Opinion ID: 2595083
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Instruct on Accomplice Liability

Text: As mentioned earlier, Earl Rodrigues (defendant's brother-in-law) testified for the prosecution, and the prosecution also introduced out-of-court statements Rodrigues had made to Patterson Police Officer Tony Zavala. The prosecution used Rodrigues's testimony and statements to show that defendant was drinking with Caseri the last night he was seen alive; that threats were exchanged between defendant and Caseri; that in a fight with Caseri outside the Red Lion Cocktail Lounge, defendant slammed Caseri's head onto the pavement; that Caseri later left the lounge with defendant; and that defendant used Rodrigues's car that evening. Defendant argues that Rodrigues may have been an accomplice to Caseri's murder, and the trial court should therefore have given the standard instructions on accomplices: CALJIC No. 3.10 (accomplice defined), CALJIC No. 3.11 (accomplice testimony must be corroborated), CALJIC No. 3.12 (sufficiency of evidence to corroborate an accomplice), and CALJIC No. 3.18 (jury should view accomplice testimony with distrust). As we explained in People v. Mincey (1992) 2 Cal.4th 408, 461, 6 Cal. Rptr.2d 822, 827 P.2d 388: When the prosecution calls an accomplice as a witness, the trial court must instruct the jury that the witness's testimony should be viewed with distrust. [Citation.] This rule applies to both the penalty and the guilt phases of a death penalty case. [Citation.] In addition, when the prosecution seeks to introduce evidence of the defendant's unadjudicated prior criminal conduct, the jury should be instructed at the penalty phase that accomplice testimony must be corroborated. (See also People v. Williams (1997) 16 Cal.4th 153, 275, 66 Cal.Rptr.2d 123, 940 P.2d 710; People v. Varnum (1967) 66 Cal.2d 808, 814-815, 59 Cal.Rptr. 108, 427 P.2d 772.) Although defendant here apparently did not request the instructions, we have held that when the prosecution uses accomplice testimony at the penalty phase of a capital case to show that the defendant has engaged in violent criminal acts, the trial court must give the instructions on its own initiative, unless the defendant has been convicted of the crime to which the penalty phase testimony pertains. ( People v. Williams, supra, 16 Cal.4th at pp. 275-276, 66 Cal. Rptr.2d 123, 940 P.2d 710; People v. Mincey, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 461, 6 Cal. Rptr.2d 822, 827 P.2d 388; see also People v. Tobias (2001) 25 Cal.4th 327, 331, 106 Cal.Rptr.2d 80, 21 P.3d 758.) The Attorney General contends the jury could not have found that Rodrigues was an accomplice to Caseri's killing, so the accomplice instructions were unnecessary. We disagree. Apart from the statements of Rodrigues himself, most of the evidence pointing to defendant as Caseri's killer applied equally to Rodrigues: (1) Before Caseri died he told his sister (Karen Hatcher) and Red Lion bartender Sal Banda that defendant and Rodrigues were going to kill him; [4] (2) Rodrigues, like defendant, was with Caseri the last time he was seen alive; (3) Rodrigues accompanied defendant outside the Red Lion bar when defendant attacked Caseri; (4) Rodrigues was related to defendant by marriage to his sister, and transported him to and from the bar where Caseri was last seen; (5) the prosecution hypothesized that Rodrigues's car was used to take Caseri's body to the canal where it was found; bloodstains were found in the car, and Rodrigues's brother removed the rear seat (which would have been bloody if it had been used to transport Caseri) before the police could examine it. Indeed, the jury was told that Rodrigues, like defendant, was arrested for the murder of Caseri, although the district attorney's office did not file charges against either of them. This evidence was insufficient to show that Rodrigues was an accomplice as a matter of law. Nor did it establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Rodrigues helped to kill Caseri. It was enough, however, to permit a jury to conclude by a preponderance of the evidence that Rodrigues was an accomplice, in which event the jury would have to apply the rule that accomplice testimony must be corroborated and must be viewed with distrust. By not giving the requisite instructions on accomplice testimony, the trial court erred. We discuss the prejudicial effect of this error in part III. E., post.