Opinion ID: 2517596
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Evidence Received at the Second Penalty Phase Trial

Text: At the penalty retrial, held in April 1992 before a newly sworn jury, Christina S., April Wallace, and Linda Wallace each testified for the prosecution regarding the grief and suffering they had endured as a result of Autumn Wallace's death. The prosecution also introduced testimony from most of the witnesses who had testified at the guilt phase of the trial. Defendant did not testify. Defense witnesses Manuel Cueva, Janell Laird, Tamara Benedict, Dolores Onofre, Sylvia Archuleta, Sylvia Alfaro, and Dr. Armando Morales testified again, in a manner substantially similar to their testimony at the first penalty phase trial. The defense additionally called the following witnesses. Marc Taylor, a criminalist retained as an expert by the defense, testified that he examined various items of evidence, including pieces of clothing, bloodstained flooring, shoe prints, blood-spattered furniture, a bloodstained towel, plastic casts of shoe prints found outside the Wallace home, men's and women's LA Gear tennis shoes, boots, and sandals. Taylor testified that some of the shoe prints found inside and outside the house did not match defendant's LA Gear shoes. He testified his tests established that the bloodstains on the towel were caused by the wiping of a knife other than the weapon designated as exhibit No. 61. On cross-examination, Taylor acknowledged that examining blood wipes was not an exact science and that the patterns could have been caused by wiping a belt or a shoe on the towel. Toby Silver, a registered nurse and mental health professional at the Orange County jail during defendant's incarceration, testified that during clinical sessions, defendant exhibited signs of depression and low self-esteem, stated that she missed her children, and expressed remorse for her crimes. Kenneth Harer, a deputy sheriff at the Orange County jail, testified that he identified a man named Beto as a person who resembled the suspect depicted in a flier posted after the murder. After he saw the flier, Harer remembered that he had seen the same man entering a blue Camaro parked across the street from the main jail. Gerardo Rangel, a bilingual school counselor who knew defendant while she was a junior high school student, testified that he met with defendant's mother regarding her absenteeism and performance problems at school. Rangel attempted to help Sylvia Alfaro enroll defendant in drug rehabilitation programs but was unsuccessful because Sylvia could not afford the required fees. Albert Lopez, a minister with Gleaners, an inmate ministry, testified that he visited with defendant on approximately 20 to 25 occasions at the Orange County jail and believed she exhibited remorse for having committed the crime. On one occasion, Lopez recalled, defendant cried in Lopez's presence, and he believed her sorrow to be genuine. Finally, defense counsel presented Dr. Consuelo Edwards as a mental health expert witness. Dr. Edwards, a medical doctor trained in Spain, testified extensively regarding defendant's childhood, referring to her abusive father, her drug use, her multiple pregnancies, her limited work as an employee at McDonald's, and her relationship with Manuel Cueva. Edwards described defendant's intellectual functioning as borderline, opining that she had an IQ of 78 and learning disabilities that were exacerbated by her traumatic experiences as a child. In Dr. Edwards's opinion, defendant was a passive and dependent person with low impulse control, a condition that was further compromised when she was under the influence of drugs. Edwards described defendant as a follower. Dr. Edwards also testified that although defendant admitted to her that she had killed Autumn Wallace, and defendant described in detail the events preceding the homicide, she refused to answer any questions regarding the second Hispanic male, other than to say he was a friend of her father's named Miguel. Edwards testified that defendant told her Miguel had threatened to kill defendant and her baby unless she killed Autumn Wallace, and that after stabbing the victim four or five times, defendant ran from the room, not having planned to kill her. In a subsequent interview with defendant, Edwards told defendant that her defense attorney had shown Edwards a photograph of Beto, whom the defense identified as the man seen outside the Wallace residence. At that time, defendant agreed that the man with her on the day of the murder was named Beto. Edwards testified that defendant had expressed great sorrow for her involvement in the crime. Edwards was of the opinion that defendant was legally sane at the time of the crime, but was suffering from an ongoing organic mental disorder and was under the influence of drugs, either because of intoxication or withdrawal. Edwards also diagnosed defendant as having attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, a conduct disorder characterized by childhood anti-social behavior, an adjustment disorder characterized by anxiety and depression, and a dependent personality disorder. Edwards was of the opinion that defendant was not malingering, and that she possessed the potential for change and improvement. In rebuttal, the prosecutor presented the testimony of several Orange County jail employees. One employee testified he had seen defendant strike another inmate. Other jail employees testified to having heard her comment during a conversation with another inmate: I'm a frustrated person who takes things out on people, and have to learn to live with that, and I'm not going to be able to do this again. I'm no actor. I'm going to be cold this time. I just want to get this over with. The prosecution presented in rebuttal the testimony of Orange County Sheriff's Department investigator Robert Harper, who contradicted the defense claim that Robert Frias Gonzales was the person outside the Wallace home identified as Beto. Harper testified that Gonzales had a butterfly tattoo on his neck, but not a tattoo of a woman's name. Investigator Thomas Giffin testified that defense witness Lopez stated he was going to marry defendant when her trial was concluded. The prosecution also called a consulting psychologist, Martha Rogers, who had conducted psychological testing of defendant on behalf of the defense and whose notes and raw data were provided to Drs. Morales and Edwards by defense counsel. Rogers was questioned regarding the meaning of the phrase probable fake bad, which she had entered in her written notes. As discussed below in detail, Rogers testified that this phrase was susceptible of multiple meanings, among them malingering. After argument and instructions, the matter was submitted to the second penalty phase jury, which returned a verdict of death.