Opinion ID: 1176325
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Denial of the Motion for Severance

Text: (5a) Defendant's argument that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his pretrial motion for severance of the Fox counts from the Schatz counts to permit separate trials is not persuasive. We agree that the manner in which the crimes were committed was not sufficiently similar to reflect a common modus operandi. Therefore, contrary to the People's assertion, evidence of each murder was not admissible to establish the identity of the killer and was not cross-admissible. However, it does not follow that denial of the motion was an abuse of discretion. Here, the state's interest in joinder was not outweighed by the potential of prejudice. Section 954 [6] authorizes joinder of offenses of the same class and offenses connected together in their commission. These criteria were met here: the two murders are offenses of the same class, and the related crimes were connected in their commission to the murders. Section 954 also provides, however, that a trial court may order severance in the trial of otherwise joinable offenses when it appears that separate trials are required in the interest of justice. The provision reflects an apparent legislative recognition that severance may be necessary in some cases to satisfy the overriding constitutional guaranty of due process to ensure defendants a fair trial. (See Williams v. Superior Court (1984) 36 Cal.3d 441, 452 [204 Cal. Rptr. 700, 683 P.2d 699].) (6) As this court noted in Williams, the potential for prejudice in joining unrelated offenses in a single trial lies in the introduction of other crimes evidence from which the jury might infer that the defendant has a criminal disposition  a factor which the jury is not permitted to consider in determining his guilt of the charged offense. (Evid. Code, § 1101, subd. (a); 36 Cal.3d at 448.) Nonetheless, the trial court's discretion under section 954 to deny severance is broader than its discretion to admit evidence of uncharged crimes under Evidence Code section 1101 [7] because additional factors favor joinder. The rule derived from People v. Matson (1974) 13 Cal.3d 35, 41 [117 Cal. Rptr. 664, 528 P.2d 752], and Coleman v. Superior Court (1981) 116 Cal. App.3d 129, 138-139 [172 Cal. Rptr. 86], makes this distinction and recognizes that trial of the counts together ordinarily avoids the increased expenditure of funds and judicial resources which may result if the charges were to be tried in two or more separate trials. A ruling on a motion to sever is based on a weighing of the probative value of any cross-admissible evidence against the prejudicial effect of evidence the jury would not otherwise hear, but in the weighing process the beneficial results of joinder are added to the probative value side. Therefore a defendant seeking severance must make an even stronger showing of prejudicial effect than would be required in determining whether to admit other-crimes evidence in a severed trial. ( Williams v. Superior Court, supra, 36 Cal.3d 441, 451.) (7) When a trial court considering a defendant's motion for severance of unrelated counts has determined that the evidence of the joined offenses is not cross-admissible, it must then assess the relative strength of the evidence as to each group of severable counts and weigh the potential impact of the jury's consideration of other crimes evidence. I.e., the court must assess the likelihood that a jury not otherwise convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt of one or more of the charged offenses might permit the knowledge of the defendant's other criminal activity to tip the balance and convict him. (See Williams v. Superior Court, supra, 36 Cal.3d 441, 451.) If the court finds a likelihood that this may occur, severance should be granted. We turn now to the application of these rules to the case at hand, considering the matter on the basis of the evidence before the court at the time of its ruling. ( People v. Brawley (1969) 1 Cal.3d 277, 292 [82 Cal. Rptr. 161, 461 P.2d 361].) (8a) The People argued and the trial court agreed, that the evidence of the Schatz offenses would be admissible in a separate trial of the Fox charges because it disclosed a distinctive modus operandi, i.e., that there was a sufficient number of distinctive marks in the manner in which the two murders were committed as to give rise to a reasonable inference that they had been committed by the same person. The evidence relevant to the Schatz murder would have been admissible, therefore, in a separate trial on the Fox charges to prove the identity of the perpetrator. ( People v. Thornton (1974) 11 Cal.3d 738, 755-760 [114 Cal. Rptr. 467, 523 P.2d 267], cert. den. (1975) 420 U.S. 924 [43 L.Ed.2d 393, 95 S.Ct. 