Opinion ID: 844218
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Admission of Photographs of Mannequin Dressed in Deputy Blair's Uniform

Text: Defendant contends on appeal that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting several photographs of a mannequin dressed in Deputy Blair's undershirt, bulletproof vest and uniform shirt illustrating the location of the bullet holes in these items and the possible trajectory of the bullets. Defendant forfeited this challenge by failing to object at trial. In any event, for decades we have concluded the use of similar evidence is `a perfectly proper method of introducing highly relevant evidence.' ( People v. Brown, supra, 46 Cal.3d at p. 443 [quoting People v. Robillard (1960) 55 Cal.2d 88, 99 [10 Cal.Rptr. 167, 358 P.2d 295]].) Contrary to defendant's assertion, the circumstance that the prosecution's ballistics expert testified that the sheriff's detectives had set up and photographed the mannequin, but the expert didn't necessarily require that we do that, did not render the evidence irrelevant. The expert, in fact, referred to the photographs during his testimony, and even if he had not done so, the jury properly could have considered the photographs in determining the manner in which Deputy Blair had been killed. Had defendant objected to the evidence as being irrelevant, the trial court properly would have overruled that objection.