621 [290 P.2d 538, 55 A.L.R.2d 1272]; and see Watenpaugh v. State Teachers' Retirement System, 51 Cal.2d 675, 679 [336 P.2d 165].)
This rule permitting such declarations to be admitted apparently originated in the case of Aveson v. Ld. Kinnaird, 6 East 188, 195, 102 Eng. Rep. 1258, 1261 (K.B. 1805), where Lord Ellenborough held that statements of the declarant's then condition of health were admissible as part of the res gestae. (See Morgan, A Suggested Classification of Utterances Admissible as Res Gestae (1922), 31 Yale L.J. 229, 233-234. But even under this limited rule eminent scholars in the law saw the many difficulties in its application, and many articles were written as to its proper scope. (See for a few of these discussions, Hinton, States Of Mind And The Hearsay Rule (1934), 1 U.Chi.L.Rev. 394; McBaine, Admissibility in California of Declarations of Physical or Mental Condition (1931), 19 Cal.L.Rev. 231, 367; Hutchins and Slesinger, Some Observations On The Law of Evidence: State Of Mind In Issue (1929), 29 Columb.L.Rev. 147; Hutchins and Slesinger, Some Observations On The Law Of Evidence--State Of Mind To Prove An Act (1929), 38 Yale L.J. 283; Maguire, The Hillmon Case -- Thirty-Three Years After [55 Cal.2d 895] (1925), 38 Harv.L.Rev. 709; Chafee, The Progress of the Law, 1919-1922 Evidence, II (1922), 35 Harv.L.Rev. 428, 443; and Seligman, An Exception To The Hearsay Rule (1912), 26 Harv.L.Rev. 146.)
[5] From these discussions several general principles have developed. One is that, while declarations directly asserting the existence of a mental condition on the part of the decedent-declarant, and not including a description of the past conduct of a third person that may have caused that mental condition, are and should be admissible, they should be admitted only where there is at least circumstantial evidence that they are probably trustworthy and credible. [6] As was said by this court in People v. Brust, 47 Cal.2d 776, 785 [306 P.2d 480], in quoting from People v. Weatherford, 27 Cal.2d 401, 421 [164 P.2d 753], such declarations are "admissible only if there appears to be a necessity for that type of evidence and a circumstantial probability of its trustworthiness (V Wigmore, p. 202, § 1420). ... [7] The death of the declarant creates the necessity for resort to hearsay and the declarations, being those of a present existing state of mind, made in a natural manner and not under circumstances of suspicion, carry the probability of truthworthiness. (VI Wigmore, § 1725, p. 80.)" (See also McCormick, Evidence (1954), § 268, p. 568.) Wigmore also has stated that such declarations are admissible only when they are "made at a time when there was no motive to deceive." (6 Wigmore, Evidence, (3d ed. 1940), § 1730, p. 94.)
[9] There is an additional reason why the great mass of these declarations were inadmissible, and that is that most of them referred to past acts of the defendant. In such cases the authorities are agreed that it is impossible for the jury to separate the state of mind of the declarant from the truth of the facts contained in the declarations, and that for such reasons such declarations are inadmissible. [10] The late Professor McBaine correctly declared the rule when he stated: "If declarations of belief or memory should be received to [55 Cal.2d 896] prove a past act, there would be not much left of the Hearsay rule, and generally the courts hold that such declarations are inadmissible hearsay." (McBaine, Admissibility in California of Declarations of Physical or Mental Condition (1931), 19 Cal.L.Rev. 231, 367, at p. 370. And see Shepard v. United States, 290 U.S. 96, 106 [54 S.Ct. 22, 78 L.Ed. 196]; McCormick, Evidence (1954), § 268, p. 568; and Uniform Rules of Evidence, rule 63 (12).)
These conclusions are not conjectural. They have been recognized by several courts, including the United States Supreme Court. In the leading case of Shepard v. United States, supra, 290 U.S. 96, there had been admitted the declaration of the deceased made about a month before she died: "Dr. Shepard [55 Cal.2d 897] has poisoned me." It is to be noted that this is a statement about a past transaction. Justice Cardozo, speaking for the court, first held that, under the facts, the declaration was not admissible as a dying declaration, and then discussed the question of whether it was admissible to show "state of mind," as had been held by the circuit court. It was contended that "state of mind" was at issue because defendant had introduced declarations of the deceased that the deceased had contemplated suicide. Thus the legal situation presented is identical with that here involved. The court held that the challenged declaration was not admissible to show "state of mind." In so holding the court used language particularly applicable to the instant case (p. 104): "It will not do to say that the jury might accept the declarations for any light that they cast upon the existence of a vital urge, and reject them to the extent that they charged the death to some one else. Discrimination so subtle is a feat beyond the compass of ordinary minds. The reverberating clang of those accusatory words would drown all weaker sounds. It is for ordinary minds, and not for psychoanalysts, that our rules of evidence are framed. ... When the risk of confusion is so great as to upset the balance of advantage, the evidence goes out." Justice Cardozo then pointed out instances in which "state of mind" declarations may be admissible, and stated (pp. 105-106): "Declarations of intention, casting light upon the future, have been sharply distinguished from declarations of memory, pointing backwards to the past. There would be an end, or nearly that, to the rule against hearsay if the distinction were ignored.
