Opinion ID: 844274
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Testimony of Ella Ford

Text: Next, defendant claims the trial court violated his rights to due process, the assistance of counsel, and a reliable penalty determination by admitting testimony about Ella Ford's photographic identification, made just a month before trial, and by permitting her to make an in-court identification. On the afternoon of Lao's murder, Officer Nick Pepper interviewed Ella Ford at the crime scene. Ford described seeing a tall, dark-skinned, bearded male, wearing a black T-shirt that displayed the continent of Africa. He was running through the parking lot, away from the Donut King. Ford saw the man's face as he looked back toward the shop. She did not mention seeing anything in his hands. On September 27, 1993, defendant requested that a live lineup be conducted pursuant to Evans v. Superior Court (1974) 11 Cal.3d 617 [114 Cal.Rptr. 121, 522 P.2d 681] ( Evans ). The request did not specifically name Ford but, after listing certain names, called for the attendance of any other witness who observed any suspect associated with the 10-24-92 homicide. The court granted the request, and several witnesses attended the live lineup on October 19, 1993. When a law enforcement officer attempted to bring Ford to the lineup, however, she refused to go. In her trial testimony, Ford explained she did not want to attend the lineup because she was afraid of possible retaliation if the person she had seen was affiliated with a gang. The police tried to contact her other times in the remainder of 1993 and 1994, but she remained reluctant to talk with them. On January 6, 1995, Sergeant Lobo and the prosecutor visited Ford's house to interview her again about the homicide. During this meeting, Sergeant Lobo showed Ford a lineup of six photographs. Before Ford viewed the photographs, Lobo presented her with a standardized form explaining that she was not obligated to identify anyone. Lobo did not indicate that Ford should make an identification, nor did he suggest that the person she saw in the parking lot was included in the lineup. Ford chose defendant's photograph. She wrote on the form that this photograph `look[ed] like the person [she] saw the day of the incident more so than anyone else in the six-pack file.' Ford was 90 percent, not 100 percent certain defendant's photograph was that of the person she saw. She was almost sure. Defendant filed a pretrial motion to exclude evidence of this photographic identification, and any possible in-court identification by Ford, on the ground that Ford had not attended the Evans lineup. He argued the defense should have been notified before the police sought a photographic identification from Ford. If notice had been given, the defense could have requested that another live lineup be conducted, or could have been present when Ford viewed the photographs. As a sanction, defense counsel asked the court to suppress evidence of Ford's identification from the photographic lineup. He also asked that the court either suppress any in-court identification or hold an Evidence Code section 402 hearing to determine if Ford could make an identification independent of the photographs. Alternately, counsel asked the court to admonish the jury that the defense should have been notified before photographs were shown to Ford, and that they should consider the People's failure to give such notice in deciding the accuracy of the identification. The prosecutor responded that law enforcement officers had made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Ford, who only recently agreed to speak with them. He argued that the passage of time, Ford's reluctance to cooperate with the police, and inconsistencies between her statements were all proper subjects for cross-examination but not grounds for excluding the identifications. The court denied the motion, finding the officers had no obligation to contact defense counsel before showing Ford a photographic lineup. Although Ford was arguably included within the scope of the order for an Evans lineup, the court concluded that striking her identification would be too harsh a sanction. It agreed, however, to modify the pattern jury instruction concerning eyewitness testimony. As modified, the version of CALJIC No. 2.92 read to the jury stated that, among other factors, the jury could consider [t]he failure of a witness to attend a live line-up in assessing the accuracy of that witness's identification. Defendant now argues that under the totality of the circumstances the admission of Ford's identification testimony violated his rights to due process, the assistance of counsel, and a reliable penalty determination. There was no constitutional violation. Defendant's complaints about the photographic identification lack merit. First, as noted, the absence of defense counsel at Sergeant Lobo's pretrial meeting with Ford is of no constitutional moment because the United States Supreme Court has long held that the Sixth Amendment does not guarantee a criminal defendant the right to counsel at a photographic lineup. ( United States v. Ash, supra, 413 U.S. at p. 321.) (23) Second, despite defendant's bare assertions to the contrary, there is no evidence that the identification process was so unreliable as to violate due process. In order to determine whether the admission of identification evidence violates a defendant's right to due process of law, we consider (1) whether the identification procedure was unduly suggestive and unnecessary, and, if so, (2) whether the identification itself was nevertheless reliable under the totality of the circumstances, taking into account such factors as the opportunity of the witness to view the suspect at the time of the offense, the witness's degree of attention at the time of the offense, the accuracy of his or her prior description of the suspect, the level of certainty demonstrated at the time of the identification, and the lapse of time between the offense and the identification. [Citations.] ( People v. Cunningham, supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 989.) If the answer to the first question is no, because we find that the challenged procedure was not unduly suggestive, our inquiry into the due process claim ends. ( People v. Ochoa, supra, 19 Cal.4th at p. 412.) Defendant does not claim the photographic lineup or the circumstances of its presentation to Ford were unduly suggestive. Instead, he focuses on discrepancies in Ford's statements to police at the crime scene, at the January 1995 meeting, and at trial, and he argues these inconsistencies demonstrate that Ford's identification is unreliable. The accuracy of Ford's identification was a question for the jury. Inconsistencies in her descriptions of the man she saw, and in her accounts of her activities on the day of the murder, are matters affecting the weight of her eyewitness testimony, not its admissibility. ( People v. Williams (1973) 9 Cal.3d 24, 37 [106 Cal.Rptr. 622, 506 P.2d 998], disapproved on another ground in People v. Cromer (2001) 24 Cal.4th 889, 901, fn. 3 [103 Cal.Rptr.2d 23, 15 P.3d 243].) Because defendant has not shown that the identification procedures were impermissibly suggestive, his due process claim fails. ( People v. DeSantis (1992) 2 Cal.4th 1198, 1222 [9 Cal.Rptr.2d 628, 831 P.2d 1210].) (24) Finally, the Constitution does not require exclusion of eyewitness testimony as a sanction for a witness's failure to attend a lineup. In Evans, supra, 11 Cal.3d at page 625, we held that due process requires in an appropriate case that an accused, upon timely request therefor, be afforded a pretrial lineup in which witnesses to the alleged criminal conduct can participate. Defendant was given his pretrial lineup upon request. Due process was satisfied. Although defendant did not list Ford among the specific witnesses he wanted to attend the lineup, police officers notified her and tried to have her participate. She refused to go and refused to have any contact with law enforcement about the case for almost two years. Ford's existence as a witness was known from the crime scene police reports. There is no indication the defense was prevented from contacting her. Indeed, there is no indication of any bad faith on the part of the police or the prosecution. Under these circumstances, the trial court had discretion to fashion a remedy short of excluding the witness's identification altogether. Addressing a similar situation, the Court of Appeal in People v. Fernandez (1990) 219 Cal.App.3d 1379, 1384-1385 [269 Cal.Rptr. 116], approved of an instruction that told the jury it could view with caution the testimony of an eyewitness who had failed to attend a live lineup. The trial court fashioned a similar remedy here when it modified CALJIC No. 2.92. This remedy was an appropriate exercise of the court's discretion. The court did not err in admitting testimony about Ford's in-court and out-of-court identifications of defendant.