Opinion ID: 2672558
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Loss of Defendant’s Letter to Johnston

Text: Defendant contends that law enforcement committed prejudicial error in failing to disclose to the defense the contents of defendant’s letter to Johnston and that law enforcement’s subsequent loss or destruction of his letter violated his rights to present a defense and to due process pursuant Arizona v. Youngblood (1988) 488 U.S. 51, 58, and Trombetta, supra, 467 U.S. at pages 488-489. “ ‘ “Law enforcement agencies have a duty, under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, to preserve evidence ‘that might be expected to play a significant role in the suspect’s defense.’ [Citations.] To fall within the scope of this duty, the 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.’ [Citations.] The state’s responsibility is further limited when the defendant’s challenge is to ‘the failure of the State to preserve evidentiary material of which no more can be said than that it could have been subjected to tests, the results of which might have exonerated the defendant.’ [Citation.] In such case, ‘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.’ ” ’ ” (People v. Farnam (2002) 28 Cal.4th 107, 166.) Defendant did not raise this issue in the trial court. His due process claim under Trombetta is of a type that requires a trial court to consider additional facts and apply a legal standard different than that applied in ruling on a hearsay objection. (See People v. Boyer, supra, 38 Cal.4th at p. 441, fn. 17.) Therefore, the trial court’s ruling that Johnston’s letter was admissible as an adoptive admission would not have necessarily led to a rejection of the claim that defendant was denied due process of law because law enforcement had misplaced his letter to Johnston. (Ibid.) Accordingly, we conclude defendant’s Trombetta claim is 31 forfeited because defendant failed to raise the issue below. (People v. Duran, supra, 16 Cal.3d at p. 289.) In any event, the claim is without merit. Defendant has not shown that his letter had “ ‘an exculpatory value that was apparent before the evidence was destroyed [or lost].’ ” (People v Pastor Cruz (1993) 16 Cal.App.4th 322, 325.) Assuming defendant’s letter to Johnston potentially was useful to his defense, nothing in the record suggests it was lost due to bad faith on the part of law enforcement, and its absence “did not deny defendant all opportunity ‘to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means.’ ” (People v. Thomas (2012) 54 Cal.4th 908, 929, quoting Trombetta, supra, 467 U.S at p. 489.) Defendant was able to cross-examine Johnston on the issue and, had he chosen to do so, he could have testified to the nature of his letter to Johnston. “There is no constitutional infirmity in the circumstance that if defendant had wanted to expand on the information presented by [the contents of Johnston’s letter,] and . . . by testifying himself, he might have been put in the position of choosing between his right to testify at the trial and his right to remain silent. ‘ “ ‘The criminal process . . . is replete with situations requiring the “making of difficult judgments” as to which course to follow. [Citation.] Although a defendant may have a right, even of constitutional dimensions, to follow whichever course he chooses, the Constitution does not by that token always forbid requiring him to choose.’ ” [Citations.]’ (People v. Letner and Tobin (2010) 50 Cal.4th 99, 153.)” (Thomas, supra, 54 Cal.4th at p. 929, fn. 5.) 5. Accomplice Corroboration The trial court instructed the jury that Marcia was an accomplice as a matter of law. Defendant contends his first degree murder and attempted robbery convictions and the attempted robbery felony-murder special-circumstance finding 32 must be reversed because they were based on Marcia’s uncorroborated testimony. The contention is without merit. Section 1111 provides: “A conviction cannot be had upon the testimony of an accomplice unless it be corroborated by such other evidence as shall tend to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense . . . .” “ ‘Corroborating evidence may be slight, may be entirely circumstantial, and need not be sufficient to establish every element of the charged offense.’ [Citation.] The evidence is ‘sufficient if it tends to connect the defendant with the crime in such a way as to satisfy the jury that the accomplice is telling the truth.’ ” (People v. Gonzales and Soliz (2011) 52 Cal.4th 254, 303.) Marcia testified as follows. On the morning of the crimes, defendant arrived at her house wearing a black and white Nike Air T-shirt and black jeans, with a Glock tucked in the waistband. Defendant articulated his plan to rob the liquor store to Marcia, Johnson, and Taylor and assigned each a task. Marcia identified Wallace’s van as the one Taylor used to drive them. Defendant had the Glock in his waistband when he left the house and entered the van. Taylor parked a couple of blocks from the store. Marcia got out and walked to the store. Once inside, she looked around, bought some candy, and returned to the van. Marcia informed defendant that inside the store there were two cameras and one clerk. She got in the van, and defendant and Johnson got out. Defendant had a bulge in his waistband as he walked with Johnson toward the liquor store. After she heard a gunshot, she watched as defendant and