Opinion ID: 1182062
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Defendant's Wallet

Text: Defense counsel introduced defendant's wallet, as it was found by defendant's brother in the glove compartment of defendant's car after his arrest. (27) Defendant argues the admission of the wallet constituted prejudicial error and ineffective assistance of counsel because the wallet contained business cards of a prison services counselor, a deputy probation officer, a deputy public defender, and two private attorneys. The cards, defendant maintains, caused the jury to link him with the criminal justice system. Defendant himself was responsible for the admission of his wallet in evidence. Its admission was not inadvertent; the defense obviously wanted the wallet placed before the jury with its contents as they existed at the time of his arrest. Defense counsel, representing to the court that he had intended to do so earlier, moved to have the wallet introduced into evidence after both sides had rested and the jury was deliberating. Tactical reasons for introduction of the wallet are apparent. For example, the wallet might have served to corroborate defendant's otherwise unsupported testimony as to the wallet's existence and location or as to defendant's practice of carrying cash on his person rather than in the wallet. Under these circumstances, the introduction of the wallet itself was not error. Even if error, it was clearly invited error and did not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. ( People v. Marshall (1990) 50 Cal.3d 907, 931 [269 Cal. Rptr. 269, 790 P.2d 676]; People v. Wickersham (1982) 32 Cal.3d 307, 330 [185 Cal. Rptr. 436, 650 P.2d 311].) As to the business cards in the wallet, assuming defense counsel or the court erred in allowing them to remain where they were, defendant was not prejudiced. The business cards did not demonstrate defendant was a convicted criminal, let alone what offenses he had committed. In a case in which defendant's guilt was established by the testimony of numerous eyewitnesses as well as corroborating physical evidence, and in which defendant's credibility was undermined by his own inherently improbable testimony denying any connection with the murder of Linda Pasnick, there is no reasonable possibility the jury's verdict was based on a few business cards. Because the result would have been no different in the absence of the supposed error, neither counsel's performance nor the court's ruling requires reversal. ( Strickland v. Washington (1984) 466 U.S. 668, 688 [80 L.Ed.2d 674, 693-694, 104 S.Ct. 2052]; People v. Ledesma, supra, 43 Cal.3d 171, 217.)