Opinion ID: 2613228
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Presumption of burglary

Text: (16) Defendant asserts that CALJIC No. 2.15 created an improper presumption of burglary arising from the mere fact of possession of stolen property. But the instruction does not so state. Indeed, it relates a contrary proposition: a burglary may not be presumed from mere possession unless the commission of the offense is corroborated. (Defendant suggests the instruction allows corroboration merely by evidence of the charged offense of murder, but we think it clear that, read in context, the instruction requires corroboration of the underlying burglary, and not the murder itself.) Moreover, as the People observe, the ultimate question whether or not a burglary occurred, and the subsidiary question whether defendant possessed the requisite preexisting intent to steal, were left to the jury through the usual instructions regarding the elements of that offense. Thus, contrary to defendant's assumption, CALJIC No. 2.15 did not remove the issue of intent from the jury's consideration. (See People v. Figueroa (1986) 41 Cal.3d 714, 725-727 [224 Cal. Rptr. 719, 715 P.2d 680]; see also People v. Anderson (1989) 210 Cal. App.3d 414, 422, 426-431 [258 Cal. Rptr. 482] [upholding validity of CALJIC No. 2.15].) Defendant nonetheless contends that CALJIC No. 2.15 is a permissive presumption of a kind justified only if the evidence is sufficient for a rational juror to find the inferred fact beyond a reasonable doubt.... ( Barnes v. United States (1973) 412 U.S. 837, 843 [37 L.Ed.2d 380, 386, 93 S.Ct. 2357].) Defendant further notes that constitutional principles require a rational connection between the proved facts and the presumed fact. (E.g., Ulster County Court v. Allen (1979) 442 U.S. 140, 157 [60 L.Ed.2d 777, 792, 99 S.Ct. 2213]; see also People v. Roder (1983) 33 Cal.3d 491, 497-499 [189 Cal. Rptr. 501, 658 P.2d 1302].) Assuming the challenged instruction amounts to a presumption of burglary based on defendant's possession of recently stolen property, we think the evidence summarized above (see pt. F.1. and F.2., ante ) amply meets the standard set forth in Barnes and Ulster. Similarly, for the reasons above set forth, we must reject defendant's related contention that his murder convictions must be reversed on the ground of insufficient evidence of burglary as the underlying felony. Having concluded that the court did not err in giving CALJIC No. 2.15, we need not address defendant's further contentions that the purported error was reversible per se, and that the error cannot be rendered harmless by reliance on the prosecution's alternative theories of premeditated murder or rape/murder (see Griffin v. United States (1991) 502 U.S. ___ [116 L.Ed.2d 371, 382-383, 112 S.Ct. 466, 474]; People v. Guiton (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1116, 1129-1130 [17 Cal. Rptr.2d 365, 847 P.2d 45]).