Opinion ID: 1369044
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Bruton-Aranda Error

Text: (1a) Defendant's main contention is that the introduction of certain extrajudicial statements by Sheila, which incriminate him in the crimes of which he stands convicted, was error under Bruton v. United States (1968) 391 U.S. 123 [20 L.Ed.2d 476, 88 S.Ct. 1620], and People v. Aranda (1965) 63 Cal.2d 518 [47 Cal. Rptr. 353, 407 P.2d 265], as violative of his right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him. The Attorney General answers that the admission of these statements was not erroneous, and that in any event it caused no prejudice. During the presentation of Sheila's diminished capacity defense, each of the experts was cross-examined on the basis of his opinion and responded by recounting statements she had made incriminating defendant. One testified in effect that Sheila said she did what she did in the orange grove on the orders of defendant, whom she both loved and feared. Another gave similar testimony. The third said she made the following statements: (1) in the course of the Coselman robbery she told defendant something to the effect of Don't do this, Just get it over with, Stop it, or Don't hurt them; (2) after Coselman was killed defendant said to her, The other one is done, now it's your turn, she refused, and he then proceeded to kill Flanagan; (3) after strangling Flanagan, defendant wanted to hang her body in a very gruesome manner from a tree, he directed her to help, but she refused; and (4) she had a pretty strong feeling defendant killed Coselman and knew for a fact he killed Flanagan, but lied in her postarrest statement implicating Fred because she was afraid defendant would otherwise get in trouble. On rebuttal the prosecution called an expert who stated that Sheila told him she and defendant robbed Coselman and she saw defendant strangle and hang Flanagan but refused to give him the help he requested. After the experts testified, defendant unsuccessfully moved for a mistrial and a new trial on the ground that because Sheila did not take the stand he had been denied his right of confrontation and cross-examination. (2) Under both the federal and state Constitutions a criminal defendant is guaranteed the right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him. (U.S. Const., 6th Amend.; Pointer v. Texas (1965) 380 U.S. 400, 403-405, [13 L.Ed.2d 923, 926-927, 85 S.Ct. 1065] [holding the confrontation clause applicable to the states]; Cal. Const., art. I, § 15.) This right is confirmed in Penal Code section 686, which provides in relevant part that [i]n a criminal action the defendant is entitled ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him, in the presence of the court.... The primary purpose of the constitutional guarantee is to ensure that the defendant is able to conduct a personal examination and cross examination of the witness, in which [he] has an opportunity, not only of testing the recollection and sifting the conscience of the witness, but of compelling him to stand face to face with the jury in order that they may look at him, and judge by his demeanor upon the stand and the manner in which he gives his testimony whether he is worthy of belief. ( Mattox v. United States (1895) 156 U.S. 237, 242-243, [39 L.Ed. 409, 411, 15 S.Ct. 337]; accord, California v. Green (1970) 399 U.S. 149, 158 [26 L.Ed.2d 489, 497, 90 S.Ct. 1930]; People v. Stritzinger (1983) 34 Cal.3d 505, 515 [194 Cal. Rptr. 431, 668 P.2d 738]; In re Terry (1971) 4 Cal.3d 911, 922 [95 Cal. Rptr. 31, 484 P.2d 1375]; People v. Green (1971) 3 Cal.3d 981, 989 [92 Cal. Rptr. 494, 479 P.2d 998].) Thus, one of the important objects of the right of confrontation was to guarantee that the fact finder had an adequate opportunity to assess the credibility of witnesses. ( Berger v. California (1969) 393 U.S. 314, 315 [21 L.Ed.2d 508, 510, 89 S.Ct. 540].) (3) The fundamental character of this right is beyond question. (See People v. Stritzinger, supra, 34 Cal.3d at p. 515.) As the United States Supreme Court has stated, There are few subjects, perhaps, upon which this Court and other courts have been more nearly unanimous than in their expressions of belief that the right of confrontation and cross-examination is an essential and fundamental requirement for the kind of fair trial which is this country's constitutional goal. ( Pointer v. Texas, supra, 380 U.S. at p. 405 [13 L.Ed.2d at p. 927].) Any denial or significant diminution of this right deprives the accused of an essential means to test the credibility of his