Opinion ID: 1179776
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Testimony of Richard Lam.

Text: Richard Lam was on duty in a Chief's Auto Parts Store when it was robbed by two men on the evening of February 16, 1987. Ten months later, he identified defendant as one of the robbers from a police lineup of five photographs. He positively identified defendant at the November 1989 penalty trial. Before the jury heard Lam's testimony, he was examined in a preliminary voir dire hearing under People v. Phillips (1985) 41 Cal.3d 29 [222 Cal. Rptr. 127, 711 P.2d 423]. [29] During cross-examination in the Phillips hearing, Lam disclosed that several days earlier, Jeanne Flannery, a process server from the district attorney's office, had presented him with a subpoena to appear as a witness. Flannery volunteered the information that defendant had already been convicted of murder and rape and was now in the penalty phase of his capital trial. Lam's testimony was needed, Flannery said, to show that defendant's conduct had been going on for awhile. At the conclusion of the Phillips hearing, the court admitted Lam's identification testimony. When cross-examined during his jury testimony, Lam again recounted his conversation with Flannery. At the conclusion of Lam's jury testimony, defense counsel moved to strike his identification of defendant, and alternatively for a mistrial, on grounds that the identification had been tainted by Flannery's remarks. These motions were denied. The court admonished the prosecutor to warn Flannery against improper commentary in the future, but it concluded that Lam was a strong and very definite witness who was not influenced by Flannery's words. (30a) On appeal, defendant again asserts that Flannery's comments amounted to an impermissibly suggestive pretrial identification procedure in violation of his federal constitutional right of due process. (E.g., Stovall v. Denno (1967) 388 U.S. 293 [18 L.Ed.2d 1199, 87 S.Ct. 1967].) Flannery's remarks prejudiced Lam's in-court identification, defendant suggests, by disclosing that defendant was already a convicted murderer and rapist, thus making Lam less reluctant to testify against him. We do not accept the premise of undue suggestion. Flannery would have been better advised to avoid unnecessary conversation with Lam about his appearance as a witness. However, her casual explanation of the reason for the subpoena she was serving provided only information of which any prospective witness in a capital penalty trial would presumably be, or become, aware. It is unrealistic to assume that such a witness would or should remain ignorant of the reasons for his testimony. On the contrary, one served with a subpoena requiring his presence in court would be expected to ascertain why that appearance was necessary. Indeed, once advised from the subpoena itself of the name of the case in which he was required to testify, the witness could presumably learn the details of its progress and purpose from the public media. Nor is it conceivable that the witness would take the stand unaware that his duty was truthfully to disclose whatever personal knowledge he had about the person on trial. Lam was subpoenaed because he had already identified defendant as one of the Chief's Auto Parts robbers. Flannery only advised that the man Lam had previously identified was now at the penalty phase of trial in another matter, and that Lam was being called as a witness to confirm his identification. Nothing Flannery said was calculated to obtain such an identification from an uncertain witness. If knowledge such as Flannery imparted were deemed to raise a constitutional issue of impermissible suggestion, the identification testimony of all but the most willfully uninformed penalty witnesses would be at risk. We see no due process implications in the conversation between Lam and Flannery. Even if Flannery's statements were unduly suggestive, we must uphold the trial court's decision to permit jury consideration of Lam's in-court identification. (31a) When an eyewitness has been subjected to undue suggestion, the factfinder must nonetheless be allowed to hear and evaluate his identification testimony unless the `totality of the circumstances' suggests `a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.' ( Manson v. Brathwaite (1977) 432 U.S. 98, 106 [53 L.Ed.2d 140, 149, 97 S.Ct. 2243], quoting Neil v. Biggers (1972) 409 U.S. 188, 199 [34 L.Ed.2d 401, 411, 93 S.Ct. 375]; Manson, supra, at p. 116 [53 L.Ed.2d at p. 155], quoting Simmons v. United States (1968) 390 U.S. 377, 384 [19 L.Ed.2d 1247, 1253, 88 S.Ct. 967].) No such likelihood appears here. The factors to be considered include (1) the witness's opportunity to view the suspect at the time of the crime, (2) the witness's degree of attention, (3) the accuracy of any prior description by the witness, (4) the level of certainty displayed by the witness at a suggestive confrontation, and (5) the length of time between the crime and the confrontation. ( Neil v. Biggers, supra, 409 U.S. 188, 199-200 [34 L.Ed.2d 401, 411-412].) Here, it is undisputed that Lam saw the robbers on two separate occasions in a well-lit store. Moreover, he was