We are not without authority in this state. In People v. Talle, 111 Cal.App.2d 650 [245 P.2d 633], the District Court [55 Cal.2d 898] of Appeal in speaking of declarations not nearly as damaging as those here, stated (pp. 670-671): "Here was a voice from the grave charging appellant with past acts of brutality and cruelty, and charging that he had made threats against his wife's life. [Precisely the situation here involved.] How could the jury possibly disentangle the charges in that letter and treat the letter only as evidence of state of mind, and forget about the substance of the charges? How could the defendant meet such a situation? He could not cross-examine the deceased. Her lips were sealed. Here was a self-serving statement prepared for a partisan purpose against which the accused was powerless to defend. fn. 3 It will not do to say that it was admitted for the limited purpose of showing state of mind of the deceased, and, even if erroneously admitted, could not be prejudicial. To be admissible, even when state of mind is in issue ... the statement must be made under circumstances so as to make it reasonably certain it was not the result of a partisan premeditated plan to accuse." fn. 4
Certainly, the record shows that the prosecuting attorney was unable to separate state of mind from the truth of the charges. The record shows that in his opening statement to the jury the prosecuting attorney, in stating what he expected to prove, stated that the jury would be looking for a motive and that such motive could be found in defendant's actions during and after his marriage to the decedent; that during this period "defendant had made threats against the life of Estella while they were married and after they were divorced. These threats were not just one or two; they occurred numerous times to the extent that she became afraid of him. ... At one time while she had some company at her place ... he forcibly [55 Cal.2d 899] entered her home, forced her to go to San Francisco and stay with him overnight. ...
That the prosecuting attorney was, to be charitable, confused as to the significance of these declarations is also demonstrated by his closing argument. Again and again he asserted that he had proved the truth of the matters asserted [55 Cal.2d 900] in the declarations of the deceased, when he knew that the only "evidence" of them was the declarations themselves. He told the jury again about the vaginal bleeding and that this belief of the decedent was caused by "the repeated beatings that she had received from the defendant." He then referred again to the vaginal bleeding, and stated: "If someone came along and beat me about the abdomen and for some reason or another I expectorated blood and I reached the conclusion or I stated, rather, that this blood that I am expectorating is due to the beating, am I unreasonable about it?" Then the prosecutor read the accusatory declarations contained in the diary, argued that they correctly depicted what had happened on those days. Defense counsel vigorously objected and the trial court said: "As to state of mind, not as to the truth. You are arguing now what truly happened on April 21st is what happened there. I admit it is a fine distinction." The prosecutor tried to rephrase his statement stating that he wanted to show the "fears" of the decedent. Later he stated: "Now, were her fears justified? Were they paranoidic [sic]? Were they thoughts of an emotional, upset woman? Or were they threats that had some foundation to them? Were they well-founded?"
For the benefit of the court on the retrial, some mention should be made of the instructions given by the trial court [55 Cal.2d 901] on the "felony-murder" doctrine. Defendant contends that this was error. The challenged instruction was the conventional one that told the jury, in substance, that the prosecution, in addition to proceeding on the theory that the killings were of the first degree because they were wilful, deliberate and premeditated, was proceeding on the premise that the killings were of the first degree because committed by the defendant in the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate a burglary. The burglary, as explained by the trial judge, consisted of entering a dwelling with the intent to commit a felony therein, namely an assault with a deadly weapon.
