Opinion ID: 844251
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evidence of defendant's possession of bullets and rock cocaine

Text: (22) Factor (b), permits aggravating evidence of a defendant's criminal conduct (aside from the capital offense) involving actual or threatened force or violence. Pursuant to factor (b), the prosecution introduced evidence that, on November 12, 1988, around 4:00 p.m., then Banning Police Officer Marshall Palmer and two other Banning police officers were dispatched to Eastside Park based on information provided by an anonymous tip. The dispatcher relayed that an anonymous informant reported that a group of African-American males were in the park, standing near a blue Mercedes. Two of the men had handguns. One of the subjects was not wearing a shirt and the other was wearing all black, including a black cap. Eastside Park was a known as a hangout for drug users and dealers. At the park, Palmer observed a group of 10 to 15 African-American males, including defendant, standing or sitting around a Toyota pickup. For officer safety purposes, the officers detained the members of the group and ordered them to place their hands on the truck. Each individual complied. As Palmer approached the group, Orlando Hunt, who was sitting on a bench 10 to 15 yards away with another male, began to walk away. When one of the other officers twice called to him, Hunt pulled a .357 Magnum handgun from his waistband and threw it on the ground. The other officers performed a patdown search of the others in the group for weapons. Officer Shubin, who searched defendant, felt objects that he believed were bullets in defendant's upper right jacket pocket. Because the pocket was deep and the jacket was bulky, and because defendant matched the description of one of the suspects provided by the tipster, the officer put his hand deeper into the same pocket in order to do a more thorough search for a gun and to recover the objects he believed were bullets. While recovering the objects, the officer retrieved a plastic Tupperware container. The officer opened the container and found that it held six rocks resembling rock cocaine. Defendant's pockets also contained twelve .357-caliber bullets and $168 in cash. Defendant was placed under arrest for possession for sale of cocaine. Before the January 1999 commencement of the penalty phase of his capital trial, defendant moved on two grounds to exclude the evidence that bullets and rock cocaine were found on his person in November 1988. First, he sought, under section 1538.5, to suppress this evidence as the product of an unreasonable search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Second, he asserted that his possession of the bullets was not admissible under factor (b) as criminal activity . . . involv[ing] the use or attempted use of force or violence. After holding an evidentiary hearing (see People v. Phillips (1985) 41 Cal.3d 29, 72-73, fn. 25 [222 Cal.Rptr. 127, 711 P.2d 423]), the trial court denied the motion, finding that the search and seizure were constitutional, and that the evidence was admissible under factor (b). When the evidence was introduced in the penalty trial, defendant again protested that it did not demonstrate violent criminal activity for purposes of factor (b). The trial court disagreed, explaining it had found the evidence admissible as sufficient to show defendant aided and abetted Hunt in a violation of section 12025, carrying a concealed firearm. Thereafter, over defendant's objection, the court instructed the jury on the elements of a section 12025 violation, and of aiding and abetting, and explicitly advised that the November 1988 incident could be considered under factor (b). On appeal, defendant renews his claims that admission of evidence of the November 1988 incident was improper under the Fourth Amendment and factor (b). As to the second issue, defendant further claims that even if the evidence was admissible on an aiding and abetting theory, the trial court failed to provide, sua sponte, adequate instructions on the limits of circumstantial evidence in this context. We need not determine the merits of these claims, for we are persuaded that admission of evidence of defendant's November 1988 possession of bullets and rock cocaine was harmless on the issue of penalty by any applicable standard. [45] Aside from the 1988 bullets and cocaine incident, the prosecution's aggravating evidence demonstrated defendant's well-established history of using force and violence. These examples included a violent battery and threats of further violence against his own sister, and a robbery and battery he committed in his school cafeteria. Importantly, the cold-blooded, cruel, and senseless murders of Coder and Martin sealed defendant's fate. He walked up to Coder, placed a gun against his head, and brazenly shot him. He similarly murdered Martin by shooting him in the head, in an act of revenge for the unexplained death of a fellow gang member, remote in time. There is no reasonable possibility that any erroneous admission of evidence that defendant once possessed bullets while engaged in selling cocaine would have affected the jury's penalty decision.