accusers and thus calls into question the ultimate `integrity of the factfinding process'.... ( Chambers v. Mississippi (1973) 410 U.S. 284, 295 [35 L.Ed.2d 297, 309, 93 S.Ct. 1038]; see In re Montgomery (1970) 2 Cal.3d 863, 867 [87 Cal. Rptr. 695, 471 P.2d 15].) (4) Of course, the right to confront and to cross-examine is not absolute.... ( Chambers v. Mississippi, supra, 410 U.S. at p. 295 [35 L.Ed.2d at p. 309]; accord, Barber v. Page (1968) 390 U.S. 719, 722 [20 L.Ed.2d 255, 258-259, 88 S.Ct. 1318]; People v. Stritzinger, supra, 34 Cal.3d at p. 515; People v. Enriquez (1977) 19 Cal.3d 221, 235 [137 Cal. Rptr. 171, 561 P.2d 261].) When cross-examination is not possible, the defendant is not denied his constitutional right if the harm the witness's testimony threatens can reasonably be prevented. Specifically, it has been stated that when a declarant's statements have been put before the jury but the declarant is unavailable for cross-examination, the defendant's right of confrontation and cross-examination is not violated if the jury is instructed to disregard those statements to the extent they bear on his guilt. ( Parker v. Randolph (1979) 442 U.S. 62, 73-74 [60 L.Ed.2d 713, 724, 99 S.Ct. 2132] (plur. opn.), disapproved on another point in Cruz v. New York (1987) 481 U.S. ___ [95 L.Ed.2d 162, 107 S.Ct. 1714].) Such an instruction is generally an adequate means of protecting the defendant because we presume the jury will follow the instruction and hence the testimony will work no prejudice. In some circumstances, however, a limiting instruction is an inadequate means of protection. (5) Broadly stated, the rule of Bruton v. United States  which is rooted in the confrontation clause and accordingly governs state as well as federal prosecutions ( Roberts v. Russell (1968) 392 U.S. 293, 294 [20 L.Ed.2d 1100, 1102, 88 S.Ct. 1921])  declares that a nontestifying codefendant's extrajudicial self-incriminating statement that inculpates the other defendant is generally unreliable and hence inadmissible as violative of that defendant's right of confrontation and cross-examination, even if a limiting instruction is given. (391 U.S. at pp. 126-137 [20 L.Ed.2d at pp. 479-486].) The otherwise valid presumption cannot operate in such a situation. [T]here are some contexts in which the risk that the jury will not, or cannot, follow instructions is so great, and the consequences of failure so vital to the defendant, that the practical and human limitations of the jury system cannot be ignored. [Citations.] Such a context is presented here, where the powerfully incriminating extrajudicial statements of a codefendant, who stands accused side-by-side with the defendant, are deliberately spread before the jury in a joint trial. Not only are the incriminations devastating to the defendant but their credibility is inevitably suspect, a fact recognized when accomplices do take the stand and the jury is instructed to weigh their testimony carefully given the recognized motivation to shift blame onto others. The unreliability of such evidence is intolerably compounded when the alleged accomplice, as here, does not testify and cannot be tested by cross-examination. It was against such threats to a fair trial that the Confrontation Clause was directed. ( Id. at pp. 135-136, fns. omitted [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 485].) As the court's discussion reveals, the rule is fundamentally premised on the devastating nature of the codefendant's inculpating statement and its unreliability. The rule and its basis were concisely stated by Justice Stewart in his concurring opinion in Bruton : the underlying rationale of the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause precludes reliance upon cautionary instructions when the highly damaging out-of-court statement of a codefendant, who is not subject to cross-examination, is deliberately placed before the jury at a joint trial. A basic premise of the Confrontation Clause, it seems to me, is that certain kinds of hearsay [citations] are at once so damaging, so suspect, and yet so difficult to discount, that jurors cannot be trusted to give such evidence the minimal weight it logically deserves, whatever instructions the trial judge might give. (391 U.S. at pp. 137-138 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 486].) It is not the case, however, that a codefendant's out-of-court statement inculpating the other defendant is per se unreliable and hence inadmissible under the Confrontation Clause. ( Lee v. Illinois (1986) 476 U.S. 530, 539-543 [90 L.Ed.2d 514, 525-527, 