Opinion ID: 2829984
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Defendant Forfeited His Claims

Text: Defendant mounts a two-pronged attack on the evidence of Prosecutor Backers‘s subjective motivation for offering plea deals to Iuli and Palega. First, he contends the evidence was inadmissible because it was irrelevant and immaterial. As we have already explained, challenges to the admission of evidence must be preserved for appellate review with a timely and specific objection at trial. (Evid. Code, § 353, subd. (a); People v. Hinton, supra, 37 Cal.4th at p. 894.) Here, defendant not only failed to object but his counsel stipulated to the Berger and Muraoka stipulations. Under the circumstances, he may not now be heard to complain, because ―when a party enters into a voluntary stipulation, he generally is precluded from taking an appeal claiming defects in the stipulation.‖ (People v. Gurule, supra, 28 Cal.4th at p. 623; cf. People v. Duff 35 (2014) 58 Cal.4th 527, 540 [―a stipulation to the excusal of jurors forfeits any subsequent objection to their omission from the jury pool‖].) Second, defendant contends the prosecutor committed misconduct by improperly vouching for the truthfulness of her witnesses, Tony Iuli and Jay Palega, citing three separate incidents: Her direct examination of Iuli, the admission of the Muraoka stipulation,7 and her closing argument. None of these claims was properly preserved for our review. It is well settled that making a timely and specific objection at trial, and requesting the jury be admonished (if jury is not waived), is a necessary prerequisite to preserve a claim of prosecutorial misconduct for appeal. (People v. Pearson (2013) 56 Cal.4th 393, 426; People v. Cole (2004) 33 Cal.4th 1158, 1201.) ―The primary purpose of the requirement that a defendant object at trial to argument constituting prosecutorial misconduct is to give the trial court an opportunity, through admonition of the jury, to correct any error and mitigate any prejudice.‖ (People v. Williams (1997) 16 Cal.4th 153, 254.) Defendant appears to acknowledge that he failed to object but contends any objection would have been futile. ―A defendant will be excused from the necessity of either a timely objection and/or a request for admonition if either would be futile. [Citations.] In addition, failure to request the jury be admonished does not forfeit the issue for appeal if ‗ ―an admonition would not have cured the harm caused by the misconduct.‖ ‘ [Citation.] Finally, the absence of a request for a curative admonition does not forfeit the issue for appeal if ‗the court 7 The nature of defendant‘s complaint regarding the Muraoka stipulation is unclear. To the extent he complains the stipulation should not have been admitted, he forfeited that claim when his trial attorney agreed to the stipulation. To the extent defendant means to attack the prosecutor‘s closing argument, he forfeited that claim as well by failing to object on that ground. 36 immediately overrules an objection to alleged prosecutorial misconduct [and as a consequence] the defendant has no opportunity to make such a request.‘ ‖ (People v. Hill (1998) 17 Cal.4th 800, 820.) To the extent the prosecutor‘s questioning of Iuli and her closing argument simply relied on information contained in the stipulations, we agree an objection would have been futile, for by counsel agreeing to the stipulations, they became fair game for questioning and argument. To the extent the prosecutor‘s arguments went farther than merely relying on the stipulations, such as when she argued there was a ―moral difference‖ between Iuli and Palega, on the one hand, and defendant and Tautai, on the other hand, or when she opined that she exercised the ―proper amount of integrity,‖ a timely objection would not have been futile, for it would have provided the trial court an opportunity to prevent the prosecutor from injecting her subjective views into the case. Under the circumstances, we find defendant‘s claim of prosecutorial misconduct regarding these latter claims was forfeited.