[13] Defendant contends that the instruction on the "felony-murder" doctrine was error because the felony element of the burglary was an integral ingredient of the homicide itself. It is urged that to thus utilize an ingredient of the homicide to find the elements of a burglary so that the homicide can be automatically converted by application of the "felony-murder" doctrine into murder of the first degree, is a "bootstrapping" arrangement which the defendant contends was never intended by the Legislature. In support of his contention defendant urges that where, as here, the felony itself (burglary) results from the existence of the very intent necessary to establish the homicide, that the element of causation necessary for application of the doctrine is not present. It is the theory of the defendant that the "felony-murder" rule should only be applied when the felony involved is an independent felony and not an integral part of a homicide plan. While it is true that this independent felony test has apparently been adopted in New York (People v. Huter, 184 N.Y. 237 [77 N.E. 6], and that a reasonable argument can be made that such should be the rule, it is not the rule that has been applied in California. At a very early date this state adopted the rule set forth in the instructions (People v. Miller, 121 Cal. 343 [53 P. 816]). In a case somewhat similar to the one here this court recently reexamined and reaffirmed the doctrine (People v. Mason, 54 Cal.2d 164 [351 P.2d 1025]; see also People v. Cartier, 54 Cal.2d 300 [353 P.2d 293]; People v. Morlock, 46 Cal.2d 141 [292 P.2d 897]; People v. Jones, 184 Cal.App.2d 464 [7 Cal.Rptr. 424]; People v. Laya, 123 Cal.App.2d 7 [266 P.2d 157]). The rule as adopted in this state is not clearly wrong, nor is the New York rule clearly right. Either conclusion is equally reasonable. There is no sound reason why California should change its rule at this late date. [55 Cal.2d 902]
In the instant case defendant sought to absolve himself of the prosecution's contention that he went to Estella's home with an evil intent by his testimony that he had an appointment, solicited by Estella, to see her at her home, which accounted for his visit there. Thus, Estella's "state of mind," that is, her attitude toward the defendant was put in issue by the defendant. Manifestly, if she was in fear of the defendant serious doubt would thus be cast on the defendant's story that she had invited him to her home, by evidence of those fears. If the purpose of admitting such evidence is to show the "state of mind" of the declarant where, as in the instant case, it was concededly an issue in the case, then I am at a loss to understand why declarations of threats to do future violence should be regarded as less prejudicial than the narration of alleged past conduct. And surely if the purpose of admitting "state of mind" testimony is to be achieved, then as in the instant case, such a state of mind as fear of the defendant could be engendered by past actions of brutality, probably more so than by unexecuted threats of promised future harm to the declarant. Complaint is made in the majority opinion that testimony of past conduct tends more to establish the state of mind of the accused rather than of the declarant. Would not such a conclusion be as applicable to threats of future violence as to prior executed acts of violence? [55 Cal.2d 903] This would appear to be a distinction without a difference.
Again in the instructions to the jury, the court stated: "Testimony as to threats made by the defendant or any acts of violence by him upon the decedent, Estella Hamilton, or the decedent, Lorenzo Bernard, would of course be admissible if given by witnesses who state that they heard the defendant make such threats or who saw such acts of violence committed, but testimony of any witness which is based upon what such [55 Cal.2d 904] decedent told him, is hearsay, and is ordinarily not admissible. However, when the state or frame of mind of a decedent is material and relevant, such testimony is admitted for a limited purpose only, that is, for such bearing, if any, as it may have on showing what the state of mind of said decedent was on the night of May 20th, 1959. Such testimony is not admissible to prove that such threats were uttered or such acts of violence did occur, and you are not to consider it as proof of the truth thereof.
I concede that it was improper for the district attorney in his opening statement to the jury to state, in setting forth what he expected to prove, that a motive would be found in [55 Cal.2d 905] defendant's conduct toward Estella during and after his marriage in that during this period defendant made threats against the life of Estella as is more fully pointed out in the majority opinion, when the only evidence offered at the trial was the declarations admitted to prove "state of mind" of the deceased Estella. However, I am satisfied that any prejudice to defendant in this regard was cured by the foregoing admonitions of the trial judge, and that no miscarriage of justice has resulted. (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 4 1/2.)
­FN 1. That such instructions are not always effective was clearly recognized by this court in Adkins v. Brett, 184 Cal. 252, pp. 258-259 [193 P. 251]; see also 1 Wigmore, Evidence (3d ed. 1940), section 13, p. 302.
­FN 2. These last-quoted comments are particularly applicable to the many acts of brutality which the witnesses testified Estella had declared defendant had committed. As to these declarations of past conduct on the part of defendant there is no possible theory under which they were admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule. These declarations total over half of those admitted. As was said by this court in People v. Perkins, 8 Cal.2d 502, 517 [66 P.2d 631], to be admissible, especially when self-serving, such declarations must not be "a mere narration of a past transaction."
­FN 3. The same can be said of one of the diary entries and many of the other declarations. As already pointed out, many were made at a time when the deceased had been charged with carrying a gun and at a time when she was trying to establish some justification for this act. Certainly they were self- serving statements.
­FN 4. McCormick, Evidence (1954), § 268, p. 568, states that to be admissible such declarations must be made "under circumstances indicating apparent sincerity."
Thu, 05/25/1961 55 Cal.2d 881 Review - Criminal Appeal Opinion issued
2 , v. RAYMOND MARTY HAMILTON, Appellant. (, v. RAYMOND MARTY HAMILTON)
May 25 1961 Opinion: Reversed
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