106 S.Ct. 2056, 2061-2063].) Rather, such a statement is only presumptively unreliable. ( Ibid. ) The presumption, however, is weighty ( id. at p. 546 [90 L.Ed.2d at p. 530, 106 S.Ct. at p. 2065]), and can be overcome only by a `showing of particularized guarantees of trustworthiness' ( id. at p. 543 [90 L.Ed.2d at p. 528, 106 S.Ct. at p. 2064]) or `indicia of reliability' ( id. at p. 543 [90 L.Ed.2d at p. 527, 106 S.Ct at p. 2063]). In People v. Aranda, supra, 63 Cal.2d 518, 528-530, we anticipated the effect of Bruton by holding that even if a limiting instruction is given it is error to admit at a joint trial a codefendant's extrajudicial self-incriminating statement when such statement inculpates another defendant. In coming to this conclusion we declined to rest on constitutional grounds, but acknowledged that the defendant's right of confrontation and cross-examination was implicated. ( Id. at pp. 529-530.) Subsequently, however, we recognized that the Aranda rule is based at least in part on constitutional considerations. (See People v. Floyd (1970) 1 Cal.3d 694, 719 [83 Cal. Rptr. 608, 464 P.2d 64].) The premise of Aranda is essentially the same as that of Bruton: jurors should not be permitted to be influenced by evidence that as a matter of law they cannot consider but as a matter of fact they cannot ignore. ( Aranda, supra, 63 Cal.2d at pp. 528-530.) (1b) Under Bruton and Aranda, the admission of the statements Sheila made to the experts was plainly error. Her statement that her actions in the orange grove were not of her own volition but were done because she felt she had to follow defendant's orders clearly implied that both defendant and she were guilty of the crimes but that defendant was the more guilty. Clearer still were her statements that she felt strongly defendant killed Coselman and knew for a fact he killed Flanagan; that she refused defendant's orders to help him hang Flanagan; and that she lied when she implicated Fred and did so to keep defendant out of trouble. Sheila's statements, in a word, fall squarely within the Bruton-Aranda rule: they implicate her in the incidents in question and incriminate defendant as well. Sheila's statements, moreover, are the very kind the rule was designed to bar. They are potentially prejudicial, amounting as they do to an accusation delivered by the person who claims not only to have witnessed defendant's acts but also to have been in fact his partner in crime. Accordingly, they are manifestly the type of evidence against a defendant ... which [jurors] `cannot put out of their minds.' ( Bruton, supra, 391 U.S. at p. 129 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 481]; see Aranda, supra, 63 Cal.2d at pp. 528-530.) The statements are also unreliable. What Sheila said to the police and what she said to the examining experts are in conflict: in the latter  which we consider here  it was defendant whom she tried to inculpate, in the former it was Fred. All, however, are consistent as part of an evident attempt to shift blame from herself to someone else. Sheila's statements incriminating defendant must therefore be deemed inevitably suspect. ( Bruton, supra, 391 U.S. at p. 136 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 485].) Finally, the statements Sheila made bear insufficient `indicia of reliability' to rebut the presumption of unreliability that attaches to codefendants' confessions.... ( Lee v. Illinois, supra, 476 U.S. at p. 543 [90 L.Ed.2d at p. 527, 106 S.Ct. at p. 2063].) Indeed, as stated above, they are highly unreliable, evidently intended as they were to shift blame. In asserting that no Bruton-Aranda error occurred, the Attorney General urges that the rule is inapplicable on the facts of this case. He first argues that Sheila's statements do not substantially incriminate defendant. The point is wholly without merit: as we have just shown, the statements plainly and directly implicate defendant in the murder of Coselman and Flanagan. Relying on language in People v. Jackson (1979) 92 Cal. App.3d 556 [155 Cal. Rptr. 89], People v. Romo (1975) 47 Cal. App.3d 976 [121 Cal. Rptr. 684], and People v. Epps (1973) 34 Cal. App.3d 146 [109 Cal. Rptr. 733], the Attorney General next maintains it is not Bruton-Aranda error to admit extrajudicial statements that incriminate the defendant as well as the declarant codefendant when substantial independent evidence links the defendant to the crime. But at least when, as here, the classic Bruton situation is present  the codefendant's extrajudicial statements inculpate the defendant, the codefendant