Opinion ID: 1122530
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Revolver

Text: (6a) Defendant claims the trial court erred in denying his pretrial motion to dismiss the case or, alternatively, to suppress the .38-caliber revolver on the ground that the police failed to adequately preserve it from destruction within the meaning of California v. Trombetta (1984) 467 U.S. 479 [81 L.Ed.2d 413, 104 S.Ct. 2528]. Evidence before and during trial indicated that the police found and seized the revolver while executing an unrelated narcotics search warrant at Sharon's apartment the day after the Rainwater murders, but that they accidentally left the weapon behind when they departed. Sharon later tried to dismantle and dispose of the gun at Ragged Point because defendant told her to get rid of it. Defendant argues here, as below, that if the police had not failed to confiscate the gun it would not have undergone deterioration at Ragged Point and it might have been conclusively eliminated as the murder weapon. We find no error. (7) The relevant principles have been discussed many times before. (See, e.g., People v. Zapien (1993) 4 Cal.4th 929, 964-965 [17 Cal. Rptr.2d 122, 846 P.2d 704]; People v. Hardy (1992) 2 Cal.4th 86, 165-166 [5 Cal. Rptr.2d 796, 825 P.2d 781]; People v. Cooper, supra, 53 Cal.3d 771, 810-811.) Whatever duty the Constitution imposes on the States to preserve evidence, that duty must be limited to evidence that might be expected to play a significant role in the suspect's defense. [Fn.] To meet this standard of constitutional materiality [citation], evidence must both possess an exculpatory value that was apparent before the evidence was destroyed, and be of such a nature that the defendant would be unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means. ( California v. Trombetta, supra, 467 U.S. 479, 488-489 [81 L.Ed.2d 413, 421-422], italics added.) More recently, the high court held that unless a criminal defendant can show bad faith on the part of the police, failure to preserve potentially useful evidence does not constitute a denial of due process of law. ( Arizona v. Youngblood (1988) 488 U.S. 51, 58 [102 L.Ed.2d 281, 289, 109 S.Ct. 333].) [18] (6b) We doubt the foregoing cases create an official duty to protect evidence from a suspect's own deliberate attempts to destroy it. The due process principles invoked by defendant are primarily intended to deter the police from purposefully denying an accused the benefit of evidence that is in their possession and known to be exculpatory. ( Arizona v. Youngblood, supra, 488 U.S. 51, 58 [102 L.Ed.2d 281, 289-290].) Here, however, police conduct in leaving the revolver in Sharon's apartment can at worst be described as negligent. ( Ibid. ) It was defendant who  evidently concerned about the gun's inculpatory value  frightened Sharon into disposing of it at Ragged Point. Common sense suggests that defendant, not the police, should be held accountable for any ensuing damage that made it impossible to conclusively identify or eliminate the gun as the murder weapon. No constitutional violation occurred for another obvious reason  the revolver has never had any discernible exculpatory value. Officer Miller testified that he attempted to confiscate the gun along with two other weapons because he believed that Sharon and defendant, as ex-felons, were prohibited from possessing firearms. Thus, in any narcotics prosecution or parole revocation hearing arising out of the search of Sharon's apartment, the revolver might have been relevant only insofar as it formed the basis of additional criminal charges against defendant. As noted by the trial court, the revolver also had no known connection to the capital crimes at the time the narcotics task force purportedly mishandled it. Testimony by Officer Miller and investigator Hanley indicated that officials were not aware of defendant's possible involvement in the murders until Sharon contacted Hanley three months after the task force searched her apartment. All evidence that has since surfaced about Sharon's revolver strongly suggests that it was the murder weapon. Nothing in the record indicates that ballistics tests performed under different conditions would have reached a contrary conclusion. We also reject defendant's claim that the trial court erred in denying his separate pretrial motion to exclude the revolver as irrelevant and unduly prejudicial. (Evid. Code, §§ 210, 352.) The motion was premised on the fact that the gun was never conclusively identified as the murder weapon. However, ample evidence established that the Rainwaters were killed with special .38-caliber bullets, that defendant had access to the same bullets and to Sharon's .38-caliber revolver shortly before the murders, and that he attempted through Sharon to destroy the gun afterwards. Recovery of the deteriorated gun from a remote location specified by Sharon corroborated her testimony that she disposed of the weapon at defendant's direction. The gun, expert ballistics testimony, and Sharon's account tended to confirm the inference that the gun found at Ragged Point was used to kill the Rainwaters and that defendant was involved in the crimes. We conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the probative value of the gun substantially outweighed any prejudicial impact.