Opinion ID: 2575997
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Relevancy objection to Doreen Westbrook's testimony

Text: The trial court admitted testimony by Doreen Westbrook of what George Westbrook, her brother-in-law, told her before she went to the City of Colusa to be interviewed by the police. Defendant contends the testimony was irrelevant. We disagree. Three days after the police apprehended Doreen at a convenience store, the police in Colusa County interviewed her. At that time she gave the police two different statements regarding the murder. In the first of these statements, she identified one Billy Jinks as the killer. In the second statement, made that same day, she told the police that defendant was the killer. At trial, after testifying on direct examination by the prosecution about the telephone call she received from defendant telling her to identify Billy Jinks as the killer, Doreen was asked what her brother-in-law George Westbrook said to her before her interview by the police in Colusa County. The defense objected on the ground of hearsay. The prosecutor replied that the testimony was being offered to show Doreen's state of mind when she made the first statement to the police identifying Billy Jinks and not defendant as the killer. At defendant's request, the trial court instructed the jury that it could not consider the testimony for its truth but only to understand Doreen's conduct based on what she had been told by her brother-in-law George Westbrook. She then testified that after George stripped all of my jewelry off me, he told her, `If you don't ride the manslaughter you're not coming out of Colusa alive.' She said this scared her. Defendant contends this testimony was irrelevant and thus inadmissible. Because defendant did not object on this ground, he is now precluded from asserting this claim. (Evid.Code, ง 353.) In any event, the evidence was relevant. Evidence is relevant if it has any tendency in reason to prove or disprove any disputed fact of consequence, including evidence relevant to the credibility of a witness. (Evid.Code, งง 210, 780.) The testimony in question was relevant to establishing Doreen's credibility. It tended to show that her statement to the police identifying Billy Jinks as the killer instead of defendant was false and that her testimony at trial that defendant was the killer was true. The trial court therefore did not err in admitting the testimony.