Opinion ID: 844288
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of statement attributed to defendant by prosecution witness Sonya Williams

Text: Defendant contends the trial court abused its discretion under Evidence Code section 352 and violated his rights under the United States Constitution by admitting, over a defense objection, excerpts from a videotape containing statements that prosecution witness Sonya Williams attributed to defendant concerning his role in the Watt Avenue robbery. The issue arose in the following context: Williams (who, the trial court observed, did not appear to be a particularly friendly witness [for] the People) testified that defendant had informed her, in advance, of his plan to rob the Watt Avenue McDonald's where he worked. After the robbery, Williams testified, defendant told her he had done what he previously said he was going to do (alluding to the robbery), showed her a gun and cash, and thereafter said nothing further about the robbery or his role in it. To rebut the assertion that defendant had said nothing more about the robbery, the prosecutor sought to play excerpts of a tape-recorded interview of Williams by Detectives Minter and Cabrera in which Williams described other details of the robbery that defendant had recounted to her. Among those excerpts, the prosecutor sought to play the portion of the interview in which Williams told the detectives how she had asked defendant (about the people he had forced into the freezer), What if they would have died? and defendant had responded, They just would have died. Defense counsel objected on the grounds of improper impeachment, lack of relevance, and Evidence Code section 352. After a hearing outside the presence of the jury, the trial court overruled the objection, and the excerpt was played for the jury. On appeal, defendant contends the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the interview excerpts. He argues the evidence had no probative value for impeachment purposes because Williams had not testified to anything she had discussed with defendant concerning leaving people in the freezer. He also asserts, contrary to the prosecutor's argument at trial, that the evidence was irrelevant to show defendant's intent in falsely imprisoning the victims, because only the perpetrator's identity, not his intent, was at issue. Finally, he contends, the evidence tended uniquely to evoke an emotional bias against him and thus was unduly prejudicial under Evidence Code section 352. We agree with defendant that he has preserved the issue, including its due process aspects, for review. [15] We disagree, however, that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the evidence. Contrary to defendant's argument, the evidence possessed probative value as a means of impeaching Williams's repeated assertions that defendant failed to reveal to her any of the details of the robbery. In turn, the presentation of defendant's statements to Williams regarding the details of the crime bolstered the other evidence establishing his identity as the robber. The evidence also was relevant to the false imprisonment charge because it showed defendant's knowledge that his actions had violated the victims' liberty. (§§ 236 [false imprisonment is the unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another], 237, subd. (a) [false imprisonment that is effected by violence, menace, fraud, or deceit is a felony].) Even if defendant focused his efforts at trial on disputing his identity as the perpetrator, the prosecution was required to prove its case, including the intent elements of the charged crimes. ( People v. Moon (2005) 37 Cal.4th 1, 28 [32 Cal.Rptr.3d 894, 117 P.3d 591].) The probative value of the evidence thus was substantial, and the trial court acted within its discretion in concluding such value outweighed the possibility of undue prejudice stemming from admission of the statement. In any event, even were we to conclude otherwise, reversal would not be required in view of the overwhelming evidence of defendant's guilt of the Watt Avenue crimes. Given the testimony of Stanly Zaharko, Michael Baumann, and Leticia Aguilar describing how defendant had forced them at gunpoint to enter the freezer and locked them inside, the admission of defendant's callous statement to Sonya Williams could not, by any standard, have affected the verdict. [16]