Opinion ID: 1239150
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Denial of motion for severance of the two murder counts

Text: (19a) Defendant contends that the trial court improperly denied his motion to sever defendant's trial on the count alleging the murder of Tracey Campbell from the count alleging the murder of Shari Miller. In particular, he contends that in making its determination that the evidence would have been cross-admissible in separate trials because of the existence of a common modus operandi, the trial court erred in relying upon the circumstance that Shari Miller was murdered in the desert. Defendant asserts that the common features of each murder were not sufficiently unique to establish a common modus operandi. He also contends that the trial court erred in failing to consider the ensuing prejudice to defendant. [13] Section 954 provides that [a]n accusatory pleading may charge... two or more different offenses of the same class of crimes or offenses, under separate counts, ... provided, that the court in which a case is triable, in the interests of justice and for good cause shown, may in its discretion order that the different offenses or counts set forth in the accusatory pleading be tried separately or divided into two or more groups and each of said groups tried separately. Because both offenses involved murder and thus belonged to the same class of crimes, the statutory requirements for joinder were satisfied. Therefore, defendant can predicate error in denying the motion to sever only upon a clear showing of potential prejudice. ( People v. Osband (1996) 13 Cal.4th 622, 666 [55 Cal. Rptr.2d 26, 919 P.2d 640]; People v. Sandoval (1992) 4 Cal.4th 155, 172-173 [14 Cal. Rptr.2d 342, 841 P.2d 862], affd. sub nom. Victor v. Nebraska (1994) 511 U.S. 1 [114 S.Ct. 1239, 127 L.Ed.2d 583].) (20) In reviewing this claim, we apply the familiar standard of review providing that the trial court's ruling may be reversed only if the court has abused its discretion. ( People v. Mayfield (1997) 14 Cal.4th 668, 720 [60 Cal. Rptr.2d 1, 928 P.2d 485]; People v. Davis (1995) 10 Cal.4th 463, 508 [41 Cal. Rptr.2d 826, 896 P.2d 119]; see People v. Osband, supra, 13 Cal.4th 622, 666; People v. Cummings (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1233, 1284 [18 Cal. Rptr.2d 796, 850 P.2d 1].) An abuse of discretion may be found when the trial court's ruling `falls outside the bounds of reason.' ( People v. Osband, supra, 13 Cal.4th 622, 666.) (21) `The burden is on the party seeking severance to clearly establish that there is a substantial danger of prejudice requiring that the charges be separately tried.' [Citation.] [¶] `The determination of prejudice is necessarily dependent on the particular circumstances of each individual case, but certain criteria have emerged to provide guidance in ruling upon and reviewing a motion to sever trial.' [Citation.] Refusal to sever may be an abuse of discretion where: (1) evidence on the crimes to be jointly tried would not be cross-admissible in separate trials; (2) certain of the charges are unusually likely to inflame the jury against the defendant; (3) a `weak' case has been joined with a `strong' case, or with another `weak' case, so that the `spill-over' effect of aggregate evidence on several charges might well alter the outcome of some or all of the charges; and (4) any one of the charges carries the death penalty or joinder of them turns the matter into a capital case. [Citations.] ( People v. Sandoval, supra, 4 Cal.4th 155, 172-173; People v. Mayfield, supra, 14 Cal.4th 668, 721; People v. Memro (1995) 11 Cal.4th 786, 849-850 [47 Cal. Rptr.2d 219, 905 P.2d 1305]; People v. Davis, supra, 10 Cal.4th 463, 507-508; People v. Mason (1991) 52 Cal.3d 909, 933-934 [277 Cal. Rptr. 166, 802 P.2d 950]; Williams v. Superior Court (1984) 36 Cal.3d 441, 452-454 [204 Cal. Rptr. 700, 683 P.2d 699].) Furthermore, we have observed that the criteria enumerated in Sandoval are not equally significant. [T]he first step in assessing whether a combined trial [would have been] prejudicial is to determine whether evidence on each of the joined charges would have been admissible, under Evidence Code section 1101, in separate trials on the others. If so, any inference of prejudice is dispelled. ( People v. Balderas (1985) 41 Cal.3d 144, 171-172 [222 Cal. Rptr. 184, 711 P.2d 480]; see People v. Mayfield, supra, 14 Cal.4th 668, 721.) Cross-admissibility suffices to negate prejudice, but it is not essential for that purpose. Although `we have held that cross-admissibility ordinarily dispels any inference of prejudice, we have never held that the absence of cross-admissibility, by itself, sufficed to demonstrate prejudice.' ( People v. Sandoval, supra, 4 Cal.4th 155, 173.) (19b) In the present case, the prosecutor urged, and the trial court found, that evidence of each incident would have been cross-admissible in a separate trial of the charge relating to the other incident because the incidents disclosed a distinctive modus operandi tending to establish the killer's identity. (22) Pursuant to Evidence Code section 1101, subdivision (b), evidence that a defendant has committed an offense, although inadmissible to demonstrate a defendant's disposition to commit crimes, may be received to establish, among other things, identity, intent, motive, or plan. To be admissible to demonstrate a distinctive modus operandi, the evidence must disclose common marks or identifiers, that, considered singly or in combination, support a strong inference that the defendant