Opinion ID: 4103812
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Phillip Sanders’s Evidence

Text: Codefendant Phillip Sanders testified he met defendant though his mother, Isabelle Sanders. Phillip admitted he obtained a driver‘s license in victim Melvin Thompson‘s name, posed as Melvin, and helped defendant obtain a loan by forging Melvin‘s signature 11 times on loan documents. His wife, Carolyn, and sister, Carolyn Moore, were also in the real estate office when he posed as Melvin. His mother asked him to do this to help her friend avoid losing her house. For their trouble, Isabelle gave Phillip and Carolyn each $100. Phillip claimed not to know how much money changed hands in the transaction, although he was impeached by evidence showing he forged the victim‘s name on a $25,000 check. When he later became worried about the fraudulent nature of the transaction, Isabelle told him not to worry because ―it was not a problem‖ and ―it was going to help her friend save her house and everybody was fine with the situation.‖ Phillip testified that defendant came to the car dealership where he worked to inquire about purchasing a car for her son, Girard Jacquet. When a credit check revealed neither defendant or Girard would be able to finance a car, defendant asked him whether he knew anyone she could hire to kill her stepson, Tommy Thompson, suggesting she would benefit financially should Tommy die.3 Phillip told her he was unaware of anyone who would do such a thing, but later discussed the conversation with his wife, Carolyn. Carolyn later mentioned the murder-for- 3 Defendant‘s husband, Melvin Thompson, was also known as Tom Thompson. Phillip was quite clear in his testimony, however, that defendant had solicited him to kill her stepson, Tommy Thompson. Tommy Thompson later testified on rebuttal that he had no insurance on his life in 1990. 11 hire issue to her housemate, Christine Kuretich. A week later, defendant again asked Phillip about killing her stepson for ―a couple of grand,‖ but he repeated that he did not know anyone who could help her. Phillip denied Kuretich‘s account that the Sanderses discussed killing defendant‘s husband, testifying, ―Those conversations did not take place.‖ Records showed that in the six weeks prior to the murder, defendant and Phillip were in constant telephone contact. Records showed numerous calls between Phillip‘s home and Kayser Service, and between Barish ChryslerPlymouth, where Phillip worked, and defendant‘s home. Phillip admitted he spoke to defendant several times in the weeks leading up to the murder, but claimed the conversations involved a possible car purchase for defendant‘s son, Girard. The prosecution showed this to be unlikely, as Girard had purchased a car from a Ford dealership in February 1990. Phillip testified that he had a cash flow problem and asked if defendant could loan him $1,500. She agreed, and Carolyn Sanders received the money on June 11, 1990. On the day of the murder, June 14, Phillip said he made arrangements to have the terms of the loan reduced to writing so as to avoid any disagreements. This was to be done that evening at Kayser Service. As he had consumed between one and two 20-ounce cans of malt liquor and taken a pain killer and a muscle relaxant, he had his stepson, Robert Jones, drive him in the white Plymouth Acclaim to Santa Monica to meet defendant. Phillip said he walked in the front gate and when he saw defendant inside, she waved him in but motioned to him to be quiet. When he joined her inside the repair shop, the bathroom door opened and, without warning, defendant produced a gun and fired two shots at the person inside the bathroom. The victim, a man with whom Phillip was unfamiliar, fell to the floor. According to Phillip, defendant (holding the barrel of the pistol) handed him the weapon, told him to dispose of it, and that he 12 would be ―taken care of.‖ He took that to mean defendant was promising to pay him money. Detective Wachter later testified on rebuttal that the barrel of the weapon would have been uncomfortably hot to the touch after firing. Wachter also offered the opinion that Phillip would not have been able to see inside the bathroom if the door had been opened as he described it. Phillip testified he walked back to the car and threw the gun into some ivy. When he told Robert Jones what he had observed and that he had discarded the gun, Jones told him to retrieve the gun, so he did. Once back home, Phillip gave the gun to Jones and told him to destroy it. Police arrested Phillip later that night. While in pretrial detention, Phillip received several unsigned letters which, from their content, he assumed were from defendant, who was also in jail awaiting trial. The letters urged him not to trust his lawyers and to change his account of the murder, vaguely suggesting it would be financially advantageous for him to do so. The letters suggested exactly what he should tell police. Phillip turned these letters over to his attorneys, and at their suggestion wrote defendant back, hoping she would continue the correspondence. Jennifer Lee testified she was a jail inmate with defendant. Lee said she had acceded to defendant‘s request to copy, in her own handwriting, letters that defendant had drafted. (Defendant‘s challenge to the admission of these letters is discussed, post, part I.B.3.)