1118], disapproved on other grounds, People v. Flannel (1979) 25 Cal.3d 668 [160 Cal. Rptr. 84, 603 P.2d 1].) In support of this theory of admissibility the People noted that the judge was aware from the evidence that the murders occurred three days apart in close proximity, both victims died as a result of brutal blows to the head area, both victims were elderly women who were robbed and their homes burglarized, and in each instance an automobile belonging to the victim was taken and abandoned in the same vicinity. We do not agree that this evidence demonstrated a common modus operandi and thus warrants an inference that the same person committed each. (9) To be admissible as modus operandi evidence there must be common marks which, considered singly or in combination, support the strong inference that defendant committed both crimes. ( People v. Alcala (1984) 36 Cal.3d 604, 632 [205 Cal. Rptr. 775, 685 P.2d 1126].) These common marks must be distinctive rather than ordinary aspects of any such category of crime. They must be sufficiently distinctive that they bear defendant's unique signature. Reaching a conclusion that offenses are signature crimes requires a comparison of the degree of distinctiveness of shared marks with the common or minimally distinctive aspects of each crime. ( Id. at pp. 632-633; see also Williams, supra, 36 Cal.3d at p. 450; People v. Guerrero (1976) 16 Cal.3d 719, 725 [129 Cal. Rptr. 166, 548 P.2d 366]; People v. Antick (1975) 15 Cal.3d 79, 93-94 [123 Cal. Rptr. 475, 539 P.2d 43]; People v. Thornton, supra, 11 Cal.3d 738, 756; People v. Haston (1968) 63 Cal.2d 233, 245-247 [70 Cal. Rptr. 419, 444 P.2d 91].) (8b) In the present case, the Fox and Schatz crimes were similar in that they occurred in the same neighborhood, within 10 to 12 blocks of each other, and involved entry into each victim's home. Both attacks involved blunt trauma to the head and an obvious motive of theft. The crimes occurred within three days of one another and both concluded with theft of the victim's car and abandonment of the car in the same general area. These factors are not unique, however, and do not establish a unique modus operandi. In fact, the crimes were quite dissimilar. Although both were committed in the southern area of Sacramento, the Fox murder occurred in a house approximately a mile from the site of the Schatz mobilehome. The Schatz offenses involved entry into a residence occupied by a married couple, an entry by two persons through a window from which the screen had been removed in the early hours of the morning while the residents were asleep. The murder victim was 56 years old. The Fox offenses were initiated in a daylight assault by a single perpetrator against a 65-year-old woman outside her home. In the Schatz murder and assault a weapon, a ball-peen hammer, was used. In the Fox murder, there was no evidence that a weapon other than a hand or foot was used. In the Schatz homicide, the hammer was used with such force that there were numerous fractures of the murder victim's skull. The nose of Eileen Fox was broken, but her death was caused not as a direct result of the battery, but from a heart attack. Numerous items of property were taken from the Schatz residence. Only the victim's purse was taken from the Fox home. The distinctions were significant and in combination tend to negate, rather than support, an inference that the same person committed each group of offenses. (5b) The evidence, therefore, was not cross-admissible. Having reached this conclusion, we must consider whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying the motion for severance, or whether the benefits of joinder were sufficiently substantial to outweigh the possible spill-over effect of the other-crimes evidence on the jury in its consideration of the evidence of defendant's guilt of each set of offenses. In cases in which the evidence to be introduced relates to an uncharged offense the People, as the proponent of the evidence, bear the burden of persuading the judge that the potential prejudice from the jury becoming aware of the uncharged offense is outweighed by the probative value of the evidence. This is proper because evidence of uncharged offenses is generally inadmissible. (Evid. Code, § 1101; People v. Anderson (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1104, 1136 [240 Cal. Rptr. 585, 742 P.2d 1306].) Admission of the evidence involves, inter alia, the danger of confusing the issues, introducing collateral matters, or tempting the jury to condemn defendant because he has escaped adequate punishment in the past. ( People v. Thompson (1980) 27 Cal.3d 303, 317, & fn. 18 [165 Cal. Rptr. 289, 611 P.2d 883].) It is therefore appropriate, when the evidence is of an uncharged offense, to place on the People the burden of establishing