committed both crimes. ( People v. Miller (1990) 50 Cal.3d 954, 988-989 [269 Cal. Rptr. 492, 790 P.2d 1289]; People v. Bean (1988) 46 Cal.3d 919, 937 [251 Cal. Rptr. 467, 760 P.2d 996]; see People v. Memro, supra, 11 Cal.4th 786, 851; People v. Ewoldt (1994) 7 Cal.4th 380, 403 [27 Cal. Rptr.2d 646, 867 P.2d 757].) (19c) The trial court found, based upon the record of the preliminary hearing as well as the evidence presented at the hearing on the motion to suppress, that, in common, the victims were young White females who died as a result of ligature strangulation, were tied up, were killed approximately within nine days of each other, were acquainted with defendant, were induced to accompany him as a result of their belief that defendant would photograph them in furtherance of their professional modeling ambitions, and prior to and near the time of their deaths had accompanied defendant to a particular remote, fairly inaccessible desert area that he previously had visited. The trial court further determined that the proximity in time of the two murders, the victims' prior relationships with defendant, the nature of their inducement to accompany defendant, and the desert location where they both were present at or near the time of death, were significantly distinctive and common marks which, considered together with the more general common characteristics, demonstrated numerous and significant similarities in the two homicides sufficient to establish a common modus operandi and raise a strong inference that it was defendant who had committed each offense. Defendant contends that the trial court erred in relying upon the circumstance that both victims were killed in the desert, because there was no evidence that Shari actually was killed in the desert. The evidence considered by the trial court demonstrated that Shari was present with defendant in that remote area of the desert during a period near the time of her death. The trial court did not state that it relied upon the circumstance that both victims were killed at that location but rather, that at or near the time of death, both had been with defendant at that location. Defendant asserts that the identifying factors employed by the trial court were similar to those in People v. Bean, supra, 46 Cal.3d 919, in which this court held that the common factors that purported to establish a modus operandi were insufficient. In that case, we concluded that the circumstances that both victims were females of the same age who were killed within three days of each other, in the same general vicinity and consistently with the same general scheme to burglarize their residences, were insufficiently distinctive to permit a finding of a common modus operandi. We noted that in one offense two assailants entered a couple's residence through a window, attacked the victim with a ball peen hammer, and took substantial property, whereas in the other, a single assailant gained entry through the door and took a purse, causing the victim to die of a heart attack. ( Id. at pp. 937-938.) In the present case, the circumstances that defendant was acquainted with each victim, had utilized the career and monetary ambitions of each to induce her to accompany him, and had taken each victim to the same remote desert location during a period at or preceding the commission of each murder, when considered together with the other similar but less unusual or singular features of each case, present considerably more distinctive common features than those before the court in Bean. The trial court correctly ruled that the evidence of both murders was cross-admissible. Contrary to defendant's additional assertion, the trial court did not subsequently fail to consider the potential prejudice to defendant from a joint trial despite that finding, but merely stated it would not dwell at length on the issue of prejudice, because the prejudice to defendant that would arise from joinder was outweighed by considerations of probative value. Having concluded the trial court correctly determined the issue of cross-admissibility, we need not analyze the other factors described above. (See People v. Mayfield, supra, 14 Cal.4th 668, 721.) Nonetheless, we observe that even had defendant demonstrated that the evidence would not have been cross-admissible, he has failed to establish prejudice. He has not shown that one of the offenses was significantly more likely to inflame the jury against defendant, since the murders were similar in nature and equally gruesome. Defendant has not shown that evidence of guilt was significantly stronger in one case, creating the danger that that case would be used to bolster the weaker case, because the prosecutor's evidence was nearly equal in strength as to both offenses. (See ibid. ) The present case is one in which the joinder itself gave rise to the special circumstance allegation (multiple murder, § 190.2, subd. (a)(3)), requiring that a higher degree of scrutiny be given the issue of joinder. ( Williams v. Superior Court, supra, 36 Cal.3d 441, 454; cf. People v. Sandoval, supra, 4 Cal.4th 155, 173.) It is apparent that the trial court heard extensive argument by counsel on the issue and scrutinized the evidence very closely. Our review has not disclosed any abuse of discretion by the trial court in denying defendant's motion to sever. Nor has defendant demonstrated that prejudice actually resulted from the joinder of the charges at trial. ( People v. Memro, supra, 11 Cal.4th 786, 851; People v. Hill (1995) 34 Cal. App.4th 727, 735 [41 Cal. Rptr.2d 39].)