Opinion ID: 2633199
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Defense Investigation

Text: The referee's findings include the following, supported by substantial evidence and unchallenged by either party: Defense Counsel James Chaffee had copies of the police report from an August 17, 1985, interview with Vivian Cercy and both a tape and written summary of an August 29, 1985, public defender investigator interview with Cercy. In the police interview, one day after the killings, Cercy stated that sometime Thursday evening she had had an argument with her boyfriend, Harry Shorman, and had drunk `quite a bit.' She drove with her two small children to a dumpster. While throwing away her trash, Cercy claimed to have seen a white female and two white males possibly arguing. The female was described as about five feet, six inches or five feet, seven inches and stocky. One male was described as being about 23 to 25 years old, clean shaven, with blond hair. Cercy thought the other male was in his late twenties, with dark curly hair and possibly a beard; he might have been wearing overalls. Cercy overheard the blond [man] say, `[W]e need this, this is worth money,' and believed he placed something in his waistband. She could not tell what it was but thought it might be a revolver or handgun. Cercy was positive the item was not a rifle because of its length. Cercy reportedly heard the woman say, `[P]ut it back, I don't want to be part of it,' or words to that effect. She then walked away. Cercy invited the woman to stay in her car but the woman laughed and continued walking down the road. She then believed the blond man said something to the effect of `I'll take care of this,' and followed the woman. Cercy drove to another location and about 15 minutes later heard what she thought were two or three firecrackers or possibly shots. She drove to where she had seen the people walking but did not see anybody. Cercy then returned to her original location and did not see anything else. Cercy provided similar information in her August 29, 1985, interview with an Alameda County Public Defender's Office investigator. In that interview, according to the investigator's summary, Cercy said: [A]t some point on the day of the killings, at a time she could not recall, [she] drove to a dumpster outside Rainbow Village to throw away her trash. She claimed to have seen the victims and a man she called Bo. Cercy described Bo as about six feet tall with blond hair. She stated that Bo was no longer in Rainbow Village and she did not know when he left or where he went. Cercy did not know the names of the murder victims until after the killings but called them Mary and Greg in her statement. Cercy thought Bo and Mary were arguing about a long object in Bo's hand. Mary said something to the effect of `[G]ive it back,' but Bo put what looked like a foot-long gun in the front part of his waist band. Mary again said to `[G]ive it back,' but Bo said, `No, I need this. It could be money for us.' Mary said she did not want any part of it and walked towards University Avenue. Cercy told Mary to get into her car but Mary refused, said she would be all right, and kept walking. Cercy heard Bo tell Greg he would take care of it and walked by Cercy's car. As the man she called `Bo' passed[,] Cercy asked him his name, but the man kept walking. Cercy thought he was going after Mary. Cercy parked along the roadside and about 15 minutes later heard what sounded like three firecrackers going off. She estimated the time as between midnight and 4:00 a.m. Cercy then drove towards University Avenue and back but did not see anyone. A couple of hours later, she saw Bo at the water washing his hands and wiping them on the ground. Cercy drove back to Rainbow Village where she saw Bo washing his hands [again] in a basin just outside the Village. She again parked on the roadway. About 20 to 30 minutes later, Cercy heard two male voices, one of which sounded white, talking behind her car. The person with the white voice said, `Leave her alone; she's got two kids.' A few seconds later there was a knock on the window of the driver's door and Cercy saw a man wearing a pea coat. He asked her name and where she was staying. [Cercy told the man she was staying with Harry Shorman.] When he asked what color bus Harry owned, Cercy asked the man why he was questioning her. The man said he was going to kill her. Cercy immediately blanked the man's face out of her mind and could give no description[,] including the color of his skin. The man walked away without saying anything else. Chaffee spoke with Cercy about what she had seen and about the man she called Bo. Chaffee had a description of Bo from Cercy: White, blond, tall, thin, and about 25 years old. He recognized that the prosecution's case rested on circumstantial evidence. Thus, Chaffee believed it would be important to corroborate Cercy's story about seeing the possibly armed Bo arguing with Gioia the night of the killings. He believed it would have been helpful to determine whether Bo existed. Chaffee knew the area around Rainbow Village consisted of two communities: permanent residents and transient visitors. Many of the transient visitors were followers of the Grateful Dead. Chaffee knew both victims were members of the Grateful Dead community, not part of the Rainbow Village community. Similarly, he spoke to people who surmised Bo was tied to the Grateful Dead community. Thus, Chaffee agreed at the evidentiary hearing that it would have been logical to do an investigation in the Grateful Dead community to try to locate Bo. In conducting his investigation, Chaffee spoke only with Rainbow Village residents; though Chaffee had a description of Bo, he did not know where to look further for him. He did not talk to anyone in the Grateful Dead community. The band had left the area, but Chaffee did not ask anyone how one might go about tracking down Deadheads. He did not know that the band published an itinerary. He knew the band returned to the Bay Area during the pretrial period, but did not send anyone to the concert or concerts to speak with any Deadheads. He did not ask the Alameda County Public Defender's investigations unit to do any investigation, either in the Grateful Dead community or elsewhere. He also did not ask his assisting attorney, Susan Walsh, to do any investigation. Instead, Chaffee conducted his investigation personally, in order to get a feel for the potential value of each witness at trial. We adopt these unopposed findings concerning the scope of the defense investigation.