Opinion ID: 2631133
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Juror V.'s conversation with her employer

Text: In seeking a new trial, defendant asserted that Juror V. had engaged in misconduct. At the hearing on the motion, defendant presented the following evidence: Susan Arganda testified she was an employee at Allstate Insurance in the City of Orange and was a close friend of defendant's sister, Sylvia Tafoya. On March 21, 1995, William Cole, house counsel for Allstate Insurance, came to the regional office where Arganda worked, and Arganda overheard him telling another person that one of his employees, Juror V., was on jury duty. Cole said the case involved two men who went into a crack house and killed two other men. He said his employee was very depressed over the death penalty, had been on jury duty for two months, and then went back for the penalty phase. Cole, Arganda testified, told the other person that Juror V. had spoken with Cole about death row inmates and that Juror V. felt better after Cole told her not all men that are sentenced to death row actually get the death penalty. Cole testified that his employee, Juror V., was on jury duty during March and April 1995. Although he remembered speaking to Juror V. about her jury duty, he could not remember when this conversation took place. He recalled having a conversation about the death penalty with some employee but was unsure which one. Cole talked with Juror V. on several occasions because she was very emotionally distressed but had never discussed the particulars of the case. His concern in talking with Juror V. was to try to calm her down and make herallow her to make it through this whole process of being a juror on this case. Cole told Juror V. to listen to the judge and to follow the evidence. He recalled having only a single conversation with Juror V. that focused on the death penalty. At that time, Cole told Juror V. that many people on death row do not get executed. Cole assumed that this conversation occurred before the jury had returned its penalty phase verdict but he had no information to support his assumption. Juror V. testified that she had spoken about the case with her employer, Cole, but she was certain she had done so after the penalty verdict because it was after the trial judge said the jurors were free to discuss the case. According to Juror V., Cole said she should follow the judge's instructions. Cole also stated that many people on death row are never executed. During this conversation, Juror V. thought Cole assumed that defendant's trial was still going on and that the jury had not yet reached a verdict; she did not correct this erroneous assumption. After the conclusion of the guilt phase, Juror V. asked Cole for more time off for the penalty phase. She denied telling Cole that she was depressed about the case but thought that her distress probably showed [in her] face. Juror V. also denied discussing the facts of the case with Cole or anyone else before the jury had reached its penalty phase verdict. The trial court took judicial notice that the jury returned the penalty phase verdict on March 3, 1995, almost three, weeks before Arganda, on March 21, 1995, overheard a conversation between Cole and another person in which Cole said his employee, Juror V., was serving on a jury. The court found the evidence did not support a finding of juror misconduct and denied defendant's motion for new trial. On appeal, defendant contends this ruling was erroneous. As earlier explained, we uphold a trial court's findings of fact and determinations of credibility when supported by substantial evidence. ( People v. Danks, supra, 32 Cal.4th at p. 304, 8 Cal.Rptr.3d 767, 82 P.3d 1249.) Here, in concluding that no misconduct occurred, the trial court found that Juror V.'s conversation with Cole, during which Cole said some death row inmates are' never executed, took place after the conclusion of the penalty phase deliberations at which the jury returned the death verdict. Evidence supporting that finding came from Juror V., who testified she did not discuss the case with Cole until after completion of the trial, when the trial court told the jurors they could talk about the case. Cole could not remember when he spoke with Juror V. Arganda recalled that it was March 21, 1995 (some three weeks after the conclusion of penalty phase in this case) that she overheard Cole telling someone about his conversation with Juror V. Thus, substantial evidence supports the trial court's finding.