Opinion ID: 1181110
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Hospital Records Concerning Defendant's Childhood Head Injury.

Text: In addition to his diminished-capacity theory of PTSD, defendant also contended that his ability to form the requisite criminal intent was curtailed by organic brain damage and psychomotor epilepsy. Dr. Blunt testified that psychological tests administered to defendant indicated that he suffered from damage in the area of the right temporal and the left parietal occipital region of his brain, and that defendant might also suffer from psychomotor epilepsy, a condition in which one may perform apparently purposive acts while in an unconscious state. She attributed the postulated epilepsy to the presence of temporal lobe damage, possibly caused by head injuries defendant suffered from a bicycle accident when he was 12 years old. Defense counsel then asked Dr. Blunt, [W]ould an injury to the right temporal region ... and the left parietal at the age of ... twelve years old be consistent with the development and results of various testing that you did with regard to the Luria-Nebraska test as it applies to Manuel P. Babbitt? The court sustained the prosecutor's lack-of-foundation objection, stating that although there was evidence that defendant suffered some sort of head injury at age 12, there was no evidence that the injury involved the right temporal and left parietal occipital areas of the brain. Defense counsel conceded that because the pertinent medical records showing the precise nature of the injury had not yet been introduced into evidence, the question was premature. Counsel asserted that the records of Tobey Hospital in Massachusetts would show where the damage was. When defendant subsequently sought to introduce the Tobey Hospital records, the court sustained the prosecutor's relevancy objection. (6) Defendant contends that the court's ruling excluding the records substantially impaired his ability to convince the jury that he suffered from brain damage. He maintains that if in fact there were objectionable items in the records, limiting instructions pursuant to Evidence Code section 355 or the deletion of the offending portions would have met the problem. We first observe that the record does not disclose that the Tobey Hospital records would in fact have substantiated his theory of brain damage. The evidence is to the contrary. Dr. Blunt, who reviewed the records during trial, testified only that the records indicated that defendant suffered a head injury primarily to the posterior portion of the head and that the site of the swelling was consistent with one of the areas of the brain that she believed was damaged. In the sanity phase, moreover, Dr. Galioni, the court-appointed psychiatrist, testified that the Tobey Hospital records did not indicate damage to any specific area of the brain. Contrary to defense counsel's expectation, therefore, the records would not have shown where the damage was. Defendant, as proponent of the medical records, had the burden of demonstrating their relevance. (Evid. Code, ง 403.) In the absence of an offer of proof of the records' relevance, or an offer to delete any offending portions, the trial court's ruling excluding the records was not error. (Evid. Code, ง 354.) Evidence Code section 355, relied on by defendant, is inapplicable. Section 355 provides for limiting instructions when evidence is admissible as to one party or for one purpose, but inadmissible as to another party or for another purpose. The section has no bearing on the admission of wholly irrelevant evidence, nor did defendant request a limiting instruction. Finally, any error in excluding the hospital records was nonprejudicial. That defendant received a head injury when he was 12 years old was mentioned several times and was not disputed. The jury thus was fully aware of the injury to which the records pertained. (Evid. Code, ง 354; People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 [299 P.2d 243].)