chooses not to take the stand, and the statements are deliberately spread before the jury in a joint trial  the substantiality of the other evidence goes not to whether the court erred in admitting the statements but to whether the manifest error thus committed was prejudicial. (See Parker v. Randolph, supra, 442 U.S. at pp. 74-75 [60 L.Ed.2d at pp. 724-725].) To the extent Jackson, Romo, and Epps suggest otherwise they are unsound (see People v. Jackson, supra, 92 Cal. App.3d at p. 564 (dis. opn. of Kaus, P.J.)) and are accordingly disapproved. (6) The Attorney General then argues that Bruton and Aranda apply only when there is present a codefendant's confession  viz., a complete and express acknowledgment of intentional participation in the crime ( People v. Morse (1969) 70 Cal.2d 721 [76 Cal. Rptr. 391, 452 P.2d 607])  as opposed to any statement that incriminates the other defendant as well as the declarant. He is incorrect. Both Bruton and Aranda use the broad term statement and the narrow term confession interchangeably, and neither expressly nor impliedly limits its reach to the latter. (See Bruton v. United States, supra, 391 U.S. at pp. 126, 132, 135 [20 L.Ed.2d at pp. 479, 483-485]; People v. Aranda, supra, 63 Cal.2d at pp. 528, 530, 531.) Moreover, all statements inculpating the declarant codefendant and the other defendant appear to fall within the rationale of the rule. Indeed, as People v. Fulks (1980) 110 Cal. App.3d 609, 616-617 [168 Cal. Rptr. 203], correctly implies, what is material for Bruton-Aranda analysis is not how the statement under review should be classified in the abstract  as a confession, an admission, or even an exculpatory declaration  but rather whether on the facts of the individual case it operates to inculpate the other defendant. Thus, the Attorney General fails to demonstrate that the applicability of the rule should turn on whether the statement in question can be technically categorized as a confession. [1] (7), (1c) The Attorney General's final argument, which rests on People v. Braun (1973) 29 Cal. App.3d 949 [106 Cal. Rptr. 56], is that the Bruton-Aranda rule does not apply because Sheila's statements were admitted not for their truth to implicate her in the murders, but solely to impeach the experts' opinion of her mental state. The argument runs as follows: the rule is predicated on the justified presumption that the jury is unable to follow an instruction which says, in essence, that `a confession is true insofar as it admits that A [the declarant] has committed criminal acts with B and at the same time effectively ignore[s] the inevitable conclusion that B has committed those same criminal acts with A' ( People v. Braun, supra, 29 Cal. App.3d at p. 972); the predicate is not present when, as here, the self-incriminating statements are not admitted against the declarant; in such a case, therefore, the rule should not apply. We are not persuaded. First, although both Bruton (391 U.S. at p. 131 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 482]) and Aranda (63 Cal.2d at p. 529) recognize the peculiarly difficult, if not impossible, task that the jury faces in taking the declarant codefendant's confession into account so far as it incriminates him but ignoring it so far as it incriminates the other defendant, neither suggests that the rule is premised on the presence of such a factual setting and hence applies only when such circumstances obtain. Such a predicate, moreover, is simply too narrow in light of the rationale of the Bruton and Aranda decisions. The unreliability of a codefendant's incriminating statements is plainly not affected by the purpose for which they are introduced at trial. Nor is their impact: as we have observed, the accusation of the person who claims not only to have witnessed the defendant's act but also to have been his partner in crime  for whatever purpose it is received  is manifestly the kind of evidence that jurors cannot put out of their minds. Rather, the true predicate is presented in the situation  like that in the case before us  in which the extrajudicial statements of a codefendant, who stands accused side-by-side with the defendant, are deliberately spread before the jury in a joint trial. ( Bruton, supra, 391 U.S. at pp. 135-136 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 485]; see Aranda, supra, 63 Cal.2d at pp. 528-529.) Indeed, that the applicability of the rule does not turn on the admission of the codefendant's extrajudicial statements for their truth is clearly implied in Bruton and Aranda themselves. In Aranda our discussion