Opinion ID: 4521869
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defendant’s Cross-examination Rights

Text: AUSA Aveis testified regarding the federal government’s investigation into defendant and Goldfinger. During crossexamination, defense counsel asked Aveis whether defendant had indicated what his defense would be to the federal charge of acting as a money exchanger without the proper licensing. Aveis responded he learned that defendant would be alleging he did not get a license because he did not believe he needed one. Following up on this answer, defense counsel attempted to ask Aveis whether Aveis knew that defendant did not agree that he needed a license to operate Goldfinger and whether this issue was one Aveis anticipated litigating in court. The trial court sustained the prosecution’s hearsay objections and struck Aveis’s answer at the prosecution’s request. On appeal, defendant for the first time claims that the statements were admissible under Evidence Code section 1250 as circumstantial evidence of defendant’s state of mind, 67 PEOPLE v. FAYED Opinion of the Court by Chin, J. revealing that defendant did not believe that Goldfinger needed a money transmitting license. Defendant explains that evidence of his state of mind was critical to rebut the prosecution’s main theory that defendant killed Pamela because he feared she would cooperate in the federal investigation. Defendant purportedly had no reason to worry about the investigation (and therefore, had no reason to kill Pamela) because he had a valid defense to the federal charge and also because he was winding down the business and would no longer need the license. Defendant further asserts that his inability to ask AUSA Aveis any questions about the strength of the government’s case against him violated his constitutional right to confront and cross-examine witnesses, particularly when the prosecution was permitted to ask Carol Neve a similar question concerning Pamela’s belief about the necessity of the money transmitting license. The Attorney General counters that defendant forfeited the argument by failing to challenge the trial court’s ruling below. Even assuming he did not forfeit the issue by failing to lay the foundation for the admission of Aveis’s testimony, we conclude that any error was harmless. Regardless of the actual strength of the government’s case against defendant, there was evidence that defendant generally worried Pamela would implicate him for wrongdoing. Defendant complained to Smith that Pamela “ran her mouth too much” and that she “made all these stupid accusations and ridiculous accusations against me just to try and make me look bad.” Further, contrary to defendant’s assertion, the prosecution’s theory on defendant’s motive for killing Pamela was not simply that he wanted to prevent her from cooperating in the federal investigation. As discussed above, the prosecution presented an extended narrative of events leading up to 68 PEOPLE v. FAYED Opinion of the Court by Chin, J. Pamela’s murder in closing argument. After outlining these events, the prosecution underscored: “And then on top of all that he finds out that Pamela wants to cooperate with the authorities” and that if she does, “he stood to lose everything.”