Opinion ID: 2599941
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sylvia Lopez Ontiveros

Text: Defendant similarly challenges the admission of prior statements of Sylvia Lopez Ontiveros, Santiago's former wife, which also were admitted as prior inconsistent statements. Sylvia Ontiveros initially testified that she did not remember having a conversation with defendant concerning a robbery or murder. Subsequently, she denied that he ever had told her he was going to kill someone. Ontiveros recalled speaking to a police officer in March of 1979, and she recalled testifying at the preliminary hearing in 1979. But she stated she did not remember what she testified about, and did not remember testifying that defendant had told her he had killed somebody. She did remember being in the district attorney's office during the last year and listening to a tape recording in which she was speaking to a man about defendant, but stated she did not remember many of the things she said on the recording. She did, however, admit that she might have said on the recording that defendant had killed the gas station attendant because the man was going to testify against him. She testified she did not want to be in court and admitted that when she was called to testify in a previous proceeding in the same case, she failed to appear and the police had to bring her to court. After Ontiveros read a copy of her prior preliminary hearing testimony, she testified that she still did not remember her testimony or the conversations with defendant to which she had testified. She said she blanked things out because she did not want to think about them. Over defense objection, the prosecutor was permitted to have a portion of her preliminary examination testimony read to the jury. That testimony disclosed that defendant had told her he had killed someone who had identified him in a robbery, in order to eliminate the witness. She also testified at the preliminary hearing that, prior to the murder, she had overheard defendant tell her husband that he was thinking of getting rid of the witness because the witness had identified him. Evidence of statements made by Ontiveros during a police interview also were admitted over a hearsay objection. In the interview, she stated that defendant had told her, prior to the murder, that he wanted to get rid of the victim. She recounted that he later had told her he had shot the victim and had told another guy to finish him off. Defendant also told her he felt that if he eliminated the victim, the police would not be able to press charges against him. Defendant argues that the trial court failed to make a finding that Ontiveros's prior statements were inconsistent with her testimony. Normally, the testimony of a witness that he or she does not remember an event is not inconsistent with that witness's prior statement describing the event. ( People v. Green (1971) 3 Cal.3d 981, 988, 92 Cal.Rptr. 494, 479 P.2d 998.) However, . . . [w]hen a witness's claim of lack of memory amounts to deliberate evasion, inconsistency is implied. ( Id. at pp. 988-989, 92 Cal.Rptr. 494, 479 P.2d 998.) As long as there is a reasonable basis in the record for concluding that the witness's `I don't remember' statements are evasive and untruthful, admission of his or her prior statements is proper. ( People v. O'Quinn (1980) 109 Cal. App.3d 219, 225, 167 Cal.Rptr. 141.) ( People v. Johnson (1992) 3 Cal.4th 1183, 1219, 14 Cal.Rptr.2d 702, 842 P.2d 1.) The requisite finding is implied from the trial court's ruling. (Evid.Code, § 402, subd. (c).) Although Ontiveros consistently denied at trial being able to remember anything that defendant had told her, what she had told the police, or her prior testimony, the record provides a reasonable basis to conclude she was being evasive. (See People v. Coffman & Marlow (2004) 34 Cal.4th 1, 78, 17 Cal.Rptr.3d 710, 96 P.3d 30.) She had been a friend of defendant's and admitted she was reluctant to testify and had failed to appear at a previous hearing. She claimed that even reading her prior testimony in full and listening to a tape recording of her police interview did not refresh her recollection.