Opinion ID: 658251
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The murder conviction.

Text: 5 On May 5, 1987, at approximately 12:14 a.m., officers of the Sacramento Police Department discovered the body of Louis Franks, Jr. in the parking lot of the American River Village Apartments in Sacramento, California. An autopsy revealed that the cause of Franks's death was multiple gunshot wounds. Forensic analysis indicated that the bullets taken from the body were probably fired from the same weapon, a .32 caliber handgun. 6 Alberta McGhee was at the apartment complex at the time of the shooting. She testified that she knew petitioner, who went by the nickname Nephew, and that she was also acquainted with Franks. Shortly before the shooting, McGhee had been talking with petitioner outside the apartment of Frankie Oates. She observed that petitioner was wearing a knee-length, green trench coat. A short while later, after McGhee had left the area of Oates's apartment, she heard shots fired. She looked up to see a person in a knee-length, green trench coat running through the complex. 7 Lolita Davis was also a resident of the apartment complex. She testified that, in the early morning hours of May 5, 1987, she saw two individuals talking near one of the apartments. One of them was wearing a knee-length coat. She later heard three or four shots fired from the parking lot. Shortly after the shots were fired, she observed two people running out of the complex. Davis thought that they were the same people she had seen talking earlier, but was unable to identify them. 8 There is evidence that the shooting was witnessed by Alberta McGhee's 12-year-old niece, Yolanda Lee. At a preliminary hearing held on September 1, 1987, Lee testified that she had seen petitioner, whom she identified as Nephew, shoot Franks as she looked through the fence in her back yard. From her position, about sixteen feet from the scene of the shooting, she observed that petitioner was wearing a green trench coat. After the shots were fired, Lee ran to the other side of the building and saw petitioner and another individual running down the street. According to Lee, everyone in the apartment complex knew that Franks was going to be killed, but she did not expect petitioner to be the killer. On September 14, 1987, petitioner was charged by information in Sacramento County Superior Court with one count of murder, in violation of Cal.Pen.Code Sec. 187, and one count of personal use of a firearm in connection with the offense, in violation of Cal.Pen.Code Sec. 12022.5. On September 15, 1987, he was arraigned and entered a plea of not guilty. Petitioner's trial was scheduled to commence on January 21, 1988. 9 Sometime before the trial began, Yolanda Lee talked with the prosecutor, Timothy Frawley, and recanted her preliminary hearing testimony in which she had identified petitioner as the killer. Consequently, on the first day of trial, the court granted petitioner's motion to have the information set aside under Cal.Pen.Code Sec. 995 and remanded the case to Municipal Court for a second preliminary hearing. 1 10 The second preliminary hearing was held on January 27 and 29, 1988. Yolanda Lee did not testify. At the conclusion of the hearing, petitioner was held to answer the charges against him. On February 11, 1988, he was arraigned on the information and again entered a plea of not guilty. 11 The second trial commenced on March 21, 1988. Petitioner's counsel moved that the prosecutor, G. Patrick Marlette, be required to make an offer of proof to support his belief that Yolanda Lee's initial testimony was truthful, while her recantation was fabricated. After argument on the motion, the court concluded that it was permissible for Marlette to call Lee as a witness and impeach her, if necessary, with her earlier testimony. The court then appointed an attorney, Jan Karowsky, to represent Lee. On the advice of Karowsky, Lee invoked her Fifth Amendment right to refuse to testify on the grounds that her testimony might subject her to prosecution for perjury. 12 The court sustained Lee's assertion of privilege and further found that her refusal to testify rendered her unavailable as a witness within the meaning of the California Evidence Code. 2 Petitioner's counsel then moved that Lee be granted use immunity for her testimony, but the motion was denied. Thereafter, the court permitted Marlette to introduce into evidence Lee's testimony from the September 1, 1987, preliminary hearing. Following the introduction of this evidence, the court advised the jury that Lee had recanted her preliminary hearing testimony on two prior occasions. 13 The final witness called by the defense was prosecutor Marlette. He testified that Lee had recanted her earlier testimony and no longer maintained that she had seen petitioner shoot Franks. At the close of evidence, petitioner's counsel moved to strike evidence of Lee's preliminary hearing testimony or, in the alternative, for a mistrial. Both motions were denied. On April 7, 1988, the jury found appellant guilty of murder in the first degree with use of a firearm. On June 17, 1988, he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 27 years to life, less 518 days' credit for time served. 14