Opinion ID: 1345760
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Videotape, photos, and autopsy testimony.

Text: Defendant contends he was prejudiced on both guilt and penalty by improper admission at the guilt trial of a videotape depicting the crime scene and the victim's body as initially encountered by the police. He also objects to guilt phase testimony by the autopsy physician, Dr. Murdoch, and related autopsy photos, indicating the number, location, and severity of wounds on the victim's body. Defendant claims these materials were gruesome, inflammatory, irrelevant, and cumulative. Several responses are appropriate. First, defendant waived these issues on direct appeal by failing to object at trial to introduction of the challenged evidence. Second, defendant may not claim on appeal that counsel's failure to object constituted ineffective assistance. The appellate record does not affirmatively disclose that counsel acted from ignorance or mistake, and there are plausible reasons why competent counsel would not oppose admission of the tape, testimony, and photos. ( People v. Fosselman (1983) 33 Cal.3d 572, 581-582 [189 Cal. Rptr. 855, 659 P.2d 1144].) [19] In any event, the challenged evidence was highly pertinent, since the two divergent theories of how the homicide occurred depended for support on details of physical and circumstantial evidence, including a clear understanding of the clues provided by the condition of the victim's body and the crime scene itself. The prosecution was not obliged to prove these details solely from the testimony of live witnesses, and the jury was entitled to see how the physical details of the scene and body supported the prosecution theory of murder for robbery. Hence, the tape, testimony, and photos were neither irrelevant nor cumulative. (See, e.g., Melton, supra, 44 Cal.3d at pp. 740-742; compare, e.g., People v. Anderson (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1104, 1137 [240 Cal. Rptr. 585, 742 P.2d 1306].) Even if the evidence should have been excluded as irrelevant or cumulative, no reversible prejudice ensued. Our independent review of the tape, photos, and autopsy testimony persuades us that they were not unduly gruesome or inflammatory. ( Anderson, supra . )