Opinion ID: 1277356
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Prepare and Articulate a Defense

Text: Defendant raises a general challenge to his counsel's performance at trial, alleging that counsel's representation at the guilt phase was substandard due to counsel's lack of investigation, preparation, and inability to articulate a defense. In support of his challenge, defendant cites counsel's single visit to defendant in seven and one-half months, and counsel's failure to investigate or present any evidence of defendant's mental history (including defendant's classification as a mentally disordered sex offender) or competence to stand trial. Defendant's contentions are unpersuasive, because the record before us does not disclose that trial counsel lacked a tactical basis for representing defendant in the manner now challenged, and counsel's performance was not of the sort for which there could be no satisfactory explanation. (See People v. Mendoza Tello, supra, 15 Cal.4th 264, 266, 62 Cal.Rptr.2d 437, 933 P.2d 1134; People v. Wilson, supra, 3 Cal.4th 926, 936, 13 Cal. Rptr.2d 259, 838 P.2d 1212; People v. Fosselman, supra, 33 Cal.3d 572, 581, 189 Cal.Rptr. 855, 659 P.2d 1144.) Defendant's position also is flawed because, in large measure, his argument merely recasts certain contentions that the trial court properly rejected in the context of the Marsden hearings held prior to and during defendant's trial. (See pt. II.A., ante, at pp. 165-167.) To the extent such arguments do not reiterate those that we already have rejected, we find them to be without merit. As noted previously, trial counsel was confronted with overwhelming evidence that defendant killed Diane in the course of a sexual assault, and the manner of killing (repeated powerful blows to the back of the head with a rock), combined with defendant's statement to Amy that your friend was an asshole, she called me a few names, and I think she's dead, strongly suggested that he acted with the intent to kill. In view of these circumstances, trial counsel could have had a reasonable tactical basis for deciding to forego the presentation of a mental state defense in favor of a defense challenging the prosecution's forensic evidence. Counsel's strategy conceivably could have persuaded the jury to acquit defendant of the charge that he raped Diane and to convict him only of second degree murder. Defendant's defense at the guilt and penalty phases of trial was not presented by the same attorney. Thus, his contention that his guilt phase attorney failed to investigate evidence pertaining to defendant's mental history merely begs the question, as such evidence was investigated by defendant's penalty phase attorney, and the record does not suggest that the two attorneys failed to communicate with one another in their representation of defendant. Having made the tactical decision not to present a mental state defense at the guilt phase, and instead to challenge the evidence regarding certain sexual offenses defendant was alleged to have committed against Diane and Amy, defendant's guilt phase attorney did not perform deficiently by failing to personally investigate mental health issues further or visit defendant more frequently. (See, e.g., People v. Silva, supra, 45 Cal.3d 604, 622, 247 Cal.Rptr. 573, 754 P.2d 1070 [rejecting defendant's complaint that his attorney had visited him only once, observing that the number of times one sees his attorney, and the way in which one relates [to] his attorney, does not sufficiently establish incompetence].) Further, because of the incriminatory nature of defendant's history of committing sex crimes, it seems clear that such evidence, had it been presented at the guilt phase, would have been unhelpful  if not highly prejudicial  to defendant's claim of innocence. Nor did counsel render inadequate assistance in failing to raise the issue of defendant's competency to stand trial; the record is devoid of evidence suggesting any basis for such a challenge. In sum, the record on appeal does not support defendant's claim that his counsel performed deficiently in preparing or presenting a defense.