Opinion ID: 1147525
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Testimony Concerning Postoffense Weapon Use

Text: (8) Prosecution witnesses Schroff, Davis, and Bass testified that defendant pointed a handgun or rifle at them in a joking manner. Davis testified, in addition, that defendant said, bang, bang, and laughed wickedly as he pointed his handgun at her. According to the testimony, these incidents occurred while defendant was in possession of Anderson's motor home and thus within a day or two following Anderson's killing. Before these witnesses testified, a hearing was held on defendant's motion to exclude their anticipated testimony. [11] The motion's grounds were that the evidence was irrelevant, that it was offered to prove criminal disposition or character, and that under Evidence Code section 352 any probative value was outweighed by the risk of undue prejudice. Arguing that the evidence was relevant to show defendant's state of mind following the killing, the prosecutor stated: People are submitting that [defense] counsel's painted a picture of his client as being a man saddened and wants to drink and sad because of this homosexual panic, a need of self-defense, and he had to shoot the man, and as an afterthought decided to take his property. The prosecutor further argued that evidence would be offered to show the state of mind this man has at that time, not one of remorse or sadness but of a cavalier attitude about executing someone. That it wasn't a question of crime of panic. That it wasn't in self-defense. Defense counsel argued in response that defendant's remorse or lack thereof on August 19th or August 20th was not relevant to his state of mind at the time of the killing on August 18th. The prosecutor then noted that the evidence also showed defendant's reckless manner with firearms. The trial court overruled the objection, stating that the fact that he [defendant] carried a loaded weapon and was cavalier with the way he handled it is relevant to how he conducted himself with firearms in this case. That defendant was cavalier or reckless in his handling of firearms does not appear relevant to any issue in this case. A theory that Anderson's death was caused by defendant's careless handling of firearms would be inconsistent with both prosecution and defense positions. In addition, any possibility the killing was accidental and caused by carelessness was virtually eliminated by evidence of the number and position of the victim's wounds, and evidence that the force required to pull the trigger on defendant's handgun was approximately double that required for the average handgun. On the other hand, the prosecutor was correct in arguing that defendant's state of mind after the killing could be relevant in determining how the killing occurred. Indeed, defendant's state of mind following the killing was explicitly placed in issue by Dr. Beaber's testimony that defendant's conduct during this time was consistent with a mental state alternating between panic and fatalism, a mental state more likely, the defense argued, to follow a killing in self-defense than a premeditated murder. Evidence of post-offense conduct by defendant arguably inconsistent with both panic and fatalism was admissible to rebut Dr. Beaber's testimony. When the admissibility of the gun-use evidence was considered, Dr. Beaber had not yet testified and the issue presented was admissibility of the evidence for the prosecution's case-in-chief rather than in rebuttal. However, when the prosecutor argued, in essence, that the evidence would contradict defendant's own statements about his postoffense state of mind, defense counsel did not object that the prosecutor had mischaracterized the nature of the defense or that the prosecutor's theory of admissibility constituted an improper anticipation of defense evidence. (See Evid. Code, § 353 [motion to exclude evidence must clearly state the specific ground of objection].) Instead, defense counsel argued only that defendant's state of mind a day or two after the shooting was not relevant to prove his intent at the time of the shooting. At the time of the hearing on the motion to exclude this evidence, the prosecutor intended to include in the case-in-chief the evidence of defendant's statements to the police. Thus the motion was argued on the assumption that the defense version of the killing would be placed before the jury during the prosecution's case-in-chief by way of defendant's statements to the officers. Given this assumption, the prosecutor may be understood to have argued that the gun-use evidence would dispel inferences arising from these statements regarding defendant's postoffense state of mind. As it turned out, evidence of defendant's statements to police was not presented during the prosecution's case-in-chief, and thus the postoffense gun-use evidence was vulnerable to a motion to strike on the ground it had not been properly connected to other evidence in the case-in-chief. However, no such motion to strike was made and the failure may be deemed a waiver of the objection to the gun-use evidence. ( Ault v. International Harvester Co. (1974) 13 Cal.3d 113, 123 [117 Cal. Rptr. 812, 528 P.2d 1148, 74 A.L.R.3d 986].) As the defense was planning to use Dr. Beaber's testimony, a motion to strike would have been futile in any event, since the same gun-use evidence would have been admissible in rebuttal. Assuming arguendo the evidence was improperly admitted at the time it was, it is not reasonably probable a more favorable verdict would have been rendered had the evidence been excluded. The evidence would have come in eventually, it was cumulative to the testimony of Crothers that defendant had pointed the handgun at him and, given the other evidence in the case, it is highly unlikely that the issue of defendant's carelessness with firearms played a significant role in the jury's verdict.