that the evidence has substantial probative value that clearly outweighs its inherent prejudicial effect. ( Id. at p. 318.) The burden is reversed, however, when the offense to which the evidence is relevant is a charged offense, properly joined with another for trial. (10) The prosecution is entitled to join offenses under the circumstances specified in section 954. The burden is on the party seeking severance to clearly establish that there is a substantial danger of prejudice requiring that the charges be separately tried. ( People v. Ruiz (1988) 44 Cal.3d 589, 605 [244 Cal. Rptr. 200, 749 P.2d 854]; People v. Balderas (1985) 41 Cal.3d 144, 173 [222 Cal. Rptr. 184, 711 P.2d 480].) When the offenses are joined for trial the defendant's guilt of all the offenses is at issue and the problem of confusing the jury with collateral matters does not arise. The other-crimes evidence does not relate to offense for which the defendant may have escaped punishment. That the evidence would otherwise be inadmissible may be considered as a factor suggesting possible prejudice, but countervailing considerations that are not present when evidence of uncharged offenses is offered must be weighed in ruling on a severance motion. The burden is on the defendant therefore to persuade the court that these countervailing considerations are outweighed by a substantial danger of undue prejudice. [8] (5c) Defendant did not carry that burden. The potential prejudice he demonstrated was not such that the court's denial of severance was an abuse of discretion. This is not a case in which, at the time the ruling was made, the evidence of defendant's guilt of one or more of the joined offenses was weak, while evidence of the other was strong. [9] And neither offense was particularly inflammatory in comparison with the other. There was substantial evidence of defendant's involvement in each. His own admissions implicated him in the Schatz offenses, and his fingerprint on the sunglasses found near the body of Eileen Fox strongly implied his involvement in her murder. [10] It did not appear reasonably likely, therefore, that the jury would be influenced in determining defendant's guilt of either group of offenses by knowledge of the other. The benefits to the state of joinder, on the other hand, were significant. Foremost among these benefits is the conservation of judicial resources and public funds. A unitary trial requires a single courtroom, judge, and court attaches. Only one group of jurors need serve, and the expenditure of time for jury voir dire and trial is greatly reduced over that required were the cases separately tried. In addition, the public is served by the reduced delay on disposition of criminal charges both in trial and through the appellate process. These considerations outweigh the minimal likelihood of prejudice through joinder of the charges in this case. Denial of severance, therefore, was not an abuse of discretion. (11), (5d) Although we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the pretrial motion for severance, when the issue is raised on appeal we must also consider the actual impact at trial of the joinder. (See Pointer v. United States (1894) 151 U.S. 396, 403-404 [38 L.Ed. 208, 212, 14 S.Ct. 410]; People v. Kelly (1928) 203 Cal. 128, 134 [263 P. 226].) Here we look to the evidence actually introduced at trial to determine whether a gross unfairness has occurred such as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial or due process of law. ( People v. Turner (1984) 37 Cal.3d 302, 313 [208 Cal. Rptr. 196, 690 P.2d 669].) Having done so, we find neither actual nor potential prejudice such as to render the trial grossly unfair and thus deny due process. Although at trial the reliability of the fingerprint evidence in the Fox murder was disputed, other evidence pointed to defendant as the perpetrator. His contradictory explanation of his ownership of those or similar sunglasses; his presence in the neighborhood when he was seen possibly casing the home; his familiarity with the route to the Florin Meadows apartments from the location at which the victim's car and wallet were abandoned, as well as fingerprint evidence was sufficiently persuasive evidence of his guilt that it is not reasonably probable that the jury was influenced in its verdict of guilt of the Fox crimes by its knowledge of his involvement in the Schatz offenses. (See United States v. Bagley (1985) 473 U.S. 667, 682 [87 L.Ed.2d 481, 494, 105 S.Ct. 3375].) The evidence of his guilt of the latter was, of course, very strong and no spillover effect of the Fox evidence could have affected the Schatz verdicts. We conclude, therefore, that the trial court properly denied the motion for severance, and that joinder of the Schatz and Fox counts for trial does not require reversal.