was based on the reasoning of Jackson v. Denno (1964) 378 U.S. 368 [12 L.Ed.2d 908, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 1 A.L.R.3d 1205], in which the United States Supreme Court held that a defendant is constitutionally entitled to have the court or possibly a separate jury determine his confession was voluntary before it is submitted to the trial jury for an assessment of its credibility. We explained: The court did not believe that a jury could separate the issue of the voluntariness of an extrajudicial statement from the issue of its truth. `If there are lingering doubts about the sufficiency of the other evidence, does the jury unconsciously lay them to rest by resort to the confession? Will uncertainty about the sufficiency of the other evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt actually result in acquittal when the jury knows the defendant has given a truthful confession. [¶] It is difficult, if not impossible, to prove that a confession which a jury has found to be involuntary has nevertheless influenced the verdict or that its finding of voluntariness, if this is the course it took, was affected by other evidence showing the confession was true.' [Citation.] It quoted from Justice Frankfurter's dissent in Delli Paoli to the effect that a jury should not be permitted to be influenced by evidence against a defendant that as a matter of law they cannot consider but as a matter of fact they cannot disregard, and cited Morgan, Some Problems of Proof under the Anglo-American System of Litigation (1956) pages 104-105, to the same effect. (63 Cal.2d at p. 528.) In basing our discussion on Jackson, therefore, we impliedly recognized that the jury's task was humanly impossible and hence a limiting instruction practically ineffective whenever such potentially prejudicial evidence was presented to the jury. In Bruton it is clearer still that the applicability of the rule does not depend on whether the codefendant's extrajudicial statement is admitted for its truth. In its discussion the United States Supreme Court looked back to Douglas v. Alabama (1965) 380 U.S. 415 [13 L.Ed.2d 934, 85 S.Ct. 1074], and discerned Bruton error there  even though the codefendant's incriminating statements in that case were not introduced for the truth of the matters stated therein, but only to refresh a witness's recollection. (391 U.S. at pp. 126-127 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 480].) In any event, it is not entirely accurate to say that Sheila's statements were not introduced for their truth. The jury, to be sure, was instructed to accept the statements only as bearing on the experts' opinion of her mental state. But during one expert's testimony, the following exchange took place. The Court: ... [T]he information given by the defendant [Sheila] Anders, to the doctor, is not being offered for the truth of those statements, but the information upon which the doctor based his opinion, and you are to accept it in that limited area.... [Prosecutor]: Thank you, Your Honor. Pardon me, Your Honor, but as these statements of this defendant relate to the events of the date [of the murders], I would be offering them for the truth of the matters asserted, in that I think they are admissions. The Court: Well, as to her, [Sheila]? [Prosecutor]: As to her only, of course. The Court: But not as to [defendant]. Thus, it is not improbable that as a result of the court-created confusion the jury or at least some of its members may have considered Sheila's statements on the issue of her guilt or innocence while attempting to ignore them insofar as they incriminated defendant  the very task that Bruton and Aranda held jurors were incapable of performing. Moreover, in his closing argument the prosecutor dwelled on the experts' testimony and quoted liberally from Sheila's extrajudicial statements incriminating defendant. Although he pointed out that his argument was intended solely to discredit the experts' opinions of Sheila's mental state, the inevitable effect of the argument was to increase the difficulty of the jury's task of ignoring the statements as they related to defendant. Indeed, at some points the prosecutor appeared to be arguing that Sheila's statements were to be considered for their truth. For example, he stated, she told [one expert] she implicated Freddie, her own brother, because she was afraid that [defendant] was going to get into trouble.... Doesn't that show she was still trying to protect [defendant], even after she said she saw him commit these two sickening murders, horrifying