Opinion ID: 2534147
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Testimony of Gene Buchanan

Text: One evening in November 1988, defendant took a venetian blind from the hall closet of the apartment he shared with Buchanan, Cullumber, Goldman, and two others. Defendant took the blind into the bedroom and shortly thereafter replaced it in the closet. Buchanan looked into the bedroom. On the bed was a knife belonging to Gail Goldman, a knife with a bone handle and a serrated edge. People's exhibit No. 18 was that knife, or else it looked exactly like Goldman's knife. Defendant and Cullumber left the apartment around 9:00 p.m. That night everyone living in the apartment was broke, or claimed to be. However, when defendant and Cullumber returned, defendant opened his wallet and said, I got $350, and, call the connection. Buchanan ordered drugs, which were injected by defendant, Cullumber, Goldman, and Buchanan. Afterwards, Cullumber asked Buchanan to take him for a drive; defendant went along. Defendant directed Buchanan to a canal, and as they drove over it, defendant threw in a pair of shoes. After looking for a good place to do it, defendant also threw his jacket out of the window. About two days later, Buchanan and defendant were in the living room of the apartment; defendant was watching the news on television. Defendant jumped up and ran into the bedroom to Goldman. Buchanan heard Goldman say, `Oh, my God, how low can you go,' or `get'; something to that effect. Buchanan went into the bedroom to find out what was going on. Defendant said to him, I've already told her, so I might as well tell you. Defendant told Buchanan that him and R.C. had been over to R.C.'s grandmother's house, and that they had entered the househow he had done it, how he had walked up to the door, knocked, faked like R.C. was going to be in jail, needed to use the phone, and then R.C. sneaked in, they were supposed to tie them up, get this money and everything. And while the defendant is supposedly in the bedroom looking for the money he hears a commotion, looked out the bedroom door, sees an elderly man with his head slumped down, considers him dead, and that if you kill one you might as well kill them both. In response to the prosecutor's questions, Buchanan clarified his testimony. [Defendant] said that heonly what he thought, he didn't say what he did. He said that, `If you kill one you might as well kill them both.' [H]e didn't say he said it to R.C., he just said it as that was his opinion. Defendant did not tell Buchanan what happened after he had this thought. Defendant also told Buchanan that what prompted his confession was a television story saying that Mrs. Caton was still alive when she should have been dead. Buchanan did not speak to the police until several months after defendant's confession to him. At a convenience store he saw a flyer announcing a reward, and he left his name with the clerk. He was then contacted by a grandson of Mrs. Caton's, and he agreed to speak to Detective Stokes. However, his willingness to do so was not motivated by the reward; it was his Christian upbringing. He did not tell Goldman he was going to turn defendant in for the reward. Defendant had torn up Buchanan's one photograph of his youngest daughter, which made Buchanan angry. He wanted to throw defendant off the balcony of a motel, but Goldman stopped him. Buchanan used drugs [a]s often as I can get them. He injected speedballs, a heroin/cocaine mixture. He used drugs an hour or two before defendant confessed to him, and he continued to do so as recently as the day before his testimony.
Defendant testified he did not make the statements attributed to him by Goldman and Buchanan, and that he did not have anything to do with these crimes. He got along well with Goldman, but not with Buchanan, who was just a snake; a deceitful person. His fingerprint was on the venetian blind because it had fallen off the back door and he had put it into the closet; he did not know why the cord was missing from it. He did rip up the photograph of Buchanan's daughter. John Inderrienden had known Goldman for five or six years, and they had once lived in the same apartment building. He wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her, and she weighed quite a bit. Goldman once lived in a house owned by Harry Arax. She did not pay her rent, nor did she pay her bill at his market. Goldman, a former neighbor of Peter Najarian's, told him she was going to be a witness in a murder case, but that she didn't know nothing about no murder. Magadelena Desumala, who ran a halfway house in which Goldman lived on and off for about 10 years, was like a sister to Goldman. She said Goldman told her it was the grandson of the murder victim who had confessed to her.
The only witness who testified at the penalty phase, Detective Stokes, was called by the prosecution to provide a foundation for the admission of the autopsy photographs. No other evidence, aside from a stipulation to defendant's prior burglary conviction, was introduced. [6]