Opinion ID: 1303713
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 20

Heading: Defendant's Statements Relevant to Premeditation

Text: During the retrial of the special circumstances charge, and following defendant's denial of any memory of raping or stabbing Mrs. Bert to death, the prosecutor on cross-examination asked defendant whether he had ever told anyone that he liked seeing people bleed to death. Defendant's counsel made no objection, and defendant denied making any such statements. Thereafter, on rebuttal, the prosecutor elicited testimony from two wartime acquaintances of defendant to the effect that he got high from stabbing and from watching people bleed to death. Defendant now argues that the trial court erred in admitting the foregoing testimony because its probative value was outweighed by its prejudicial effect (see Evid. Code, § 352). The People, on the other hand, urge that the testimony was relevant to the issues of premeditation and deliberation. (19) We need not decide, however, whether the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the testimony, because defense counsel failed to assert a proper objection thereto. The record discloses that although defense counsel had some preliminary relevancy objections to other aspects of the proposed testimony of defendant's acquaintances, counsel nonetheless expressly informed the court that I can appreciate the probative value in the fact that defendant told [witness] LaLonde that he liked to see people bleed to death. Thereafter, when the prosecutor inquired of witness LaLonde regarding defendant's statement, defense counsel unsuccessfully objected on the grounds the question was leading and suggestive, but no further objection was made. Subsequently, when similar testimony was elicited from witness Austin, defense counsel made no objection whatever. Consequently, any objection based on the prejudicial effect of the LaLonde and Austin testimony was waived. (Evid. Code, § 353, subd. (a) [objection must state specific ground]; People v. Castaneda (1975) 52 Cal. App.3d 334, 339 [125 Cal. Rptr. 9].) Defendant also contends that the foregoing testimony should not have been admitted for the purpose of determining the appropriate penalty, because defendant's statements were not relevant to any of the statutory factors listed in former section 190.3. Without passing on the merits of the contention, we again observe that defense counsel failed to rely upon this specific ground of objection to the admission of this evidence. At the commencement of the penalty phase, defense counsel and the prosecutor stipulated that, subject to the objections previously raised and rejected, the penalty jury may consider all the evidence previously admitted at the special circumstances trial. The testimony of witnesses LaLonde and Austin was not specifically mentioned, and defense counsel expressed no specific relevance objection to that testimony. Accordingly, that objection was waived.