Opinion ID: 844274
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Testimony of Detective Richard Cohen

Text: Next defendant claims the trial court erred in allowing Detective Richard Cohen to testify why he considered defendant to be a suspect in Lao's murder. Detective Cohen was twice called to the witness stand. He testified first about his interview of defendant in connection with the burglary of the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church. Defendant told Detective Cohen he had sometimes been living near the Southwest Bowl. Later, when Detective Jacques LaBerge was investigating the robbery of Samuel Draper at the Southwest Bowl, Cohen remembered that defendant lived near there as a transient, and he shared this information with LaBerge. Later in the trial, Detective Cohen was re-called to the stand to describe his meeting in June 1993 with LaBerge and Sergeant Lobo. Cohen testified that he saw a poster concerning a murder in Gardena and, based on the photograph and other information stated in the poster, Cohen thought he might have a lead on a possible suspect. When the prosecutor asked whether Detective Cohen had developed any sort of suspicions after looking at the composite picture and learning the circumstances of the Gardena murder, defense counsel objected that the detective's state of mind was not relevant. He argued that Cohen should not be allowed to give an opinion that the composite looked like defendant, or was similar to defendant's appearance when Cohen interviewed him after the church burglary. The prosecutor explained that he was trying to establish how, despite initial delays, the investigation ultimately focused on defendant. He expected Detective Cohen would testify both that the composite resembled defendant and that the circumstances of the crimes revealed the same kind of MO. The court found that the evidence had probative value to explain how, after a long delay, law enforcement officers focused on defendant as a suspect. The court agreed that Cohen's opinion as to whether the composite looked like defendant was irrelevant, but it allowed evidence showing Cohen's memory of defendant was triggered by similarities in the modus operandi of the crimes. After this ruling, Detective Cohen testified, without objection, that he started to consider defendant a possible suspect in the Gardena murder because the composite kind of resembled what defendant looked like when Cohen interviewed him and because Cohen knew that defendant had been hanging around the Southwest Bowl and possibly committing crimes there. (22) Defendant now complains this testimony was inadmissible as lay opinion. A lay witness may testify to an opinion if it is rationally based on the witness's perception and if it is helpful to a clear understanding of his testimony. (Evid. Code, § 800.) ( People v. Farnam (2002) 28 Cal.4th 107, 153 [121 Cal.Rptr.2d 106, 47 P.3d 988].) The challenged testimony was based on the detective's perceptions and was helpful for the jury to understand how Cohen came to suspect defendant was connected to the Gardena homicide. It was important for the prosecution to establish how the investigation suddenly came to focus on defendant eight months after the murder, with defendant jailed for much of this time for other crimes. The testimony was not unduly prejudicial, and Tomiyasu had already testified about defendant's resemblance to the composite picture. The jury was, of course, free to draw its own conclusion. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in permitting the testimony.