Opinion ID: 1391736
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Admissibility of Accomplice's Statement

Text: (22) Defendant urges that the trial court erred in permitting the witness Gaines to testify concerning remarks made to her by the accomplice Boyd which assertedly implicated defendant. Gaines testified in effect that Boyd had denied complicity in the Curtis murder and had asked Gaines to inquire of defendant why defendant had involved Boyd in the murder. Gaines also testified that Boyd told her he knew the person who had killed Curtis. The court at this point terminated any further inquiry on the subject. Under defendant's theory, because Boyd was not present at trial as a witness and was therefore unavailable for cross-examination, the admission of his remarks violated defendant's right to confront adverse witnesses. (See Bruton v. United States (1968) 391 U.S. 123 [20 L.Ed.2d 476, 88 S.Ct. 1620]; People v. Aranda (1965) 63 Cal.2d 518, 530-531 [47 Cal. Rptr. 353, 407 P.2d 265].) The Bruton and Aranda rules concern the admissibility of a codefendant's statements during the conduct of a joint trial. In the present case, defendant was tried separately from Boyd. Accordingly, a more applicable legal principle is the hearsay rule, which (in the absence of an exception to the rule) renders inadmissible a statement made other than by a witness while testifying at the hearing and that is offered to prove the truth of the matter stated. (Evid. Code, § 1200; see People v. Preston (1973) 9 Cal.3d 308, 313-316 [107 Cal. Rptr. 300, 508 P.2d 300]; People v. Simmons (1946) 28 Cal.2d 699, 712 [172 P.2d 18].) We find it unnecessary, however, to determine whether the testimony of the witness Gaines was admissible under some exception to the hearsay rule for, closely examined, her testimony regarding Boyd's statements was innocuous and did not implicate defendant. The evidence of defendant's involvement in the Curtis murder was overwhelming. It included defendant's own admissions to Gaines, Debria Lewis, Debra Hall, cellmates Mikles and McFarland, and the interrogating officers. Under the circumstances, it is not reasonably probable that the jury would have reached a more favorable verdict but for the admission of the foregoing testimony from the witness Gaines. Accordingly, any error in admitting it was clearly harmless. ( People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836-837 [299 P.2d 243]; see also Parker v. Randolph (1979) 442 U.S. 62 [60 L.Ed.2d 713, 99 S.Ct. 2132] [opns. of Renquist and Blackmun, JJ.].)