Opinion ID: 1386250
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Trial Court's Instruction on Flight and False Statements

Text: When the police arrived at the Goldens' apartment to arrest defendant, his packed suitcases were in his stepfather's car. Defendant had told his mother he was leaving California, and he had arranged for his stepfather to take him to the airport. In his initial statements to Officer Reyes, defendant denied killing the two Guerrero brothers, claiming that an acquaintance, Karlos Tijiboy, was the murderer. (9) Based on this evidence, the trial court, at the prosecution's request, instructed the jury that flight (CALJIC No. 2.52) and false statements (CALJIC No. 2.03) could be considered as evidence tending to show consciousness of guilt. [5] Defendant now argues that the instructions denied him due process of law by permitting the jury to consider consciousness of guilt both in determining the degree of the homicides and the existence of the intent element of robbery. The essence of this argument is that the instructions allowed the jury to draw arbitrary inferences from the evidence of defendant's flight and false statements. Defendant also contends that the instructions invited the jury to draw biased inferences from isolated items of evidence and were impermissibly argumentative. We reject these contentions. The jury could properly infer consciousness of guilt from defendant's efforts to leave California (cf. People v. Silva (1988) 45 Cal.3d 604, 628 [247 Cal. Rptr. 573, 754 P.2d 1070]), as well as from his efforts to exculpate himself by blaming Karlos Tijiboy for the murders ( People v. Cooper (1970) 7 Cal. App.3d 200, 204-205 [86 Cal. Rptr. 499]). The trial court's instructions on flight and false statements did not suggest to the jurors that they could infer any mental state or degree of culpability from consciousness of guilt. Nor were the instructions biased or argumentative. Rather, they properly advised the jury of inferences that could rationally be drawn from the evidence.