Johnson ran to the van. They both reentered the van. Taylor then drove to a house in Long Beach where the group met Johnston. Marcia’s testimony was sufficiently corroborated by other evidence connecting defendant to the attempted robbery and the murder at Eddie’s. Defendant stole the murder weapon during the Riteway robbery, and the loaded 33 murder weapon was found in defendant’s bedroom closet one week after the murder. Eddie’s surveillance videotape shows two African-American men entering and leaving the liquor store at the time of the crime, and defendant is African-American. One of the men wore a black T-shirt with a large white Air Nike logo on the front, and police found a similar shirt in defendant’s bedroom one week after the crimes. Additionally, evidence that defendant participated in the robbery of the Riteway clerk in which a gun was used reasonably supports an inference that defendant intended to rob the clerk working at Eddie’s when defendant shot him with the Glock stolen from Riteway. We conclude the record contains more than ample evidence that corroborates Marcia’s testimony and supports defendant’s convictions for first degree murder and attempted robbery, as well as for the attempted robbery felonymurder special-circumstance finding. Even if, as defendant asserts, section 1111 creates a “liberty interest” under Hicks v. Oklahoma (1980) 447 U.S. 343, his federal constitutional right to due process were not violated based on uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice. 6. Still Photographs from the Liquor Store Videotape Defendant contends that the trial court erred prejudicially in admitting two still photographs that were printed from the liquor store videotape using equipment at Aerospace Corporation (Aerospace). Assertedly, the photographs were enhanced and the prosecution failed to lay a proper foundation. The contention is without merit. a. Factual background Officer Holdredge testified that she arrived at Eddie’s within minutes after the shooting, that she viewed the surveillance videotape police obtained at the crime scene, and that it accurately portrayed what occurred when she, Officer 34 Romero, and Miller were inside the store. Long Beach Police Sergeant Jorge Cisneros testified that he viewed the videotape at the police station and identified People’s exhibits Nos. 43A and 43B as the two still photographs that were printed from the videotape using equipment at the police station. He explained that the heads and necks of the subjects shown on the film were not visible on the still prints because the VCR “did not display the entire picture on the film,” that is, the “top and bottom” portions of the film (i.e., margins) were not visible. Sergeant Cisneros went to Aerospace and requested that still photographs be printed from the videotape. He remained at Aerospace and watched one of its employees insert the videotape in a VCR that was connected to a computer, a monitor, and a printer. Cisneros described the Aerospace monitor as having a larger screen than the one used at the police station to view the videotape. According to Cisneros, when the videotape was played, “the picture of what was on that video tape did appear on the computer screen” and it showed “the full length of the film on the VCR,” including the images recorded in the margins of the film. He pointed to the frames he wanted printed, and the employee printed the stills (People’s exhibits Nos. 41 and 42). Cisneros testified that the difference between the images that were shown on the photographs printed using the equipment at the police station and those shown on the photographs printed using the Aerospace equipment was that the latter showed defendant’s and Johnson’s heads and necks, whereas the former did not. Cisneros said that Aerospace personnel informed him that “they could not do any enhancements to the video. [B]ut we did get, like I said, we could see more of the film, I believe because of the [equipment] we were using.” Cisneros did not “ask that any of the action [on the videotape] be altered.” In ruling the evidence was admissible, the trial court found that “Aerospace equipment [could] show the whole frame, [that] the Long 35 Beach Police Department [could] only show a portion,” and that the photographs had not been enhanced. b. Discussion “No photograph or film has any value in the absence of a proper foundation. It is necessary to know when it was taken and that it is accurate and truly represents what it purports to show. It becomes probative only upon the assumption that it is relevant and accurate.” (People v. Bowley (1963) 59 Cal.2d 855, 862 (Bowley).) The general rule is that a photograph is admissible upon a showing that it accurately depicts what it purportedly shows. (Ibid; see Evid. Code, §§ 250 [a photograph is a “writing”], 1400 [“Authentication of a writing means (a) the introduction of evidence sufficient to sustain a finding that it is the writing that the proponent of the evidence claims it is or (b) the establishment of such facts by any other means provided by law.”].) “This is usually shown by the testimony of the one who took the picture. However, this is not necessary and it is well settled that the showing may be made by the testimony of anyone who knows that the picture correctly depicts what it purports to represent.” (People v. Doggett (1948) 83 Cal.App.2d 405, 409; see Bowley, supra, 59 