Opinion ID: 2552553
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Markita Thornton's Suicide Attempt Shortly Before the Crimes

Text: Defendant claims that the trial court erred in sustaining, on relevance grounds, the prosecution's objections to the testimony of Sydnie Goldfarb that defendant's sister Chantal was upset by their mother's suicide attempt. In April 1993, about five months before defendant committed his crimes, his mother, Markita Thornton, attempted suicide. Sydnie Goldfarb, an acquaintance who was studying to become a marriage and family counselor, went to defendant's house and found defendant crying and his sister distraught. Defendant asserts error because the jury was not allowed to learn whether Chantal was upset by Markita Thornton's suicide attempt. The court permitted the witness to testify that defendant was very distraught and he was crying, but it sustained a relevance objection to a question whether Chantal was also upset. We see no abuse of discretion. ( People v. Carter, supra, 36 Cal.4th 1114, 1166-1167, 32 Cal. Rptr.3d 759, 117 P.3d 476.) The court's ruling that it was irrelevant whether Chantal was upset by Markita Thornton's suicide attempt did not fall outside the bounds of reason. We cannot say the court was unreasonable in concluding that the emotional impact of the suicide attempt on someone other than defendant was not of consequence. (Evid.Code, § 210.) Defendant also claims error in the trial court's sustaining objections on relevance grounds to questions about (1) where Sydnie Goldfarb took Chantal following the suicide attempt, and (2) Chantal's whereabouts when the police arrived in response to the attempt. We find these rulings also within the court's discretion. We cannot say that the court was unreasonable in concluding that where Goldfarb may have taken Chantal and Chantal's exact location (the jury already knew she was present) when the police arrived following the suicide attempt was not of consequence to the sentence defendant should receive for murdering Kellie O'Sullivan.