Opinion ID: 1442323
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: New Mexico Assault

Text: (20) Defendant contends the court erred in allowing the prosecutor to admit evidence that defendant participated in an armed assault in New Mexico in 1971, 14 years prior to the penalty phase retrial in this case. According to defendant, the evidence was too remote to be of any value as aggravating evidence and, accordingly, should have been excluded. Possible remoteness of the defendant's prior offenses is not a proper ground of exclusion under section 190.3, as remoteness affects the weight, not admissibility, of the offense. (See People v. Frank (1990) 51 Cal.3d 718, 729 [274 Cal. Rptr. 372, 798 P.2d 1215]; People v. Douglas (1990) 50 Cal.3d 468, 511, 531 [268 Cal. Rptr. 126, 788 P.2d 640].) In addition, we note that defendant did not object to the evidence when admitted at trial ( People v. Coleman, supra, 46 Cal.3d at pp. 777-778), and that although the offense occurred 14 years prior to the penalty retrial in this case, it was committed only 8 1/2 years prior to Mrs. Lyman's murder. We conclude that introduction of the evidence affords defendant no basis for reversal.