Opinion ID: 1111213
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Admissibility of Don Isbell's Statements to the Police

Text: Don Isbell was a neighbor of the Erberts. He testified he saw a man wearing a wolf mask standing by himself near the Erbert home earlier in the evening of the murders. Isbell had taken his children trick-or-treating in the area with another neighbor and her daughter. As he recalled at trial, he and his children spent 20 to 25 minutes visiting the neighborhood homes, including the Erberts' house. Isbell intended to return home in time for his children to leave for a party at his son's school at 7:00 p.m. Isbell could not remember at trial the exact time he and the others were trick-or-treating, but he had been positive about the timing when he spoke with the police a few days after the crimes. In cross-examining Isbell, defense counsel asked him about his statements to the police concerning the mask and his description of it. Counsel questioned Isbell about his recollection that the man in the wolf mask wore dark clothing and whether Isbell told that to the police. When Isbell replied he could not remember, counsel had him review a page from the police report that contained statements by him, asking if that refreshed his memory. Isbell again answered he did not recall if he told the police about the clothing. The prosecutor began her redirect examination by asking Isbell if the police report's statement that he was trick-or-treating sometime between 6:15 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. was correct; he said yes. The prosecutor started to ask Isbell if the report indicates he made other statements to the police; defense counsel objected that the prosecutor was leading Isbell. The prosecutor responded that she was introducing a prior consistent statement; the trial court overruled the objection. The prosecutor then asked Isbell if the report indicated he told the police he saw a man in the area who wore a mask similar to that in a photograph he was shown, and that the man was a little shorter than Isbell's height of six feet and three inches. Isbell replied that that was what the police wrote down, but he thought his conversation with the police was longer than the report might indicate. Isbell also said that he gave the police a description of the mask, and that the comparison to the photograph was a police summary, not his statement. (27a) On appeal, defendant contends Isbell's police report statements that the prosecutor read during redirect examination were inadmissible hearsay. He contends the court erred in letting the prosecutor read those statements as prior consistent statements without first laying a sufficient foundation. However, defendant has not preserved this claim for review. His objection at trial was limited to leading questions. (28) The general rule, which has no exception applicable here, precludes review of questions on admissibility of evidence absent a timely and specific objection in the trial court on the ground urged on appeal. ( People v. Alvarez, supra, 14 Cal.4th at p. 186.) (27b) Moreover, if defendant had objected on foundational grounds, the prosecutor might have been able to cure any problem. In any event, if the claim had been preserved, we would conclude the statements were not unduly prejudicial. The statement of the time Isbell was trick-or-treating does not appear to have been offered as a prior consistent statement. The prosecutor's reference to that hearsay exception came in response to defendant's objection to a subsequent question. The Attorney General argues the prior statement about time was used to refresh Isbell's recollection. Defense counsel had Isbell review the police report during the immediately preceding cross-examination to see if it refreshed his memory as to the masked man's clothing and what Isbell told the police in that regard. The prosecutor then began her redirect examination by referring to the police report of Isbell's statement of the time period he was trick-or-treating. During his direct examination, Isbell had not been able to recall the exact time, although he said he had been certain when he spoke to the police soon after the killings. The circumstances here approximate the past recollection recorded exception to the hearsay rule, rather than use of a writing to refresh recollection. (Evid. Code, § 1237.) Isbell had insufficient recollection to testify fully and accurately concerning the time period when he saw the man in the wolf mask. His statement on the subject was recorded in the police report soon after the event, and he testified he was certain of the time then. (Evid. Code, § 1237; see 3 Witkin, Cal. Evidence (3d ed. 1986) Introduction of Evidence at Trial, § 1836 et seq., pp. 1793-1798.) Although the record does not provide a complete foundation for the statement's admission under Evidence Code section 1237, the comments could have been read into evidence if the proper procedure had been followed. (See People v. Parks (1971) 4 Cal.3d 955, 960-961 [95 Cal. Rptr. 193, 485 P.2d 257].) Ultimately, as the Attorney General correctly observes, any error in allowing the statement that Isbell was trick-or-treating between 6:15 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. was manifestly harmless. Isbell himself earlier testified they had to finish and return home in time to leave for the 7:00 p.m. party at his son's school. His son, Matt, also testified about trick-or-treating only a short time because of the party, and he said that he too saw a man in a wolf mask and dark clothes standing alone near the Erberts' home. Matt testified that they left to go trick-or-treating about 6:00 p.m. and that they had to get back around 6:30 p.m. in order to get ready to be at the party at 7:00 p.m. Joann Callender, the neighbor who was with Isbell, testified that they started trick-or-treating around 6:00 p.m. and that she returned home shortly before 7:00 p.m. Under the circumstances, it is not reasonably probable that exclusion of Isbell's police report statement about the time period involved would have produced a more favorable result for defendant. The undisputed evidence essentially established that Isbell and Callender had concluded trick-or-treating with their children by 7:00 p.m. If Isbell saw defendant wearing a wolf mask and standing alone near the Erberts' home, evidence other than the police report statement overwhelmingly established that it must have happened hours before the killings. Thus, similar, unchallenged evidence necessarily relegated the challenged statement to a minor, cumulative role, if any, in the jury's deliberations. (See People v. Noguera (1992) 4 Cal.4th 599, 627-628 [15 Cal. Rptr.2d 400, 842 P.2d 1160].) The prosecutor's reference to the police report's account that Isbell recollected seeing a man in a wolf mask similar to the photograph was neither objectionable nor unduly prejudicial. Defense counsel's cross-examination attacked Isbell's credibility by implying that he fabricated the details of his description of the wolf mask after his recent interview with the district attorney's investigator, who showed him pictures of the mask. Defense counsel's questioning also implied other details of Isbell's testimony about the man in the mask were new and not told to the police. Therefore, both the prosecutor's reference to Isbell's prior statements in the police report, and her questioning Isbell about what he told the police, were appropriate and admissible. (Evid. Code, § 791; see People v. Noguera, supra, 4 Cal.4th at pp. 629-630.) Furthermore, the admission of Isbell's prior statements could not have unfairly prejudiced defendant. Here again, the challenged statements were a brief and cumulative reiteration of evidence provided in Isbell's direct examination and corroborated by others. As noted earlier, Isbell's son, Matt, testified to seeing the man in the mask standing alone near the Erberts' home hours before the murders. Manuel Gonzalez also testified that he saw defendant, without a mask, leaning on a car near the Erberts' home around 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. that evening. There is no reasonable probability that exclusion of Isbell's brief statements in the police report would have enabled defendant to obtain a more favorable outcome. Defendant also contends he was denied effective assistance of counsel because trial counsel did not object on hearsay grounds to admission of Isbell's statements to the police. He further contends the admission of these statements denied him a reliable guilt determination in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Both contentions are meritless for the same reasons that the statements were properly allowed and were not unduly prejudicial. We also observe that defendant's counsel may have had a reasonable tactical reason not to object. An objection might only have prompted the prosecutor to establish a fuller foundation for admitting the statements, thus strengthening the witness's credibility.