Opinion ID: 3052176
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Crime, Investigation, and Guilt Phase of

Text: Belmontes’s trial On the morning of Sunday, March 15, 1981, nineteen-yearold Steacy McConnell telephoned her parents and told them that she was afraid because several people, including Belmontes’s eventual codefendant Domingo Vasquez, had threat- 1 Under California law, a sentencing jury in a death penalty case has only two choices: life without the possibility of parole or death. See Cal. Penal Code § 190.2 (West 1978). If, following a reversal of the capital sentence, the State chooses not to institute further proceedings with respect to the death penalty, Belmontes will automatically receive a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. BELMONTES v. AYERS 6741 ened her. When McConnell’s parents arrived at her residence in Victor, California several hours later, they found her lying unconscious in a pool of blood. She died shortly thereafter from cerebral hemorrhaging caused by fifteen to twenty blows to her head with an iron bar. Her house was ransacked and her stereo was missing. On the Tuesday preceding the murder, several people, including Vasquez and another codefendant, Robert “Bobby” Bolanos, partied at McConnell’s house. Although Bolanos left the residence early Wednesday morning, the party continued until Friday, when Vasquez stole a quantity of “black beauties”—amphetamine pills—from McConnell. Upon discovering the theft, McConnell threw Vasquez and his friends out of the house. The group subsequently discussed their dislike of McConnell. The police investigation of the individuals who had been present at the party led the officers to interrogate Vasquez and Bolanos. Bolanos eventually admitted that he had been involved in the events that led to McConnell’s death, and identified Vasquez and Belmontes as his coadventurers. Belmontes, who was nineteen at the time, had not been at the party, but had visited Bolanos over the weekend of the murder. Belmontes, Bolanos, and Vasquez were each charged with first degree murder and special circumstances. However, Bolanos soon arranged a deal with the prosecution in which he agreed to testify against Vasquez and Belmontes in exchange for a guilty plea to second degree burglary and immunity on the murder charge. At Vasquez’s preliminary hearing, Bolanos named Belmontes as the main assailant. After the preliminary hearing, the trial judge dismissed the special circumstances charge against Vasquez, who pled guilty to second degree murder. That left Belmontes, who alone proceeded to trial. 6742 BELMONTES v. AYERS Bolanos was the State’s principal witness. He testified that on the morning of Sunday, March 15, he and Belmontes drove to Vasquez’s residence to hang out. When they arrived, Vasquez was on the phone with McConnell. When Vasquez hung up, he informed them that McConnell would not be home during the latter part of the day. The three were short of cash, and they agreed to burglarize McConnell’s residence, steal her stereo, and “clean house.” According to Bolanos, as the men departed Vasquez’s house through the kitchen, Belmontes grabbed from the counter an iron dumb-bell bar that Vasquez’s wife used for rolling tortillas. Bolanos told the jury that the three men then drove to McConnell’s in Bolanos’s car and parked a short distance from the house where Belmontes stated that he would approach the house alone, on foot, carrying the metal bar in case he needed to force entry. Bolanos further testified that Belmontes said that he would gather McConnell’s valuables and place them near the door to facilitate a quick getaway, and that Bolanos and Vasquez should wait for about five minutes and then bring the car around to McConnell’s house. Bolanos next testified that Belmontes walked to McConnell’s residence, and, after about five minutes, Bolanos and Vasquez drove up and backed into McConnell’s driveway. Bolanos heard repeated knocking or banging noises coming from within the house. Vasquez walked to the front door to assist Belmontes. Shortly thereafter, Belmontes and Vasquez emerged from the back door of the house carrying stereo components. Belmontes was sprinkled with blood and Vasquez “looked like he had seen a ghost.” According to Bolanos, Belmontes stated that he had had to “take out a witness” because McConnell had been home, and explained that when McConnell heard Vasquez and Bolanos drive up, she looked away from him and he seized the opportunity to hit her with the bar. Bolanos finally testified that, after leaving McConnell’s house, the three drove to the nearby city of Galt, where they BELMONTES v. AYERS 6743 intended to fence the stereo. En route, Belmontes threw the bar out of the car window as they crossed a bridge. The trio eventually sold the stereo for $100. Detective Holman, the lead investigator on the case, testified that Belmontes furnished three tape-recorded