Cal.2d at pp. 860-861 [citing Doggett with approval].) Evidence Code section 1553, subdivision (a), establishes a rebuttable presumption that “[a] printed representation of images stored on a video or digital medium is presumed to be an accurate representation of the images it purports to represent.” The presumption affects the burden of proof and is rebutted by a showing that the “printed representation of images stored on [the] video or digital medium is inaccurate or unreliable.” (Ibid.) The burden then shifts to the proponent of the printed representation to prove by a preponderance of evidence that it accurately represents the existence and content of the images on the video or 36 digital medium. (Ibid.) If the proponent of the evidence fails to carry his burden of showing the printed representation accurately depicts what it purportedly shows, the evidence is inadmissible for lack of adequate foundation. (Bowley, supra, 59 Cal.2d at pp. 860-861.) Once properly authenticated and admitted into evidence, a photograph may be used as demonstrative evidence to support a witness’s testimony or as probative evidence of what is shown. (Bowley, supra, 59 Cal.2d at pp. 860-861.) A trial court’s ruling on the admissibility of evidence of photographs will not be disturbed on appeal absent an abuse of discretion. (People v. Rountree (2013) 56 Cal.4th 823, 852.) Here, the still photographs were properly authenticated and admitted into evidence. Officer Holdredge viewed the videotape police retrieved from the VCR at the crime scene and testified it accurately depicted her conduct and that of Officer Romero and Miller inside the store immediately after the shooting. Thus, the videotape was shown to be an accurate representation of what it purported to be, a recording of the events that occurred inside Eddie’s at or near the time of the shooting. In addition, Sergeant Cisneros testified that that the still photographs printed at Aerospace depicted the images stored on the videotape that Officer Holdredge authenticated. He explained that the Aerospace photographs depicted the suspects’ heads and necks because the company’s equipment could print the portion of the recorded images stored in the margins of the videotape, whereas the equipment used at the police station could not. Under these circumstances, we conclude the prosecution established that the photographs printed at Aerospace depicted the images recorded on the videotape, and therefore were presumed to be accurate representations of those images. (Evid. Code, § 1553.) Defendant’s mere speculation that the photographs were manipulated or enhanced could not rebut 37 this presumption. For these reasons, we conclude the photographs were adequately authenticated, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting them. 7. Evidence of the Riteway Robbery Defendant claims the trial court committed prejudicial error when, despite defendant’s willingness to plead guilty to the Riteway robbery and stipulate he obtained the gun used in the capital crime in that robbery, the court cross-admitted evidence of the Riteway robbery to prove defendant was guilty of the charged attempted robbery and murder at Eddie’s. Defendant alternatively claims the trial court prejudicially erred in failing to give its promised limiting instruction on the other crimes evidence. a. Factual and Procedural Background Before any evidence was introduced, the prosecutor made a motion to permit the jury to consider evidence of the Riteway robbery on the capital charges. She argued the evidence was relevant to show defendant, Johnson, and Taylor acted pursuant to a common plan or scheme and entered Eddie’s with the intent to rob. Defendant offered to plead guilty to the Riteway robbery and to stipulate he obtained the gun used in the capital crime in that robbery. Defendant’s plea offer was conditioned on the trial court finding that the Riteway robbery evidence was not admissible under Evidence Code section 1101, subdivision (b). Counsel further argued any evidence regarding the Riteway robbery other than the fact of a guilty plea to that robbery charge and a stipulation about the gun would be inadmissible because it would be unduly prejudicial under Evidence Code section 352. The court granted the prosecutor’s motion, ruling that evidence of the Riteway robbery was relevant to prove intent and knowledge with regard to the 38 capital charges under section (b) of Evidence Code section 1101, and that the evidence was not unduly prejudicial within the meaning of Evidence Code section 352. In response to that ruling, defendant withdrew his plea offer, and the trial court informed the parties that it would give an instruction as to defendant and Johnson on the purposes for which the jury could and could not consider the Riteway robbery evidence with regard to the liquor store charges. Prior to deliberations, the court gave a limiting instruction only as to Johnson that informed the jury it could consider the evidence on the issues of intent, identity, common plan, and knowledge. b. Discussion We first consider whether the trial court erred in admitting the Riteway robbery evidence to prove defendant’s involvement in the liquor stores crimes. “Unless evidence is admitted for a limited purpose, or against a specific party, evidence admitted at trial may generally be considered for any purpose. A corollary of this rule is that the jury