Opinion ID: 4118870
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Violent Acts Committed as a Juvenile

Text: Over defendant‘s objection that they were too remote, the court admitted as factor (b) evidence testimony regarding several acts he committed as a juvenile. (See People v. Anderson (2001) 25 Cal.4th 543, 586.) Defendant now challenges 73 both the direct admission of these juvenile offenses and his expert‘s testimony on cross-examination about additional incidents. The evidence was properly admitted.
When defendant was 12 years old, he and a companion approached a woman who had arrived home late at night and was sitting in her parked van. Defendant ordered her to open the door and give them her money. When she did not comply, he struck the van‘s windows with a pole, cracking the glass. Defendant‘s companion pointed a gun at her and threatened to shoot her. The victim started the ignition and drove off, swerving as she heard gunshots. Berkeley police officers detained defendant at age 13 after he appeared to throw something into bushes. During a pat search, they found a lump of rock cocaine. Defendant struggled and tried to run but was eventually handcuffed. When he was 14, defendant led police on a high-speed car chase through city streets for over 30 minutes. He eventually hit a patrol car and submitted to arrest. When read his Miranda warnings, defendant said, ―I shouldn‘t have run. I should have got out of my car and started shooting at you.‖ He then criticized the officer‘s gun and bragged that he had been shooting a .357 Magnum revolver earlier that night. Defendant said he threw away the gun and some drugs during the chase. A .357 Magnum revolver was found later that night in an area of the chase. At age 16, defendant was written up three times for being threatening and disrespectful to Juanita Ream, a teaching assistant at CYA. He called her a ―coward‖ and a ―bald-hair bitch‖ and had to be removed from the classroom by security. He was verbally abusive with the CYA officer and youth counselor who tried to talk with him, refused to cooperate in a search, and had to be physically restrained. When defendant was 17, a CYA officer overheard him tell his roommate: ― ‗You are going to be my pussy. You are going to give it to me. I‘ll make you 74 submit.‘ ‖ The roommate was lying on the bottom bunk and defendant was leaning over him. Defendant held a weapon fashioned from a toothbrush pointed at his roommate‘s throat. When defendant was removed from the room, he became physically combative and threatened to harm the officer. Later that year, defendant assaulted a smaller boy as they left the CYA showers. He chased the boy down the hall until two officers subdued him with Mace. The prosecutor mentioned several additional incidents in cross-examining defendant‘s expert, Dr. Jamie Candelaria-Greene, about material she read in defendant‘s juvenile records and discipline reports. For example, defendant‘s mother reported that he played with matches and at age eight had attempted to set fire to a neighbor‘s home. From age 10 to 13 defendant lived in a group home, where he had three fist fights with peers and threatened staff on three occasions. Dr. Candelaria-Greene denied seeing reports about armed robberies or auto thefts during this period but did see a juvenile hall report that he had threatened a judge. She also saw reports of defendant‘s violence against his mother and sister. The court instructed the jury that information referred to in these juvenile reports was not admitted for truth but only to show the basis of the expert‘s opinions.
Juvenile criminal activity involving force or threatened violence is admissible in aggravation under factor (b). (See, e.g., People v. Bivert (2011) 52 Cal.4th 96, 122; People v. Taylor, supra, 48 Cal.4th at p. 653; People v. Lewis (2001) 26 Cal.4th 334, 378.) ―We also have repeatedly held that the admission of such evidence passes constitutional muster. [Citations.]‖ (People v. Lee (2011) 51 Cal.4th 620, 649.) These conclusions were not altered by the high court‘s decision in Roper v. Simmons (2005) 543 U.S. 551 barring execution of those who committed capital crimes when under age 18. Roper concerned the Eighth Amendment standard for imposing punishment, not the admissibility of evidence. ―It says nothing about the propriety of permitting a capital jury, trying an adult, to 75 consider evidence of violent offenses committed when the defendant was a juvenile.‖ (People v. Bramit, supra, 46 Cal.4th at p. 1239.) Defendant urges us to reconsider our holdings based on the Supreme Court‘s extension of Roper v. Simmons in Miller v. Alabama (2012) 567 U.S. __ [132 S.Ct. 2455] to sentences of life imprisonment without parole. Yet there too the focus was on Eighth Amendment standards for punishing juvenile misconduct. Here, the question is what evidence may be considered when determining punishment for an adult‘s crime. The high court has never suggested that, in deciding that question, the jury may not consider qualifying criminal conduct the defendant committed as a juvenile. Even if defendant is correct that Roper and Miller treat juvenile misconduct as less blameworthy than adult misconduct, evidence of forceful or violent conduct is nevertheless relevant to penalty phase questions about character and future dangerousness. (See People v. Bivert, supra, 52 Cal.4th at p. 123.) Arguments about the offender‘s youth and immaturity go to the weight of the evidence, not its admissibility. 25 Defendant also complains that the admission of his juvenile misconduct is inconsistent with section 26, which presumes that children under age 14 are incapable of committing a crime. However, the presumption of incapacity can be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence that the minor knew the wrongfulness of his act. (People v. Lewis, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 378.) Because defendant did not raise this objection below, the prosecutor did not present evidence and the trial court did not make findings on in this regard. To the extent defendant now argues there was insufficient foundation of his capacity, the claim has not been preserved for review. (See People v. Partida (2005) 37 Cal.4th 428, 434-435.) 25 The same is true for defendant‘s assertion that it is ―unseemly‖ to base a death sentence on juvenile misconduct he committed while under the state‘s supervision. Defendant spent much of his youth in group homes and CYA because he was a violent, repeat offender. He was free to present evidence criticizing the services he received, but defendant‘s residence in state custody does not make his violent and threatening conduct as a juvenile any less admissible. 76