Opinion ID: 844263
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Omission of Evidentiary Instructions

Text: At the penalty retrial, the trial court gave the standard penalty phase instructions but failed to instruct the jury with the applicable evidentiary instructions set out in CALJIC Nos. 1.00 through 2.92. [20] Soliz and Gonzales contend, and the Attorney General acknowledges, that the trial court erred in not giving the evidentiary instructions. However, as we conclude below, following People v. Carter, supra, 30 Cal.4th at pages 1221-1222, any error in omitting the instructions was harmless under state and federal standards of review. (35) As an initial matter, Soliz contends the error here is structural and cannot be assessed under a harmless error standard because, unlike in People v. Carter, supra, 30 Cal.4th 1166, the trial court also gave an abbreviated reasonable doubt instruction, omitting the first paragraph of CALJIC No. 2.90, which sets out the presumption of innocence and specifies that the prosecutor bears the burden of proof. We reject the contention. The penalty phase jury need not be instructed as to any burden of proof in selecting the penalty to be imposed. ( People v. Burgener, supra, 29 Cal.4th at p. 885.) A penalty phase jury is, however, instructed about reasonable doubt in connection with section 190.3, factors (b) and (c), namely, that before the jury can consider any prior felony convictions or any unadjudicated violent criminal activity as aggravating circumstances, it must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had in fact been convicted of the prior crime or committed the unadjudicated criminal activity. ( People v. Morrison (2004) 34 Cal.4th 698, 730-731 [21 Cal.Rptr.3d 682, 101 P.3d 568]; People v. Williams, supra, 49 Cal.4th at p. 459.) The trial court so instructed the jury here with CALJIC Nos. 8.86 and 8.87, and defined reasonable doubt with the second paragraph of CALJIC No. 2.90. [21] A trial court need not instruct on the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof in defining reasonable doubt for CALJIC Nos. 8.86 and 8.87 at the penalty phase; the court is required only to give the definition of reasonable doubt that comprises the second paragraph of CALJIC No. 2.90. ( People v. Welch (1999) 20 Cal.4th 701, 768 [85 Cal.Rptr.2d 203, 976 P.2d 754].) We have so held both when the same jury decides guilt and penalty and also when, as here, a second jury determines penalty. ( People v. Rodrigues (1994) 8 Cal.4th 1060, 1190-1191 [36 Cal.Rptr.2d 235, 885 P.2d 1] [same jury]; People v. Davenport (1995) 11 Cal.4th 1171, 1189, 1228 [47 Cal.Rptr.2d 800, 906 P.2d 1068] [penalty retrial jury].) We therefore reject Soliz's structural error argument and consider whether the court's failure to give the evidentiary instructions caused harm. In Carter, the trial court instructed the jury at the penalty phase with CALJIC No. 8.84.1, which tells the jury to disregard the guilt phase instructions, but the court neglected to reinstruct the jury with applicable evidentiary instructions from CALJIC Nos. 1.00 through 3.31. ( People v. Carter, supra, 30 Cal.4th at p. 1218.) We rejected the contention the omission of the evidentiary instructions necessarily required reversal, and conducted harmless error analysis to determine whether it was likely the omitted instructions affected the jury's evaluation of the evidence. ( People v. Moon (2005) 37 Cal.4th 1, 38 [32 Cal.Rptr.3d 894, 117 P.3d 591].) Although the present case involves a penalty retrial jury that received no evidentiary instructions (rather than, as in Carter, a jury that received evidentiary instructions at the guilt phase but was instructed to disregard them at the penalty phase), the same principle logically applies. Soliz contends the omission of evidentiary instructions prevented the jury from properly evaluating Gonzales's testimony at the penalty retrial, and that this prejudiced Soliz's defense that Gonzales, not Soliz, had shot Skyles and Price. One of the omitted instructions, CALJIC No. 2.01, tells jurors that if the circumstantial evidence permits two reasonable interpretations, one of which points to the defendant's guilt and the other to his innocence, the jury must adopt that interpretation that points to the defendant's innocence. Soliz contends the omission of this instruction prevented the jury from using Gonzales's statement that Gonzales shot Skyles and Price to reject the testimony of prosecution witnesses that Soliz was the shooter. But the conflict between Gonzales's account of the shooting and that presented by the prosecution witnesses was a conflict between purported eyewitnesses to the event; this is a conflict between direct, not circumstantial, evidence. (See CALJIC No. 2.00 [Direct evidence is evidence that directly proves a fact. It is evidence which by itself, if found to be true, establishes the fact.].) The case against Soliz as the shooter of Skyles and Price did not depend primarily on circumstantial evidence. [22] Even without CALJIC No. 2.01, therefore, the jury