acts, and yet this doctor has the opinion that he already told you; after that, she still has the ability to try to blame it on her own brother, rather than tell the truth about what happened. To use words we used in Aranda, In his argument to the jury, the prosecutor linked the cases of the two defendants together and in effect urged [Sheila's statements] as evidence against [defendant]. (63 Cal.2d at p. 527.) Thus, In view of this summation, it is highly unlikely that the jury could have disregarded [Sheila's statements] when it decided the question of defendant['s] ... guilt or innocence. ( Id. at p. 527, fn. 5.) [2] The plurality opinion in Parker v. Randolph, supra, 442 U.S. 62, refutes the Attorney General's claim that the Bruton-Aranda rule is inapplicable on the facts of this case. The Parker plurality opinion gave Bruton the narrowest reading the United States Supreme Court has ever given that decision in concluding that the rule did not apply to a situation in which the defendant and his codefendant have given interlocking self-incriminating statements. In Cruz v. New York, supra, 481 U.S.  [95 L.Ed.2d 162, 107 S.Ct. 1714], however, the high court rejected that conclusion and held that the codefendant's interlocking statement is within the rule and, as such, is presumptively unreliable. But even as stated in Parker, the rule is applicable here. In pertinent part the reasoning of the Parker plurality opinion is as follows.  Bruton recognized that admission at a joint trial of the incriminating extrajudicial statements of a nontestifying codefendant can have `devastating' consequences to a nonconfessing defendant, adding `substantial, perhaps even critical, weight to the Government's case.' [Citations.] Such statements go to the jury untested by cross-examination and, indeed, perhaps unanswered altogether unless the defendant waives his Fifth Amendment privilege and takes the stand. The prejudicial impact of a codefendant's confession upon an incriminated defendant who has, insofar as the jury is concerned, maintained his innocence from the beginning is simply too great in such cases to be cured by a limiting instruction. The same cannot be said, however, when the defendant's own confession  probably the most probative and damaging evidence that can be admitted against him,' [citation]  is properly introduced at trial. The defendant is `the most knowledgeable and unimpeachable source of information about his past conduct,' [citation], and one can scarcely imagine evidence more damaging to his defense than his own admission of guilt. Thus, the incriminating statements of a codefendant will seldom, if ever, be of the `devastating' character referred to in Bruton when the incriminated defendant has admitted his own guilt. The right protected by Bruton  the `constitutional right of cross-examination,' [citation]  has far less practical value to a defendant who has confessed to the crime than to one who has consistently maintained his innocence. Successfully impeaching a codefendant's confession on cross-examination would likely yield small advantage to the defendant whose own admission of guilt stands before the jury unchallenged. Nor does the natural `motivation to shift blame onto others,' recognized by the Bruton Court to render the incriminating statements of codefendants `inevitably suspect,' [citation], require application of the Bruton rule when the incriminated defendant has corroborated his codefendant's statements by heaping blame onto himself. (442 U.S. at pp. 72-73 [60 L.Ed.2d at p. 723].) The facts of this case plainly come within even the narrow compass of the Bruton rule that the Parker plurality opinion traced. Sheila's extrajudicial statements are potentially prejudicial because they directly implicate defendant, who had maintained his innocence from the beginning, in the murders of Coselman and Flanagan. They are also inherently unreliable: present is the natural motivation on the part of Sheila to shift blame onto others; absent is any corroboration in the form of statements by defendant heaping blame onto himself. (8a) Whether the error is reversible is the question to which we now turn. (9) It is established, of course, that Bruton-Aranda error is not prejudicial per se. Brown v. United States (1973) 411 U.S. 223, 231-232 [36 L.Ed.2d 208, 215, 93 S.Ct. 1565], Schneble v. Florida (1972) 405 U.S. 427, 430 [31 L.Ed.2d 340, 346, 92 S.Ct. 1056]; People v. Floyd, supra, 1 Cal.3d at p. 721, People v. Flores (1968) 68 Cal.2d 563, 568, fn. 5 [68 Cal. Rptr. 161, 440 P.2d 233]; see, e.g., Harrington v. California (1969) 395 U.S. 250, 252-254 [23 L.Ed.2d 284, 286-288, 89 S.Ct. 1726]; People v. Leach (1975) 15 Cal.3d 419 [124 Cal. Rptr. 752, 541 P.2d 296].) But because it implicates a federal constitutional right, such error must be scrutinized under the harmless-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard of Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18 [17 L.Ed.2d 705, 87 S.Ct. 824, 24 A.L.R.3d 1065]. ( People v. Leach, supra, at p. 446; see, e.g., Brown v. United States, supra, at pp. 231-232 [36 L.Ed.2d at p. 215]; Schneble v. Florida, supra, at p. 430 [31 L.Ed.2d at p. 344]; Harrington v. California, supra, at pp. 252-254 [23 L.Ed.2d at pp. 286-288]; People v. Floyd, supra, at p. 721; People v. Flores, supra, at p. 568.) Under that test, we must determine on the basis of `our own reading of the record and on what seems to us to have been the probable impact ... on the minds of the average jury,' [citation], whether [Sheila's] admissions were sufficiently prejudicial to [defendant] as to require reversal. ( Schneble v. Florida, supra, 405 U.S. at p. 432 [31 L.Ed.2d at p. 345]; accord, Harrington v. California, supra, 395 U.S. at p. 254 [23 L.Ed.2d at pp. 287-288]; People v. Leach, supra, 15 Cal.3d at p. 447.) In performing this task we look for guidance to the following cases, in which the reversibility of Bruton-Aranda error has been considered: Brown v. United States, supra, 411 U.S. 223; Schneble v. Florida, supra, 405 U.S. 427; Harrington v. California, supra, 395 U.S. 250; People v. Leach, supra, 15 Cal.3d 419; People v. Floyd, supra, 1 Cal.3d 694; In re Whitehorn (1969) 1 Cal.3d 504 [82 Cal. Rptr. 609, 462 P.2d 361]; In re Lara (1969) 1 Cal.3d 486 [82 Cal. Rptr. 628, 462 P.2d 380]; In re Hill (1969) 71 Cal.2d 997 [80 Cal. Rptr. 537, 458 P.2d 449]; In re Sears (1969) 71 Cal.2d 379 [78 Cal. Rptr. 180, 455 P.2d 116]; and People v. Flores, supra, 68 Cal.2d 563. In each of the cases in which the error was held harmless, two elements were present: (1) the properly admitted evidence was overwhelming; and (2) the evidence provided by the incriminating extrajudicial statement was cumulative of other direct evidence presented either through eyewitness testimony ( People v. Floyd, supra, 1 Cal.3d at pp. 702, 720-721), or out of the defendant's own mouth ( Schneble v. Florida, supra, 405 U.S. at pp. 430-432 [31 L.Ed.2d at pp. 344-345]; People v. Leach, supra, 15 Cal.3d at pp. 446-448; In re Whitehorn, supra, 1 Cal.3d at pp. 512-517; In re Lara, supra, 1 Cal.3d at pp. 488-490; People v. Flores, supra, 68 Cal.2d at pp. 565, 568), or both ( Brown v. United States, supra, 411 U.S. at pp. 224-227, 230-232 [36 L.Ed.2d at pp. 211-215]; Harrington v. California, supra, 395 U.S. at pp. 252-254 [23 L.Ed.2d at pp. 286-288]; In re Hill, supra, 71 Cal.2d at pp. 1013-1015). By contrast, in In re Sears, supra, 71 Cal.2d at pages 383-388, in which the error was not held harmless, neither element was present. From these cases, therefore, the following rule may be derived: if the properly admitted evidence is overwhelming and the incriminating extrajudicial statement is merely cumulative of other direct evidence, the error will be deemed harmless. (8b) Here the properly admitted evidence is overwhelming: Fred's crucial testimony was largely that of an eyewitness; it was internally consistent; and it was corroborated by physical evidence  notably, the presence near the bodies of shoeprints matching defendant's and Sheila's shoes. Moreover, there is other direct evidence that incriminates defendant in substantially the same respects as Sheila's extrajudicial statements  viz., the testimony of Fred. His testimony, it is true, does not provide an eyewitness account of the killing of Flanagan, as Sheila's statements do. Its failure to do so, however, is not critical on the facts of this case. At trial the prosecution and defense in effect agreed that one and the same person murdered both victims; they disagreed on who that person was. Fred's testimony identified defendant as the killer  with respect, specifically, to Coselman; Sheila's statements did the same  with respect, specifically, to Flanagan. Fred's testimony, therefore, effectively incriminates defendant on the same material point as do Sheila's statements. Thus, it follows that Sheila's extrajudicial statements implicating defendant in the kidnapping, robbery, and murder of Coselman and Flanagan were merely cumulative of other properly admitted direct evidence. Accordingly, we conclude that in this case the Bruton-Aranda error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. [3]