Opinion ID: 2545831
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Introduction of Certain Statements by Defendant

Text: At trial, the prosecution introduced evidence of defendant's confessions to law enforcement that he had murdered Weber, Duarte, and Abono. The prosecution also played for the jury recordings of the interrogation sessions during which defendant confessed, and it provided the jury with transcripts of the recordings. Both the tapes and the transcripts were redacted versions of the interrogation sessions, as the trial court excluded evidence of some parts of those sessions. Defendant complains here of 11 statements that were not ordered omitted and consequently were included in the materials given to the jury. He seeks reversal on the ground that the introduction of those 11 statements violated the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution, asserting the statements indicated to the jury that defendant had committed other uncharged murders. We reject the contentions. Of the 11 statements challenged here, defendant concedes that he objected only to four, and that his objections referred not to the federal Constitution but only to Evidence Code section 352, a state law authorizing a trial court to exclude evidence when its probative value is substantially outweighed by the probability that its admission will (a) necessitate undue consumption of time or (b) create substantial danger of undue prejudice, of confusing the issues, or of misleading the jury. Thus, with respect to all 11 statements defendant may not now claim denial of federal constitutional rights, and with regard to the seven not objected to on any ground he has not preserved any claim at all. ( People v. Earp, supra, 20 Cal.4th at p. 882, 85 Cal.Rptr.2d 857, 978 P.2d 15.) In any event, we are not persuaded that the trial court's admission of the 11 statements unduly prejudiced defendant. In one of the four statements to which defendant objected on the ground of its being more prejudicial than probative (Evid.Code, ง 352), defendant gave this response to a question why he had not killed Abono at defendant's house: Because I don't like transporting bodies. I'd rather have them right ... on the spot. This comment was probative of defendant's mental state when he killed Abono, because it supported the prosecution's theory that he had planned the killing and thus acted with the requisite premeditation and deliberation for first degree murder. It did not implicate defendant in killings other than those involved here, all three of which took place in the remote areas where defendant left or buried the bodies. In the second instance, defendant gave this response to a question why he shot Abono with a .22-caliber pistol: I'll kill people with a variety of weapons. I don't have any specific choice. This statement too was probative of defendant's guilt of killing the three victims here, each of whom was shot with a different caliber pistol (Abono: .22-caliber; Duarte: .38-caliber; Weber: 9-millimeter). It negated any implication from the use of different caliber firearms that defendant was not the killer in each case. And because the charged crimes themselves involved a variety of weapons, the statement did not suggest to the jury that defendant had committed murders in addition to those charged. In the third instance, defendant gave this answer to a question about remorse for killing Abono: Every time I've ever done any of these crimes, I wished I hadn't. Defendant's generic reference to any of these crimes did not suggest that he had committed murders other than those charged here. In the fourth instance, when defendant was questioned about having nightmares after killing Abono, defendant answered: I dream about everybody I've ever killed, and I see them walking on the streets sometimes ... when I'm awake.... I've seen John [Abono] a few times. I've seen other people that I've murdered look me square in the face in a crowd of people.... I've seen people look at me, like Elizabeth Duarte and Robert Weber in the last weekโlook me square in the eyeโit gets kinda scary, and I usually just keep on going, but I have seenโI've seen people I've murdered. I've seen people that look like them.... [T]hey're smiling at me.... All of them. Always. This statement too, although referring to other people I've murdered, mentions by name just the three victims here: Abono, Duarte, and Weber. In context, the jury would not have understood the statement as an admission of defendant's guilt to uncharged murders. With respect to the seven statements not objected to, we are satisfied that the outcome in this case would not have been different had those statements not been introduced at trial as part of defendant's confessions to the charged crimes. We likewise reject defendant's assertion of ineffective assistance of trial counsel in failing to object to the statements. Their admission could not have affected the reliability of the trial process. ( Strickland v. Washington, supra, 466 U.S. at pp. 686, 690, 104 S.Ct. 2052; People v. Earp, supra, 20 Cal.4th at pp. 870, 874, 85 Cal.Rptr.2d 857, 978 P.2d 15.) Some of the statements showed defendant to be remorseful or supported his claim to be a chronic false confessor. At least as to these, because the evidence would assist the defense, counsel's choice to forgo any objection may have been tactical.