Opinion ID: 1192049
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Boender's Identification of Cebreros

Text: The day after the murder, police questioned Boender at the hospital. He described the larger of his assailants as over six feet tall, weighing over two hundred pounds, with dark hair thinning on top and combed straight back. Boender also noticed the man carried his arms noticeably away from his body and looked like a biker. This description was very similar to Maxwell's description of Cebreros, given to police the night before. After Cebreros was arrested, police displayed a stack of photographs to Boender, who, upon seeing the picture of Cebreros, exclaimed, This is the big guy; I'm sure of it. Maxwell also identified Cebreros from a photographic lineup. Cebreros is six feet, five inches tall, weighs two hundred and twenty pounds, and has hair as described by Boender. After Cebreros was arrested, Boender identified defendant from a separate photographic lineup. Defendant moved to suppress Boender's out-of-court identification of him, claiming the circumstances under which Boender selected his photograph were unduly suggestive. Cebreros made a similar motion as to Boender's identification of him. The trial court denied both motions, although it noted that the photographic array that included Cebreros left a great deal to be desired because his picture was the only one in the display that matched Boender's description of the larger assailant. The court stated, however, that, after considering all the facts and circumstances of the case, it could not conclude that there was a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. ( Simmons v. United States (1968) 390 U.S. 377, 384 [19 L.Ed.2d 1247, 1253, 88 S.Ct. 967].) (15a) Defendant now attacks the validity of the pretrial identification of Cebreros, arguing that because other evidence linked the two men in the commission of the crimes, the prosecution was able to unfairly bolster its case against defendant by using Boender's questionable identification of Cebreros. Defendant's claim fails at the threshold because it does not appear he joined in Cebreros's motion to suppress in the trial court or otherwise objected to the introduction of Boender's identification of Cebreros. (Evid. Code, § 353.) Because the alleged flaw in Cebreros's photographic lineup was that his picture was the only one that matched the witnesses' description, defendant's own motion to suppress cannot be fairly read to encompass the theory on which Cebreros's motion was made. Even assuming the issue was properly preserved for appeal, reversal is not required. (16) [A] violation of due process occurs if a pretrial identification procedure is `so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.' [Citations.] `Whether due process has been violated depends on the totality of the circumstances surrounding the confrontation. [Citation.]' The burden is on the defendant to show that the identification procedure resulted in such unfairness that it abridged his rights to due process. [Citation.] ( People v. Sequeira (1981) 126 Cal. App.3d 1, 12 [179 Cal. Rptr. 249]; see also People v. Blair (1979) 25 Cal.3d 640, 659 [159 Cal. Rptr. 818 [602 P.2d 738].) (17) The factors to be considered in determining whether a lineup is impermissibly suggestive include the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the scene of the crime, the witness' degree of attention, the accuracy of the prior description of the criminal, the level of certainty demonstrated at the confrontation, and the time between the crime and the confrontation, as well as the suggestiveness of the procedure employed. ( Manson v. Brathwaite (1977) 432 U.S. 98, 114.) ( Sequeira, supra, 126 Cal. App.3d at pp. 12-13.) (15b) In this case, Boender testified he clearly viewed his assailants and he focused on his attackers' faces in order to identify them if he survived the attack. He was certain of his identification of Cebreros, who matched both his and Maxwell's descriptions of the larger of the two assailants. Only two days passed between the crime and Boender's selection of Cebreros's picture from the photographic array. Although the Cebreros photographic array was somewhat suggestive, we agree with the trial court that the totality of the circumstances does not demonstrate that there was a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. ( Simmons v. United States, supra, 390 U.S. at p. 384 [19 L.Ed.2d at p. 1253].)