Opinion ID: 1195356
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: Testimony of Michael T.

Text: Defendant contends the trial court erred in admitting into evidence certain testimony of prosecution witness Michael T., a child who observed the murder of Detective Williams. Defendant contends Michael T. testified falsely when he stated he observed blood running from the lip of Detective Williams's son after the shooting. Defendant contends that the testimony was irrelevant and inflammatory, that it was elicited in bad faith by the prosecution, and that its admission constituted a violation of his right to due process of law. Defendant objected on relevance grounds after the prosecutor already had asked the witness several questions concerning his observation that the victim's son appeared to have been injured in the shooting. The objection was sustained. It later was stipulated that Detective Williams's widow had not observed any injury to her son after the murder and that the child had received no medical treatment. When defendant made a motion for mistrial two weeks after Michael T.'s testimony on the ground the prosecutor knowingly elicited false testimony from Michael T. regarding an apparent injury to the victim's son, the court noted that defense counsel had not objected when the witness first volunteered that Detective Williams's son appeared to have been injured, and that it was too late to tell the jury to disregard the evidence. The prosecutor explained that he had not expected the witness to testify as he did and that it was not clear that this testimony was mistaken until Mrs. Williams later confirmed that she had observed no injury. The court determined that the prosecutor had not knowingly elicited false testimony, but that probably the witness simply had been mistaken  a circumstance that could be exploited by the defendant. The court instructed the prosecutor not to use the evidence in argument to the jury. It appears defendant did not make a timely objection to the admission of the evidence at the time Michael T. first stated he had seen blood on the victim's son, so the claim may be deemed waived. (See People v. Mickey, supra, 54 Cal.3d at p. 669, 286 Cal.Rptr. 801, 818 P.2d 84.) Even if the issue has been preserved by defendant's tardy objection and his subsequent motion for mistrial on the ground that the admission of the evidence was the result of prosecutorial misconduct, and even assuming the doubtful proposition that it was an abuse of discretion to admit the evidence or to fail to instruct the jury to disregard it, any error obviously was harmless. The jury had before it the stipulation that the child's mother would testify he was not injured, so the probative value of Michael T.'s contrary testimony was minimal. Defendant apparently believes the evidence was prejudicial in that it would elicit sympathy for the victim's son and give rise to the inflammatory inference that defendant endangered the son's safety; other evidence that defendant gunned down the father in a spray of bullets as father and son approached their vehicle would give rise to the same sympathy and support the same inference. The contention that the prosecutor intentionally presented or failed to correct misleading evidence or encouraged the giving of mistaken and inflammatory testimony is without merit; there is substantial evidence supporting the trial court's determination that the prosecutor did not know the witness would testify as he did, and the prosecutor did not exploit the testimony which he later concluded was probably mistaken. As the trial court observed, it is not unheard of that a witness may be mistaken in his or her testimony; it is the purpose of cross-examination to elicit the truth for the jury. Defendant also contends the court improperly overruled his objection to the admission of evidence showing that some of the bullets fired by defendant during the fusillade on Detective Williams lodged in the wall of a classroom in the Faith Baptist Church School. Defendant contends this evidence was irrelevant and unduly prejudicial, but it was not; the number of shots fired and the circumstance that the shots sprayed over a relatively broad area were relevant to demonstrate defendant's determination to kill Detective Williams  in essence, that he mowed the officer down. This was relevant to prove malice aforethought. The evidence was not unduly prejudicial, nor was it presented in an inflammatory manner. Although defendant contends that this evidence was irrelevant and unduly prejudicial if considered by the jury at the penalty phase of the trial, it obviously was relevant as a circumstance of the crime of which defendant was convicted. (§ 190.3, factor (a).)