Opinion ID: 1133414
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Instructing jury to disregard guilt phase instructions

Text: When the prosecutor cross-examined Dennis Morgan during the guilt phase of the trial, Morgan blurted out that defendant had a prior arrest for child molestation. The trial court immediately struck the statement from the record and told the jury: Ladies and gentlemen, you are going to ignore that and strike that. There is absolutely no evidence of that in existence. After a brief bench conference, the court advised the jury there has been no other arrests for any other molestation ... you are to disregard anything you have heard to the contrary; it hasn't happened. When instructing on the law applicable to the penalty phase, the trial court told the jury to [d]isregard all other instructions given to you in other phases of this trial. (CALJIC No. 8.84.1 (1989 rev.).) Defendant contends that this instruction required the penalty jurors to disregard the trial court's instruction at the guilt phase that defendant had never been arrested for child molestation, thus allowing the jurors to rely on Morgan's assertion that defendant had a prior arrest for child molestation. We disagree. At the guilt phase, the trial court not only instructed the jury that defendant had no prior arrests for child molestation, it also made a finding of fact that there was no evidence of such arrests. No juror reasonably would have understood the trial court's penalty phase instruction to disregard instructions given at the guilt phase as permitting consideration of arrests for child molestation unsubstantiated by any evidence.