is free to apply its factual findings on one count in deciding any other count to which those facts are relevant.” (People v. Villatoro (2012) 54 Cal.4th 1152, 1170, fn. omitted.) “One example of limited admissibility arises in the context of other crimes evidence. Evidence of a person’s character, also known as propensity evidence, is inadmissible to prove conduct in conformity with that character trait. [Citations.] This is the familiar ban on propensity evidence: [Evidence of other crimes] generally cannot be admitted to prove the defendant is disposed to commit crimes. [Evidence Code] [s]ection 1101 [, subdivision] (a) codifies this general rule. Notwithstanding that rule, [Evidence Code] section 1101, subdivision (b) . . . clarifies that [other crimes evidence] can be admitted for other relevant purposes, such as proving motive, 39 opportunity, intent, and so on, but they may not be admitted to prove the defendant had a disposition to commit similar bad acts.” (Id. at pp., 1170-1171, fn. omitted.) “Evidence of identity is admissible where it is conceded or assumed that the charged offense was committed by someone, in order to prove that the defendant was the perpetrator.” (People v. Ewoldt (1994) 7 Cal.4th 380, 394, fn. 2.) The admissibility of other crimes evidence for this purpose “turns on proof that the [incidents] share sufficient distinctive common features to raise an inference of identity.” (People v. Lindberg (2008) 45 Cal.4th 1, 23, italics added.) We have often commented that “ ‘[t]he pattern and characteristics of the crimes must be so unusual and distinctive as to be like a signature.’ ” (Ewoldt, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 403.) Here, the evidence established that defendant, an African-American male, stole a Glock handgun during the Riteway robbery, and that the same Glock was used to shoot and kill Moon at Eddie’s one month after the Riteway robbery. The evidence further established that the same stolen Glock was found loaded in defendant’s bedroom closet one week after the murder at Eddie’s. The evidence also revealed that defendant mentioned the Penal Code section for murder (187) during the Riteway robbery, and that a murder at Eddie’s was committed by an African-American man using the Glock stolen from Riteway. In light of the distinctive shared features between the crimes at Riteway and Eddie’s related to the Glock handgun, evidence of the circumstances surrounding the Riteway robbery reasonably support the inference that the individual who committed the Riteway robbery and stole the Glock from Riteway is the same person who had a Glock tucked in his waistband hours before the murder at Eddie’s, was one of the two perpetrators who used the stolen Glock to murder the clerk at Eddie’s, and possessed the stolen loaded Glock in his bedroom soon after the murder. 40 Therefore, we conclude evidence related to the Riteway robbery evidence was relevant to the issue of identity with regard to the liquor store charges. The Riteway robbery evidence also was relevant to the liquor store charges on the issue of intent. “In order to be admissible to prove intent, the uncharged misconduct must be sufficiently similar to the charged offense to support the inference that the defendant probably acted with the same intent in each instance. [Citations.]” (People v. Lindberg, supra, 45 Cal.4th at p. 23.) “ ‘The inference to be drawn is not that the actor is disposed to commit such acts; instead, the inference to be drawn is that, in light of the first event, the actor, at the time of the second event, must have had the intent attributed to him by the prosecution.’ [Citations.]” (People v. Gallego (1990) 52 Cal.3d 115, 171.) Assuming defendant was one of the two individuals who planned and committed the acts that occurred at the liquor store on June 12, the fact that he committed the Riteway robbery was relevant to the issue of intent with regard to the attempted robbery charge connected with the liquor store murder. In both cases, an armed individual confronted a lone clerk behind the checkout counter of a small store during the daytime. Force was used against both clerks. The Glock stolen by defendant during the Riteway robbery was used by one of the perpetrators at the liquor store. Based on these similarities, evidence of the Riteway robbery would reasonably support an inference that defendant harbored the same intent to rob in each instance. Having concluded evidence of the Riteway robbery was admissible on the issues of identity and intent on the liquor store charges,13 we next address 13 We need not discuss the correctness of the trial court’s ruling that Rite Way robbery was also admissible on the liquor store charges on the issue of knowledge. Assuming any error in that regard, we note that “ ‘ “a ruling or decision, itself correct in law, will not be disturbed on appeal merely because given for a wrong reason.” ’ ” (People v. Zapien (1993) 4 Cal.4th 929, 976.) That is, because as we 41 defendant’s claim that the prosecutor was required to accept his plea offer and stipulation regarding the gun he stole during the Riteway robbery. “The general rule is that the prosecution in a criminal case cannot be compelled to accept a stipulation if the effect would be to deprive the state’s case of its persuasiveness and forcefulness.” (People v. Edelbacher (1989) 47 Cal.3d 983, 1007.) The key factual disputes