Opinion ID: 2587254
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Trial court's admission of prior conviction of assault on a police officer

Text: Defendant contends that the trial court erred in submitting to the jury, during the special circumstances phase, the issue whether defendant previously had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. That offense was neither charged as a special circumstance nor statutorily included as such, but rather was charged as a separate enhancement. At the commencement of this phase of the trial, the trial court informed the jurors that they were to determine whether the prior convictions alleged were true, and whether the second prior conviction, for murder, was a special circumstance. Following presentation of the evidence of the prior convictions, the trial court instructed the jurors that there were three verdict forms on which to record their determination (1) whether defendant previously had been convicted of second degree murder, (2) whether defendant previously had been convicted of assault with deadly force on a police officer, and (3) whether the special circumstance allegation of a previous conviction for second degree murder was true. The instructions on the priormurder special circumstance were accurate and did not express or imply that the jury also might base a true finding of the special circumstance upon the other prior conviction for assault with deadly force on a police officer. We presume the jury acted reasonably and followed the instructions it was given. ( People v. Harris (1994) 9 Cal.4th 407, 425-426, 37 Cal.Rptr.2d 200, 886 P.2d 1193; see Richardson v. Marsh (1987) 481 U.S. 200, 211, 107 S.Ct. 1702, 95 L.Ed.2d 176.) Moreover, any conceivable error in not conducting a separate phase to determine the truth of the prior conviction allegation that was not also the subject of the special circumstance allegation was harmless. At the previous phase of the trial, the jury found defendant guilty of first degree murder and found true the special circumstance of murder during the commission of a robbery. There was no reasonable likelihood that the jury's consideration of evidence of the prior conviction for assault with deadly force on a police officer provided the basis for its true finding of the prior-murder special circumstance at this phase of the trial.