no mere casual observer ( id. at p. 200 [34 L.Ed.2d at pp. 411-412]), but a crime victim subjected to a close, extended encounter with the perpetrators. These factors weigh in favor of the reliability of his identification. Defendant asserts, however, that Lam described the robbers inaccurately after the holdup and was uncertain in his original identification from a photo lineup itself tainted by undue suggestion. Defendant also notes that the photo identification was delayed until 10 months after the Chief's Auto Parts robbery, and that Lam's identification in court, which occurred after Flannery's suggestive remarks, was separated from the crime by nearly 3 years. The time lapses weigh against reliability to some degree. However, the record does not strongly support defendant's other claims. Lam originally described two men from five feet six inches to five feet eight inches tall, and from one hundred sixty-five to one hundred eighty-five pounds. At trial, Lam said the shorter robber, whom he identified as defendant, was five feet four or five inches tall and weighed one hundred forty to one hundred sixty pounds. These estimates are not so disparate as to cast particular suspicion on Lam's reliability at trial. Moreover, the evidence, viewed as a whole, indicates the photo lineup was neither suggestive nor seriously uncertain. Defendant's claims of a suspect photo identification are based primarily on selected excerpts from Lam's testimony. For example, at the Phillips hearing, Lam indicated that before he viewed the photos, the officer told him a suspect in the February 1987 robbery had been arrested, and Lam thus had the impression this suspect's photo would be in the group. Lam also conceded he identified defendant's photo as possibly one of the two robbers. And Lam acknowledged he was more certain of his face-to-face identification at trial than of his photo identification. Both at the Phillips hearing and before the jury, Lam estimated he looked at the photos for up to 20 minutes before making his decision. Before the jury, however, Lam retracted some of his prior testimony. Lam said his prior memory about possible suggestive circumstances in the photo identification was in error. As he now remembered, the officer only told him the suspect might be in here, he might not. Accordingly, Lam testified, he never had the impression that the suspect's photo would be included. This version of events was corroborated by Sacramento Police Officer Ronald Wong, who conducted the photo lineup. Wong testified he told Lam that the lineup could or could not contain a photo of the suspect, and that he's under no obligation to select any of the photos shown to him. Wong, a veteran of such procedures, also disputed Lam's estimate of the time taken to select defendant's photo. Wong said that a witness typically selects a photo, if at all, within five minutes or so, and he did not recall Lam taking an unusual amount of time. If Lam had taken 15 or 20 minutes, Wong stated, he would have noted the indecision in his report. Wong further testified that in his report, he ranked Lam's certainty of identification as eight on a scale of one (lowest) to ten (highest). Moreover, Lam consistently stated that he selected defendant's photo in part because it depicted a distinct feature he had observed in the shorter robber โ a bad case of acne. Defendant implies that reliance on this unusual feature somehow detracts from the reliability of Lam's photo identification, but we conclude otherwise. In our view, Lam's recollection and use of a distinct aspect of the robber's appearance enhances, rather than undermines, the inference that his photo identification was accurate. (Cf., e.g., Neil v. Biggers, supra, 409 U.S. 188, 201 [34 L.Ed.2d 401, 412] [rape victim testified there was something about assailant's face I don't think I could ever forget].) Finally, Lam insisted on the stand that after seeing defendant in person for the first time since the Chief's Auto Parts robbery, he had no doubt defendant was one of the robbers. Lam unequivocally denied any influence from Flannery's comments. Though Lam knew that defendant had been convicted of violent felonies, and though Lam understood that his testimony might help send defendant to the gas chamber, Lam emphasized that Flannery never said defendant's guilt of the Chief's Auto Parts robbery had been proven. Lam further stressed his understanding that his evidence was relevant only [i]f [defendant] was the person that robbed me. (30b) Weighing all these circumstances, we conclude that neither Flannery's comments to Lam, nor any other aspect of the identification process, caused a `very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.' ( Manson v. Brathwaite, supra, 432 U.S. 98, 116 [53 L.Ed.2d 140, 155].) (31b) Short of that point, such evidence is for the jury to weigh.... [E]vidence with some element of untrustworthiness is customary grist for the jury mill. Juries are not so susceptible that they cannot measure intelligently the weight of identification testimony that has some questionable feature. ( Ibid. ) Defendant's claim that Lam's testimony should have been excluded or stricken must therefore fail.