Opinion ID: 1162168
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: donald leach

Text: (7) We cannot reverse Leach's conviction unless it is reasonably probable that a result more favorable to [him] would have been reached in the absence of the error of admitting against him evidence of the hearsay declarations of Edith and Lorraine Kramer. ( People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 [299 P.2d 243].) It is clear almost beyond cavil that in light of the admissibility against Leach of evidence of his own damning admissions to Hagler (Evid. Code, § 1220), Leach suffered no prejudice from the erroneous admission of evidence of the Kramers' statements as well. The acquittal of Bonnie Sue Mayo may well mean that the jury placed less than total credence on Leach's admissions, as testified to by Hagler, since those admissions strongly implicated Mayo. But it is apparent nonetheless that the jury credited the substance of Hagler's testimony sufficiently to convict Edith Kramer despite the exculpatory testimony of both Edith and Lorraine Kramer and despite the somewhat inconclusive nature of the Kramers' admissions as to Edith Kramer's role in the murder save as an accessory after the fact. Moreover, in view of Leach's concession of guilt, the only issue with respect to which Leach could have been prejudiced by the hearsay evidence was whether Leach had acted with premeditation in committing the murder. On the issue of premeditation the evidence of the Kramers' declarations had little probative value, since the Kramers were privy neither to Leach's motives in agreeing to commit the killing nor to his mental state at the time he executed his agreement. That the killing of Howard Kramer was an act of callous calculation, committed by prearrangement and for personal gain, was established beyond peradventure by the evidence of Leach's own utterances. The evidence of the Kramers' statements was essentially cumulative in this regard to the evidence of Leach's admissions; while it may have had a corroborative effect we cannot say that it had any significant additional impact in undercutting Leach's rather pallid effort to mitigate the overwhelming evidence of premeditation under the banner of diminished capacity. There being no reasonable probability of the jury having resolved the issue of premeditation differently had the evidence of the Kramers' statements been excluded, it follows that Leach is not entitled to reversal of the judgment against him.