Opinion ID: 1202924
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Admission of Evidence on Rebuttal

Text: [35] Defendant makes two objections to evidence presented by the prosecution on rebuttal. First, he claims that a woman witness, who was not attacked, should not have been allowed to testify that defendant answered her newspaper advertisement offering an electric range for sale. She identified a check as having been given to her by defendant under an assumed name. Later, a handwriting expert expressed his opinion that the check was written by defendant. This chain of evidence was produced on rebuttal after defendant had denied on cross-examination all the essential facts of the incident. The practice of allowing the district attorney or his aides to withhold a part of their case in chief and to offer it after the defense has closed has been condemned in People v. Carter, 48 Cal.2d 737, 753-754 [312 P.2d 665], and People v. Rodriquez, 58 Cal. App.2d 415, 418-419 [136 P.2d 626]. But here the testimony was clearly introduced primarily for purposes of impeachment of defendant in his denial on cross-examination of an incident not charged in the information. In any event, no objection was made to the introduction of this evidence. [36] Further, the order of proof rests largely in the sound discretion of the trial court. (Pen. Code, §§ 1093, subd. 4, 1094; People v. Byrd, supra, 42 Cal.2d 200, 211-212; People v. Avery, 35 Cal.2d 487, 491 [218 P.2d 527].) [37] Where, as here, the desirability of admitting the testimony at the questioned point may be debatable, no abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court should be found when that court has not had the point brought to its attention. (See People v. Carter, supra, 48 Cal.2d 737, 754.) [38] Second, defendant claims that the expert testimony that defendant's fingerprint was found on a glass at the home of one of the victims should not have been received on rebuttal. The prosecution had this information two days prior to the close of its case in chief. Again we come to the question whether the district attorney or his aides indulged in a proscribed withholding of matter properly belonging in their case in chief. ( People v. Carter, supra, 48 Cal.2d 737, 753-754; People v. Rodriquez, supra, 58 Cal. App.2d 415, 418-419.) An affirmative answer seems possible. However, under the facts of this case, a reversal is not warranted. To the extent that defendant may have been unfairly surprised, this was obviated by the granting of his request for additional time to meet this testimony. The fingerprint was probably not unduly magnified in significance, since it merely corroborated the direct testimony of one of the victims. It was not as crucial as the defendant's confession withheld in People v. Rodriquez, supra , or the defendant's apparel found near where the murder weapon was abandoned and withheld in People v. Carter, supra , a case resting entirely on circumstantial evidence. In short, it cannot be said that any claimed error in admitting this testimony on rebuttal warrants a reversal. (See People v. Byrd, supra, 42 Cal.2d 200, 212; People v. Avery, supra, 35 Cal.2d 487, 491.)