Opinion ID: 2636899
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Failure to strike or exclude reference to alleged statement of Allen Hacker.

Text: Appellant moved in limine prior to the prosecutor's opening statement to exclude mention of his conversation with David and Allen Hacker regarding methods of killing, including the use of nylon ties, described in a booklet allegedly published by the CIA. He argued that the statements had been made in jest many years before the murders. The court denied the motion, commenting that the use of FLEX-CUFs was a unique method of killing and thus the defendant's knowledge of the method was relevant. The prosecutor then told the jury that Mr. Hacker would tell the jury that defendant was obsessed with that means of killing. [25] Neither David nor Allen Hacker so testified. Both recalled the incident and confirmed that appellant had read aloud the description of killing with plastic ties, but each denied that appellant had shown a particular interest in that form of killing. David Hacker testified that in 1983 appellant read to him and his brother Allen from a booklet about assassinations that described various methods of killing people. David Hacker recalled that appellant told them about two of those methods. One, Keep a Cool Head, involved throwing liquid oxygen or liquid hydrogen in a person's face. The other was the use of a clear baggie nylon tie by walking behind the victim, getting the tie started, pulling it tight, and walking away. Appellant's affect or mood when describing that type of killing did not differ from his mood when he read about other methods of killing. There was laughter about Keep a Cool Head which was hilarious, ridiculous. David Hacker was not really paying attention to how appellant was laughing when the use of nylon ties was described. During his testimony Allen Hacker testified that appellant agreed that the methods of killing were outrageous and unrealistic. Allen Hacker also testified that appellant expressed no particular interest in nylon ties in subsequent contacts. On cross-examination, Allen Hacker denied telling FBI Agent McKevitt that appellant often read The Anarchist Cookbook and seemed particularly interested in killing women. After the court denied a defense motion to strike the testimony Allen Hacker gave on cross-examination, and over a defense objection, Agent McKevitt, called on rebuttal by the People, testified that Allen Hacker had stated to her that appellant seemed especially interested in various methods of killing people, particularly women. [26] The court also denied a defense motion to strike that testimony, ruling that the testimony was proper impeachment. Before admitting McKevitt's testimony, the court held a hearing on the admissibility of that testimony. Daniel Birtwell, the chief investigator for the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office, testified that he spoke to both David and Allen Hacker. In November or December 1987 he telephoned David Hacker to find out how to contact Allen. In the course of the conversation, Birtwell brought up some of the topics covered in David Hacker's statement to Agent McKevitt. David Hacker did not state anything that departed from the FBI report. Birtwell's personal interview of Allen Hacker in San Jose on January 12, 1988, was taped. Allen Hacker told him that he and appellant were in a Las Vegas gun store where they saw the book regarding methods of killing. Hacker referred to one of the methods as using a ziplock. He did not use the term FLEX-CUF. The court ruled that McKevitt's testimony would be admitted. It was relevant and the voir dire and hearing had not demonstrated that she was a liar. The court also ruled that the defense would not be permitted to call Birtwell or to introduce the entire taped interview of Birtwell on a defense theory that Allen Hacker's statements to Birtwell were prior consistent statements that were admissible under Evidence Code section 791 to rehabilitate Allen Hacker. The defense was unable to identify any part of the tape on which the subject of appellant's interest in killing was addressed. The statement was not made prior to Hacker's statement to McKevitt and there was no implication of recent fabrication by Hacker that would justify admission of the tape of the Birtwell interview. Appellant now claims that allowing the jury to hear the prosecution's claim in his opening statement, that a Mr. Hacker would testify that appellant was interested in various methods of killing women, rndered the trial fundamentally unfair. Since the testimony of David Hacker did not support the prosecutor's claim, the jury might assume that Allen Hacker was the person to whom the prosecutor referred. Appellant therefore called Allen Hacker, making it clear to the jury that the reason Allen Hacker was being called was to dispel the false impression given by the prosecutor in the opening statement. Had he not been forced to do so, McKevitt's rebuttal testimony would not have come in. Appellant's argument in support of his claim that the trial was rendered fundamentally unfair as a result of this is simply that it led to the erroneous admission of McKevitt's testimony. McKevitt's testimony, he argues, was hearsay that did not directly contradict Allen Hacker. We first reject the claim that the prosecutor engaged in misconduct in his opening statement by characterizing appellant's interest in using a plastic tie as a method of killing as obsessive. Nothing in the record dispels the inference that the prosecutor anticipated that his witness would testify that appellant had expressed interest in that subject. His opening statement simply overstated the extent of that interest as described by subsequent testimony. It was not a statement that denied appellant a fair trial, diverted the jury from its proper role, or invited an irrational, subjective response. ( People v. Visciotti (1992) 2 Cal.4th 1, 83, 5 Cal.Rptr.2d 495, 825 P.2d 388.) We also reject the argument that failure to strike that assertion led to a fundamentally unfair trial and the erroneous admission of evidence. We cannot say that the admission of McKevitt's testimony to impeach Allen Hacker was such an arbitrary, capricious, or patently absurd exercise of discretion that it constituted an abuse of the discretion vested in a trial court to admit impeachment evidence. A trial court's exercise of discretion in admitting or excluding evidence is reviewable for abuse. ( People v. Alvarez (1996) 14 Cal.4th 155, 201, 58 Cal.Rptr.2d 385, 926 P.2d 365.) Abuse may be found if the trial court exercised its discretion in an arbitrary, capricious, or patently absurd manner, but reversal of the ensuing judgment is appropriate only if the error has resulted in a manifest miscarriage of justice. ( People v. Rodriguez (1999) 20 Cal.4th 1, 9-10, 82 Cal.Rptr.2d 413, 971 P.2d 618; People v. Jones (1998) 17 Cal.4th 279, 304, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 793, 949 P.2d 890.) Even were we to assume that the admission of McKevitt's testimony was an abuse of discretion, the error was harmless. The evidence that appellant was prepared to kill if necessary to carry out his plan to falsely imprison and sexually abuse young girls was overwhelming. The uncontradicted evidence that he was aware that plastic ties could be used to strangle was relevant both to his intent when he tightened the ties around the necks of Martin and Walsh and, since he had ordered the ties ahead of time, to whether he premeditated the killings. That evidence was admissible regardless of what appellant argues was its prejudicial impact. It was not made inadmissible by Evidence Code section 352. `The prejudice referred to in Evidence Code section 352 applies to evidence which uniquely tends to evoke an emotional bias against defendant as an individual and which has very little effect on the issues. In applying section 352, prejudicial is not synonymous with damaging.' ( People v. Yu (1983) 143 Cal.App.3d 358, 377, 191 Cal. Rptr. 859.) ( People v. Bolin (1998) 18 Cal.4th 297, 320, 75 Cal.Rptr.2d 412, 956 P.2d 374.) Regardless of any obsession or lack thereof, with the particular method of killing, neither the prosecutor's statement nor McKevitt's testimony resulted in prejudice to appellant.