Opinion ID: 844288
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Admission of a letter from defendant to prosecution witness Sean Gilbert

Text: Defendant contends the trial court abused its discretion in admitting a letter he wrote to prosecution witness Sean Gilbert [17] while Gilbert was incarcerated in the Sacramento County jail on charges unrelated to those at issue in this case. The letter accused Gilbert of making false statements that tended to inculpate defendant and included several passages in which defendant directly or impliedly threatened Gilbert with violence as a result. Gilbert considered the letter a threat and turned it over to an officer, who gave it to the prosecution. Defense counsel unsuccessfully objected to the admission of the letter under Evidence Code section 352 and because, in his view, the letter did not contain admissions or threats and, hence, lacked relevance. Defendant here renews his challenge to the admission of the letter under state law and on federal due process grounds. [18] (19) Defendant implicitly acknowledges the general rule that evidence of threats is admissible as showing consciousness of guilt, but in essence claims that his letter falls outside the rule because, in accusing Gilbert of lying, it reflects consciousness not of guilt, but of innocence. As decisions of this state have long recognized (e.g., People v. Chin Hane (1895) 108 Cal. 597, 603 [41 P. 697]; People v. Rosoto (1962) 58 Cal.2d 304, 350 [23 Cal.Rptr. 779, 373 P.2d 867]; People v. Pinholster (1992) 1 Cal.4th 865, 945 [4 Cal.Rptr.2d 765, 824 P.2d 571]; People v. Slocum (1975) 52 Cal.App.3d 867, 887 [125 Cal.Rptr. 442]), a threat made by a defendant against a prospective prosecution witness, with the apparent intention of intimidating the witness, is properly admitted because an accused's efforts to suppress evidence against himself indicate a consciousness of guilt. ( Slocum, at p. 887.) This principle fully applies in this case, regardless of the circumstance that the letter accused Gilbert of lying instead of acknowledging the veracity of his statement to police. Furthermore, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding the probative value of the letter outweighed any potential for prejudice under Evidence Code section 352. Defendant also suggests the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the letter because it included a threat against nonwitness Anthony Motley that was irrelevant and constituted improper evidence of a propensity for violence. He further contends the redaction (omitting gang references) misled the jury to think he was mad as hell at Gilbert because of Gilbert's statement to police, when in fact the phrase referred to Gilbert's behavior toward one of defendant's girlfriends. Defendant forfeited these contentions by failing to raise them below. Had he preserved them, we would find any error harmless. As to the portion of the letter concerning Motley, the jury would have been aware of the irrelevance of the threat to any issue in this case, and would already have drawn any inferences regarding a propensity for violence on defendant's part from the threat to Gilbert that was properly before the jury. As to the allegedly misleading redaction, the jury already would have inferred, from defendant's threat to beat Gilbert for making a statement to police, that he was angry at Gilbert, and we are confident the exclusion of evidence of an additional basis for that anger, even if error under state law, would not have made a difference in the outcome of the case. ( People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 [299 P.2d 243].) Nor did admission of the letter prejudice defendant's right to a fair trial in violation of the federal due process guarantee.