Opinion ID: 2625727
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Denial of Defendant's Joinder Motion

Text: On February 7, 1996, defendant moved to consolidate trial of the Ito and Matsuura murders (the Long Beach case) with the Flemming murder trial (the Compton case). Jury selection was set to begin on February 21 in Long Beach. A pretrial hearing was set for February 14 in Compton, where Gornick and Rivera were charged as codefendants. The Compton information alleged a special circumstance against Gornick, though a determination to seek the death penalty against him had not yet been made. No special circumstances were alleged against defendant in the Compton case at that point. In a declaration supporting joinder, defense counsel claimed that the prosecutor had told the Compton judge that if the Long Beach jury did not return the death penalty, the Compton charges would be amended to use the Long Beach murders as special circumstances. Thus, he asserted, the prosecutor was keeping the cases separate in order to have two opportunities to obtain the death penalty based on the same set of facts. Counsel cited no authority in his papers other than section 954. [4] He argued that consolidation would be efficient because it can be expected that [defendant's] case will be severed from his codefendants'. The prosecutor opposed joinder, contending it would cause unnecessary delay and complexity. She noted that defense counsel had known for months that the Flemming murder would come up in the Long Beach penalty phase, but had waited until the eve of trial to seek joinder. The murders in the two cases were factually unrelated. Consolidation would require the jury to consider different legal theories, felony murder in the Long Beach case and willful murder in the Compton case. Gornick and Rivera were not ready to proceed to trial, nor was the prosecution, which had not yet determined whether Gornick would face the death penalty. Gornick and defendant were both proceeding in propria persona in Compton. While defense counsel in the Long Beach case was acting as defendant's advisory counsel in Compton, no advisory counsel had yet been appointed for Gornick. The prosecutor argued that it would be unfair to Gornick and Rivera to combine their trial with defendant's capital case. If severance was the answer to this problem, it was premature of defendant to seek consolidation in the first place. At the hearing on the motion, defense counsel emphasized that he did not intend to include the Gornick and Rivera prosecutions in the consolidation, but to sever defendant's case from theirs. He claimed that all three defendants were likely to seek severances in the Compton case. The court denied the motion. It noted that before it could consider consolidating defendant's cases, it would have to provide notice and a hearing to Gornick and Rivera on the question of severance. Although defense counsel asserted that Gornick and Rivera would not oppose a severance, based on his conversations with their counsel, the court was unwilling to countenance the complications and delays entailed in consolidation. Defendant recognizes that granting joinder is a matter of discretion. Section 954 permits but does not require joinder under some circumstances. ( People v. Marlow (2004) 34 Cal.4th 131, 143 [17 Cal.Rptr.3d 825, 96 P.3d 126].) Defendant claims the court abused its discretion here. [5] He does not dispute that undue complication would have arisen if the Gornick and Rivera charges had been included in a consolidated trial. His argument presupposes that the Gornick and Rivera cases would have been severed. However, he did not seek a severance in Compton, or make a competent showing of what the other defendants' position on severance was. Defense counsel could not speak for Gornick or Rivera. Indeed, he could not speak for defendant's interests in the Compton case, because defendant was representing himself in that proceeding. Although present at the hearing on the joinder motion, defendant did not make his position known. Instead of seeking defendant's cooperation in pursuing a severance, defense counsel waited until shortly before the Long Beach trial to seek consolidation, based merely on the prospect of a severance in the other case and on his personal assurances regarding the views of Rivera's counsel and Gornick on the subject. Faced with the uncertainty, complication, and delay arising from the severance question alone, the trial court was well within its discretion to deny defendant's joinder motion.