could adequately assess Gonzales's credibility in relation to the credibility of the witnesses who identified Soliz as the shooter. In a similar argument, Soliz asserts prejudice from the omission of CALJIC No. 2.22, which instructs the jury that it should not decide a factual issue based merely on the number of witnesses testifying to a certain version of events. Soliz argues that, lacking this instruction, the jury did not appreciate that it could use Gonzales's testimony alone to reject a death verdict for Soliz for the Skyles and Price murders. But the prosecutor never made the argument that the prosecution's version of events was true simply because more than one witness testified to it. Rather, the prosecutor pointed to the credibility of the witnesses who had identified Soliz as the shooter and the fact they had done so independently of each other. The prosecutor also pointed to Gonzales's lack of credibility on the stand, and pointed out the reasons why Gonzales might falsely have claimed to be the shooter of Skyles and Price. Even without being instructed with CALJIC No. 2.22, therefore, the jury could adequately assess Gonzales's credibility in relation to the prosecution witnesses. Soliz also asserts prejudice from the omission of CALJIC No. 2.80, which instructs a jury on evaluating expert testimony. [23] Soliz contends Detective Lusk gave significant opinion testimony supporting the prosecution's theory that Gonzales had exaggerated his role in the Skyles and Price murders. Lusk also testified that the Skyles and Price murders could have been committed in retaliation for a prior killing of a fellow Puente gang member. Soliz contends that without CALJIC No. 2.80, the jury may have felt bound by Lusk's opinion, and might have uncritically accepted that Soliz was responsible for the shootings and that the shootings were a premeditated retaliation rather than a heat of passion response. While it is true that Lusk testified as an expert witness, his testimony was not the type of expert testimonyscientific evidence, for examplein which the basis for the expert's conclusions would have been unfamiliar to the jury. Lusk clearly presented the basis for his opinions, namely, that he was a sheriff's deputy who had been part of a gang task force and had personally investigated Puente gang crimes. Lusk's opinion that the killing of Skyles and Price could have been gang-motivated was based on the undisputed fact that Puente gang member Billy Gallegos had been killed by Crips gang members two weeks before the Skyles and Price shooting. Gonzales's own testimony was consistent with Lusk's opinion: Gonzales testified he thought Skyles and Price were gang members and initially approached them to ask whether they knew anything about the Gallegos murder. Lusk's opinion that gang members sometimes exaggerate their roles in crimes was similarly based on his experiences with gang members, and he was cross-examined by defense counsel on that point. In summary, the basis for all of Lusk's opinions fell within the jury's understanding and ability to evaluate. Even without being instructed with CALJIC No. 2.80, therefore, the jury could adequately assess his testimony. Finally, Soliz asserts prejudice from the omission of CALJIC No. 2.20, which instructs on the believability of witnesses, stating in relevant part that [e]very person who testifies under oath [or affirmation] is a witness. You are the sole judges of the believability of a witness and the weight to be given the testimony of each witness. As previously discussed, the trial court took judicial notice of the physical impossibility of Gonzales's claim that he had converted a semiautomatic gun into a fully automatic one by altering the trigger spring. Soliz contends that because CALJIC No. 2.20 was not given, the jury did not appreciate that it was the exclusive judge of the credibility of witnesses, and therefore was more likely to accept the trial court's comment, or even to believe that the judge was the sole arbiter of Gonzales's credibility. The judge's comment, however, was an isolated one and its effect therefore did not extend beyond the subject of Gonzales's credibility on the occasion in question. While the judge's comment was erroneous, the error was not prejudicial because Gonzales's credibility had already been severely damaged by the time of the comment. Therefore, instruction with CALJIC No. 2.20 would not have made any difference in the jury's evaluation of Gonzales's credibility. In conclusion, the trial court's failure to instruct the penalty retrial jury with the evidentiary instructions was error, but was harmless under either state or federal standards of review. ( People v. Carter, supra, 30 Cal.4th at pp. 1221-1222.) Even though we find no prejudice in this case, we once again strongly caution trial courts not to dispense with penalty phase evidentiary instructions in the future. ( Id. at p. 1222.) The cost in time of providing such instructions is minimal, and the potential for prejudice in their absence surely justifies doing so. ( Ibid. )