Opinion ID: 1152592
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admission of evidence of condition of defendant's car.

Text: (20a) Defendant contends the trial court erred in permitting the prosecutor to cross-examine defendant on an irrelevant matter, namely the condition of his car before and after his arrest. Defendant testified that as he was somewhat estranged from his wife and family because of his drug abuse, he lived periodically in his car. He testified that on the night of the crimes, he passed out and recalled being in a hall where he was pursued by long faces he thought looked like fright masks. He struck out at the faces, then ran off. He next vaguely remembered driving, then woke up in his car which was then parked at the beach. His hand was stuck to the seat with blood, but there was no other blood on his person. On cross-examination, defendant testified his car was messy. He explained he believed his car had been impounded, but that it had been found far from the beach. He had no idea how it got there. He had heard that when the car was recovered, it was completely clean, and had nothing in it. When the prosecutor asked how this occurred, defense counsel objected on the ground of lack of foundation. The court did not rule on the objection but asked defendant if he knew how the car got moved and cleaned, and defendant said he had no idea. Defendant identified photographs of the car. Defense counsel objected at the bench to this entire line of questioning, particularly the photographs, and apparently there is in [the prosecutor's] mind some way of laying a foundation for it, but apparently this is the car that was taken after he was arrested and found some miles away some days away [ sic ], and his cross-examination is seeking to hold him responsible for it in some fashion. [¶] I object to this whole line of questioning and the photographs. The court asked the prosecutor: Without any further foundation how is it relevant? ... You have basically a car that's being introduced that's been cleaned by somebody. The prosecutor explained that although the car looked lived in when defendant was arrested, It's my opinion out of guilty knowledge of what he did he called from the Orange County Jail to somebody, told them where the car was, told them to go get it and clean it up and that's what happened.... I think I can argue that circumstance. Defense counsel countered that the prosecutor was merely speculating. The court overruled the objection. The prosecutor asked defendant whether he called somebody up and asked them to move the car and clean it up because it might link him to the killings. Defendant denied doing so. Defense counsel began to object, but was cut off by the court, which told him to just sit down. Counsel again objected to the entire line of questioning. Evidently the prosecutor was finished; no further questions on the subject were forthcoming. The People contend defendant cannot now claim the court erroneously admitted irrelevant evidence because defendant objected to the line of questioning on the ground of lack of foundation, not irrelevance. As we have noted, however, the trial court evidently understood the objection as encompassing a relevancy claim, so we will reach the merits. (21) Of course, only relevant evidence is admissible. (Evid. Code, § 350.) Sometimes the relevance of evidence depends on the existence of a preliminary fact. (Evid. Code § 403, subd. (a); 3 Witkin, Cal. Evidence (3d ed. 1986) Introduction of Evidence at Trial, § 1718, p. 1677; see, e.g., People v. Collins (1975) 44 Cal. App.3d 617 [118 Cal. Rptr. 864] [identity of person who made threatening telephone call to witness is preliminary fact proponent of offered testimony has burden of establishing before fact of telephone call is relevant].) The court should exclude the proffered evidence only if the showing of preliminary facts is too weak to support a favorable determination by the jury. (3 Witkin, Cal. Evidence, supra, § 1716, p. 1675; see Evid. Code, § 403, subd. (a); People v. Simon (1986) 184 Cal. App.3d 125, 131 [228 Cal. Rptr. 855].) The decision whether the foundational evidence is sufficiently substantial is a matter within the court's discretion. ( Alvarado v. Anderson (1959) 175 Cal. App.2d 166, 178 [346 P.2d 73]; see also People v. Rowland (1992) 4 Cal.4th 238, 264 [14 Cal. Rptr.2d 377, 841 P.2d 897] [admission of evidence challenged on relevancy grounds reviewed for abuse of discretion].) The trial court has the preliminary, but not the final, authority to determine the question of the existence of the preliminary fact. Unlike in other situations (see, e.g., People v. Alcala (1992) 4 Cal.4th 742, 787 [15 Cal. Rptr.2d 432, 842 P.2d 1192] [preliminary fact of competence of witness is question for court under Evidence Code sections 402 and 405]), under Evidence Code section 403, [t]he preliminary fact questions listed in subdivision (a) [of Evidence Code section 403] ... are not finally decided by the judge because they have been traditionally regarded as jury questions. The questions involve the credibility of testimony or the probative value of evidence that is admitted on the ultimate issues. It is the jury's function to determine the effect and value of the evidence addressed to it.... [T]he judge's function on questions of this sort is merely to determine whether there is evidence sufficient to permit a jury to decide the question. The `question of admissibility ... merges imperceptibly into the weight of the evidence, if admitted.' (Legis. committee com., 29B, pt. 1 West's Ann. Evid. Code (1995 ed.) foll. § 403, p. 361.) (20b) In the present case, the prosecutor was entitled to show, if he could, that defendant's testimony at trial that he was unconscious and had no recollection of the crimes was not credible. Accordingly, if the prosecutor had evidence that defendant actually had some guilty knowledge or recollection of the crimes, he would be entitled to present it. Evidence that defendant arranged to have his car, which the trial evidence indicated could well contain bloody evidence of the crimes, moved and cleaned before the police could inspect it, would tend to prove such guilty knowledge. The prosecutor had several potentially incriminating facts: defendant periodically lived in his car and it was messy when he was arrested; by defendant's testimony he left the scene of his fright mask nightmare in his car; the crime was a bloody one; and the car disappeared after defendant's arrest and was very clean when it was discovered. In order for the first and last of these facts to be relevant to show defendant's guilty knowledge, the prosecutor needed to present some evidence of a preliminary fact, that is, that defendant was responsible for the removal and cleaning of the car. Thus, as long as he had a good faith belief in the existence of the preliminary fact (see People v. Warren (1988) 45 Cal.3d 471, 480 [247 Cal. Rptr. 172, 754 P.2d 218] [improper for prosecutor to ask questions of witness suggesting facts harmful to defendant, absent good faith belief such facts exist]), the prosecutor was entitled to ask defendant this question in an attempt to establish a foundation for the relevance of the other evidence to defendant's guilty knowledge. (Evid. Code, § 403, subd. (a).) He was unable to establish this foundation through an admission from the defendant, but he was entitled to try. [10] Defendant denied causing the car to be moved and cleaned, however, and no other evidence was forthcoming to establish the preliminary fact of his involvement. Unless the court concluded the jury could find it was more likely that defendant, who presumably had the keys, was responsible for having the car moved and cleaned, than that a car thief did so, the court probably should have instructed the jury to disregard the proffered evidence regarding the condition of defendant's car. (Evid. Code, § 403, subd. (c)(2) [duty to instruct jury to disregard evidence when court determines jury could not find existence of preliminary fact]); see also LeGrand v. Yellow Cab Co. (1970) 8 Cal. App.3d 125 [87 Cal. Rptr. 292] [witness's denial of knowledge defeats proponent's claim of preliminary fact of knowledge].) No such instruction was given here. Nonetheless, we see no reasonable probability of prejudice to defendant. We conclude the jury was able to determine the weight  if any  to be accorded to the proffered evidence. The very irrelevance of the evidence that the car was moved and cleaned, without proof or even evidence of the preliminary fact that it was defendant who arranged for this activity, militates against finding this error prejudicial. This was not inherently prejudicial evidence, the admission of which may require reversal. (Cf. People v. Simon, supra, 184 Cal. App.3d at pp. 130-132 [prejudicial error to admit evidence of prior similar crime to show motive in charged crime without proof of preliminary fact of motive involved in first crime].) [11] We conclude any error was harmless. ( People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 [299 P.2d 243].) [12]