Opinion ID: 1309317
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of Defendant's Statement to Police

Text: (3a) Defendant next contends the trial court erred in admitting, over his objection, a tape recording of the statement he made to the police shortly after his arrest. As noted, when confronted with the burglary and murder charges, defendant told the officers he had obtained the stereo equipment several months earlier and that he had never been in any house in the neighborhood where the victims resided. At the time defendant's statement was offered in evidence, however, the prosecution had already introduced evidence that, if credited, indicated the equipment had been taken from Beverly Stereo on the night of the burglary and that defendant's fingerprints had been found in several locations in the victims' home. (4a) Defendant apparently recognizes that, as a general rule, false statements made by a defendant at the time of arrest are admissible  not for the truth of the statements  but to show consciousness of guilt. As Witkin explains: False statements deliberately made by defendants to arresting officers concerning matters within [defendants'] own knowledge, and relating to the issue of guilt or innocence, `cogently evidence consciousness of guilt and suggest that there is no honest explanation for incriminating circumstances.' (Witkin, Cal. Evidence (2d ed. 1966) § 512, at p. 482, and cases cited.) [11] Defendant contends, however, that this general rule is limited to prior statements of the defendant whose falsity is demonstrated by the fact that they are contrary to the defendant's own trial testimony. (3b) Because defendant did not testify at trial, he maintains that his prior statement should have been excluded. (4b) Although defendant's contention does find support in a number of recent Court of Appeal decisions, [12] as we shall explain these decisions are inconsistent with a long line of contrary authority both in California and in other jurisdictions and rest on flawed reasoning. (3c) Accordingly, we conclude defendant's prior statement was properly admitted. (4c) We begin with the established California precedent. In People v. Cole (1903) 141 Cal. 88 [74 P. 547], the defendant, a shipping clerk and salesman employed by a furniture store, was accused of improperly selling some of the store's carpets and keeping the proceeds of the sale. When charged with the crime, he denied delivering the carpets in question to anyone, and denied even knowing the person who had purchased the goods. The court admitted evidence of these statements at trial, and on appeal defendant asserted the statements should have been excluded. The Cole court rejected the claim, explaining: This denial of defendant we think was competent and proper evidence to go to the jury for what it was worth. If the jury believed that defendant delivered the property, disclosed by the testimony of some three witnesses, then the fact that defendant denied the delivery was a circumstance tending to show that the delivery was not made innocently in his capacity as a salesman, but with intent to steal the property. If he had delivered the property innocently, the most natural thing for him to have done was to tell the truth about it. If he intended to steal it, the most natural thing for him to do when questioned about it was to lie concerning it. Deception, falsehood, and fabrications as to the facts of the case are treated as tending to show consciousness of guilt, and are admissible on the same theory as flight and concealment of the person when charged with crime. ( Id., at pp. 89-90, italics added.) Thus, even though the falsity of the defendant's prior statement was not proved by its inconsistency with the defendant's subsequent testimony but by the testimony of other witnesses, the statement was found admissible. People v. Amaya (1941) 44 Cal. App.2d 656, 659 [112 P.2d 942], is to the same effect. In Amaya, the defendant objected to introduction of a statement he had made to the police in which he claimed that on a specific occasion in the past he had found the man, whom he was accused of killing, in bed with his wife. In dismissing the objection, the Amaya court stated: In an attempt to prove the falsity of such statement the People produced two witnesses, ... a stepson ... and ... a stepdaughter [ of defendant ] who testified that on the occasion mentioned when [ defendant ] came home neither [ the ] deceased nor any other man was in bed with their mother. Such testimony was properly received in evidence, it being the established law of this state that evidence may be introduced to show that a defendant has made false statements for the purpose of misleading or warding off suspicion and that such false statements, though not conclusive of guilt, may strengthen inferences of guilt arising from other facts. [Citation.] (44 Cal. App.2d at p. 659, italics added.) Other cases similarly demonstrate that the general rule as to the admissibility of false statements or explanations given by a defendant with respect to the charged offense is not subject to the limitation which defendant proposes. (See, e.g., People v. Osslo (1958) 50 Cal.2d 75, 93 [323 P.2d 397]; People v. Showers (1968) 68 Cal.2d 639, 643 [68 Cal. Rptr. 459, 440 P.2d 939]; People v. Peete (1921) 54 Cal. App. 333, 352-353 [202 P. 51].) Authority from other jurisdictions also refutes defendant's position. (See generally 2 Wigmore on Evidence (Chadbourn ed. 1979) § 278, p. 133 et seq. and cases cited.) The series of recent Court of Appeal decisions on which defendant relies  all of which emanate from People v. Morgan, supra, 87 Cal. App.3d 59, 67-69  overlooked the foregoing authority. Instead, apparently treating the question as one of first impression, the Morgan court reasoned that unless the falsity of the defendant's prior statement were established by his own testimony, it would be speculation of the rankest sort to infer that the prior statement demonstrates a consciousness of guilt on the part of the defendant. [13] The logic of this reasoning escapes us. First, because the defendant's prior statement is not being introduced to prove the truth of the statement but simply to prove that the defendant made it, the jury can properly evaluate the evidence to determine if the prior statement was made, whether or not the defendant takes the stand. Second, although the fact that a defendant has  on the witness stand  contradicted a prior statement that he made relating to the crime provides one basis for the jury to determine that the earlier statement was false, it simply does not follow that the jury would necessarily be engaging in rank speculation if it relied on other evidence to determine that the prior statement was false. In many cases, such other evidence  which may consist of physical evidence like fingerprints, or the testimony of trustworthy witnesses  will be equally, if not more, reliable than defendant's own in-court testimony. Of course, the jury need not believe the prosecution's evidence suggesting that the statement was false, and even if it finds that the statement was false, it need not conclude that defendant deliberately lied to hide his complicity in the crime. In brief, the question is one of weight, not admissibility. To the extent they are inconsistent with this conclusion, the decisions in Morgan, Thomas, La Salle and Pic'l (see fn. 12, ante ) are disapproved. (5, 6) (See fn. 14.), (3d) Accordingly, we conclude the court did not err in admitting defendant's statement to the police. [14]