in this trial were whether defendant committed the crimes at the liquor store, and, if so, whether he acted with an intent to rob the liquor store’s clerk. Defendant’s plea offer and proposed stipulation regarding the Riteway robbery would not have included an admission on either of these issues. Had the facts of the Riteway robbery been withheld from the jury as the result of a stipulation, the prosecution would have been deprived of significant circumstantial evidence material to the liquor store crimes. There were no percipient witnesses to the liquor store crimes, the surveillance videotape only showed the suspects entering and exiting the liquor store, and apparently nothing had been taken from the store. Under these circumstances, evidence of the Riteway robbery was crucial for the prosecution in demonstrating that defendant and Johnson possessed a similar intent to rob the liquor store in a similar fashion, in order to prove the charge of attempted robbery. In People v. Arias (1996) 13 Cal.4th 92, we held that the prosecutor could not be compelled to accept defendant’s offer to stipulate to charges stemming from a sexual assault where the prosecution would otherwise lose material circumstantial evidence relevant to the issues of identity and consciousness of guilt on charges stemming from a murder that occurred prior to the sexual assault. (Id. at pp. 130-131.) Here, as in Arias, explain below, the trial court did not err in ruling the evidence was admissible on the issue of intent, its additional ruling that the evidence was admissible on the issue of knowledge is of no consequence. 42 the prosecution was not required to accept defendant’s plea offer and proposed stipulation. Defendant’s claim to the contrary, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant’s motion to exclude the details of the Riteway robbery on the capital charges under Evidence Code section 352. The robbery and attempted robbery counts from the separate incidents were properly joined as alleging crimes of the same class (§ 954; People v. Walker (1988) 47 Cal.3d 605, 622), and the details of the manner in which the Riteway robbery was carried out were not likely to inflame the jury’s passions because, as defendant’s attorney acknowledged, the Riteway robbery was a “standard robbery.” We next address defendant’s claim that the trial court committed prejudicial error by failing to instruct the jury that evidence admitted to prove the Riteway robbery could be not be considered to prove his propensity to commit the liquor store crimes. Although the trial court had informed the parties it would give a limiting instruction as to both Johnson and defendant, the court referred only to Johnson when it gave the limiting instruction prior to deliberations. Because the trial court was not obligated to provide a limiting instruction, defendant forfeited the issue by failing to request either a correction of the given instruction or a new instruction that applied specifically to the charges against defendant. (People v. Freeman (1994) 8 Cal.4th 450, 495.) In any event, any error in failing to give a limiting instruction as to defendant was harmless given the multiple permissible uses of the Riteway robbery evidence with regard to the liquor store charges, the absence of any argument by the prosecutor urging the jury to infer defendant’s propensity to commit robberies, the presumption that the jurors followed the instructions regarding presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt, and the overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt as to the liquor store charges. 43 8. CALJIC No. 17.41.1 Pursuant to CALJIC No. 17.41.1, the trial court instructed the jury that “[t]he integrity of a trial requires that jurors, at all times during their deliberations, conduct themselves as required by these instructions. Accordingly, should it occur that any juror refuses to deliberate or expresses an intention to disregard the law or to decide the case in this guilt phase based on penalty or punishment, or any other improper basis, it is the obligation of the other jurors to immediately advise the Court of the situation.” Defendant contends this instruction infringed on his federal and state constitutional rights to trial by jury and his state constitutional right to a unanimous verdict. (U.S. Const., 6th & 14th Amends.; Cal. Const., art. I, § 16.) Although we disapproved use of this instruction in future trials in People v. Engelman (2002) 28 Cal.4th 436,we held that “the instruction does not infringe upon defendant’s federal or state constitutional right to trial by jury or his state constitutional right to a unanimous verdict.” (Id. at pp. 439-440.) Defendant provides no persuasive reason for us to reconsider our conclusion, nor does he cite anything in the record that indicates any juror refused to deliberate or expressed an intention to disregard the law or to decide the case on an improper basis. (See People v. Brown (2004) 33 Cal.4th 382, 393.) Accordingly, we reject this claim. 9. Cumulative Error Defendant contends the cumulative effect of the asserted guilt phase errors requires reversal regardless of the prejudicial impact of any single error. To the extent there are instances in which we have found error or assumed its existence, we have concluded no prejudice resulted. We do not find reversible error by considering the claims cumulatively. 44