statements shortly after his arrest. In the first statement, he denied any involvement in the crime. In the second, he admitted the burglary but denied hitting McConnell. In the third, he admitted hitting McConnell, but insisted that he hit her only once, and then only at Vasquez’s direction. He stated that the single blow he delivered caused McConnell to fall down, at which point he dropped the bar and began searching the house for valuables, leaving Vasquez alone with McConnell. Belmontes asserted that he did not pay attention to Vasquez’s actions during this period and did not witness the fifteen to twenty fatal blows to the head that McConnell suffered. Holman also testified that a small drop of blood found on the tongue of one of Belmontes’s shoes tested as “type O”—McConnell’s blood type. Dr. Maduros, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on McConnell, testified that she died from cerebral hemorrhaging caused by fifteen to twenty blows to the back left portion of her skull. She had a separate contusion on her right temple, which was caused by a single blow of lesser force that did not lacerate the skin. However, he informed the jury that this blow alone would not have caused death and, if it had been the first, it would likely not have caused unconsciousness. Injuries to McConnell’s arms, hands, legs, and feet evidenced a struggle. Belmontes testified in his own defense. He insisted that, while he was searching the back part of the house for something to take, Vasquez struck the fatal blows. Belmontes stated that prior to the murder, he and Bolanos had gone over to Vasquez’s house, and that when Vasquez mentioned that McConnell would not be home, they decided to steal her ste6744 BELMONTES v. AYERS reo. Although they expected McConnell to be away, the plan was that Belmontes would go to the door in case she turned out to be home; they thought that because of the confrontation between Vasquez and McConnell at her party a few days earlier, she would become angry and suspicious if she saw Vasquez or Bolanos at her door. Although Belmontes had met McConnell a few times in the past, she did not know that he was a friend of Vasquez and Bolanos. Belmontes stated that it was not he who took the metal bar from Vasquez’s house but that while they were all in the car, Vasquez gave it to him to use to break a window, and he then concealed it in his sleeve. Vasquez and Bolanos stayed in the car while Belmontes walked to McConnell’s front door. According to Belmontes, he knocked at McConnell’s door and, to his surprise, she answered. As soon as he found out that she was home, he abandoned his intent to burglarize her residence. He told her that he had been hitchhiking and had stopped by because it was raining. McConnell invited him in. She noticed a bulge in his sleeve and asked what it was. He showed her the bar and explained that he had it because he was hitchhiking. Belmontes further testified that five minutes after he entered the house, Bolanos and Vasquez pulled into the driveway. McConnell started walking toward the front door. Belmontes followed behind her and was placing the bar back up his sleeve when Vasquez knocked on the door. Vasquez pushed the door open, saw McConnell, and ordered Belmontes to “hit her.” Belmontes followed Vasquez’s directive and struck McConnell once on the side of the head with the bar. She fell to the floor. Belmontes dropped the bar, ran to the back bedroom, searched that room and the kitchen, and returned to the living room. Upon returning to the front of the house, he observed Vasquez standing over McConnell and holding the metal bar. He did not see or hear Vasquez hit McConnell. He could not explain the presence of defensive bruises and contusions on McConnell’s hands, arms, and feet. BELMONTES v. AYERS 6745 The rest of Belmontes’s testimony was, with a few exceptions, consistent with Bolanos’s. According to Belmontes, it was Vasquez who handed him the steel bar after they left McConnell’s, and it was Vasquez (not Belmontes) who stated that he had had to take out a witness. Otherwise, his testimony was as follows. Belmontes and Vasquez gathered the stereo components and exited from McConnell’s back door. They loaded the stereo components into the trunk. Vasquez got in the back seat, Belmontes rode shotgun, and Bolanos drove. Belmontes wiped blood off the bar and set it down on the floorboard. It was not his idea to throw the bar out the window into the river, but Bolanos and Vasquez told him to do so, and he complied. He concluded his testimony by stating they then sold the stereo for $100, divided the money, bought some beer, and drove to the home of an acquaintance. After three hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Belmontes of first degree murder with special circumstances. It also made special findings that Belmontes was the actual killer, and that he had the specific intent that death occur.