Opinion ID: 2599880
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Trombetta Motion (Lewis, Oliver)

Text: Defendants contend the trial court erred by concluding that their due process rights under California v. Trombetta (1984) 467 U.S. 479, 104 S.Ct. 2528, 81 L.Ed.2d 413 ( Trombetta ) were not violated when the police discarded two shotgun shells recovered from the shooting of an automobile belonging to Betty Bates, Mizell's aunt. In particular, defendants insist both that a Trombetta violation occurred and that they were not allowed to make an adequate record on the issue. Lewis invokes, as an additional legal consequence, a violation of due process under the state Constitution. Bates's Buick Skylark was vandalized by shotgun blasts the day before the murders. Los Angeles Police Department Detective Kempton Lockwood, a prosecution firearms expert, testified at trial that he test-fired Lewis's Mossberg weapon. He compared the test-fired casings to the two spent Winchester shells found near Bates's damaged automobile. He determined that the Bates shells came from the Mossberg and from no other weapon. On March 6, 1992, well before the trial began, the prosecutor mentioned in court for the record that the two shells recovered from the scene of the Bates Buick shooting had been discarded after they were photographed and after experts for both defendants examined the evidence. At a pretrial hearing on April 14, 1992, Lewis claimed a Trombetta violation had occurred. He asserted that his expert, James Warner, examined the five shells found at the church, but that he did not examine the Bates shells. Lewis claimed Trombetta was violated insofar as the shells had been discarded. The prosecutor responded that, before being discarded, the shells had been made available to Warner and he had examined them. However, they were maintained under a different case number, which might explain Lewis's confusion over his expert's access to them. The court deferred a ruling until it could hear more facts. The trial court revisited the Trombetta issue at another pretrial hearing on April 20, 1992. The court received no response when it asked Oliver whether he joined Lewis's Trombetta motion. Lewis then withdrew the motion. He noted for the record that his expert had received access to the Bates shells. On January 4, 1993, at another hearing that took place two days before trial began, the prosecutor described the evidence logs, which supported her ongoing view that the Bates shells were in the firearms laboratory and had been made available some time before to Warner and Mr. Morton, Oliver's expert, both of whom had visited the laboratory to examine them. Lewis then renewed his Trombetta motion. The trial court summarily denied it. Contrary to what defendants now argue, they were not prevented from making a record before their Trombetta claim was denied. Lewis expressly relinquished his right to do so despite the court's offer to entertain any additional facts defendants might present. When asked to explain this stance, Lewis conceded that his expert had a chance to examine the Bates shells and to assess their relevance before they were discarded. Oliver stood mute when asked his views. Defendants suggest no way in which they could have added to the record. In sum, the trial court adequately protected defendants' fair hearing rights. Defendants also claim the trial court erred in failing to suppress Lockwood's testimony about the Bates shells as a remedy for what they perceived to be a Trombetta violation. The due process rights conferred by Trombetta apply only when the evidence . . . possess[es] an exculpatory value that was apparent [to the authorities] before the evidence was destroyed. ( Trombetta, supra, 467 U.S. 479, 489, 104 S.Ct. 2528.) The prosecution's expert determined conclusively that the shells used to damage Bates's Buick came from Lewis's Mossberg shotgun  a conclusion that linked him both to the vandalism of Bates's automobile and to the murders. This information negates any inference that the shells possessed exculpatory value manifest to the authorities when discarded before trial. Accordingly, no Trombetta violation appears.