Opinion ID: 1152592
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Exclusion of defense investigator's testimony.

Text: (17a) Defense counsel asked to call Lupori, the defense investigator, to testify as to what Sandoval and Croffoot told Lupori about their activities with defendant on the day of the crimes, claiming the constitutional guarantee of due process required the application of an exception to the hearsay rule. Defendant's offer of proof was that the investigator would testify that Croffoot and Sandoval stated they were continuously with defendant on the day of the crimes, ingesting drugs. The court sustained the prosecutor's hearsay objection to Lupori's testimony, also rejecting defendant's claim that the evidence was admissible despite the hearsay rule as a matter of due process. After trial, defendant moved for a new trial in part on the ground that Lupori's testimony was admissible because Croffoot and Sandoval's statements to Lupori were admissible as statements against penal interest under Evidence Code section 1230. On appeal, defendant argues Lupori's testimony was admissible because Croffoot and Sandoval's statements were admissible under Evidence Code section 1230. He also argues the testimony should have been admitted as a matter of due process, citing Chambers v. Mississippi (1973) 410 U.S. 284 [35 L.Ed.2d 297, 93 S.Ct. 1038]. He claims that trial counsel's argument that the testimony was admissible as a matter of due process preserved the claim the testimony was admissible under the hearsay exception for statements against penal interest. (Evid. Code § 1230.) Alternatively, he argues counsel's failure to offer the proper hearsay exception violated his right to the effective assistance of counsel. (18) Evidence Code section 1230 provides that the out-of-court declaration of an unavailable witness may be admitted for its truth if the statement, when made, was against the declarant's penal interest. The proponent of such evidence must show that the declarant is unavailable, that the declaration was against the declarant's penal interest, and that the declaration was sufficiently reliable to warrant admission despite its hearsay character. ( People v. Cudjo, supra, 6 Cal.4th 585, 607.) A trial court determining whether the proffered evidence is sufficiently reliable `may take into account not just the words but the circumstances under which they were uttered, the possible motivation of the declarant, and the declarant's relationship to the defendant.' ( Ibid. ) (17b) We conclude the claim of error under Evidence Code section 1230 was waived. Defense counsel's failure to proffer the evidence under that section deprived the trial court of the opportunity to perform this determination. The claim that the evidence must be admitted as a matter of due process is distinct, and did not serve to preserve the issue. (Cf. People v. Fauber (1992) 2 Cal.4th 792, 854 [9 Cal. Rptr.2d 24, 831 P.2d 249] [counsel's offer of evidence for impeachment did not preserve claim evidence was admissible to show state of mind].) Counsel's argument on the motion for new trial that the court had erred under Evidence Code section 1230 in excluding the evidence came too late; in any event, we see no abuse of discretion in the trial court's refusal to grant a new trial on this ground. The court could reasonably conclude that any error in excluding the evidence was not prejudicial, as we shall explain below in connection with the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. (See People v. Clair (1992) 2 Cal.4th 629, 667-668 [7 Cal. Rptr.2d 564, 828 P.2d 705] [trial court ruling on motion for new trial subject to review for abuse of discretion; court may grant motion when prejudicial error in admission of evidence has occurred]; see also 6 Witkin & Epstein, Cal. Criminal Law (2d ed. 1989) Judgment and Attack in Trial Court, § 3055, pp. 3779-3780.) With respect to the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, we cannot say on the appellate record that defendant would or should have prevailed had he offered the testimony as a statement against penal interest, as nothing on the record indicates the trustworthiness or reliability of the witnesses' statements to Lupori. Second, assuming the evidence was admissible as a statement against penal interest, defendant fails to demonstrate the loss of that evidence was prejudicial at the guilt trial. [8] Defendant's offer of proof merely stated the two witnesses would testify they had been with defendant for much of the day of the crimes, using illicit drugs. Another defense witness, however, namely defendant's employer, testified that he saw defendant within an hour of the crimes, and he appeared very much under the influence of drugs. The circumstances of defendant's arrest for possession of cocaine were introduced, and tended to show through the characteristic scarring of his arms that defendant was an habitual drug abuser. Thus Croffoot and Sandoval's statements to the investigator were cumulative to, the extent they would have shown that defendant had used drugs before the crimes and was under the influence of drugs shortly before the crimes. Defendant's claim that they would have provided crucial support for his unconsciousness defense is unfounded; the offer of proof did not suggest either prospective witness would testify that defendant was unconscious or near to unconsciousness close to the time of the crimes. [9] Defendant now claims Croffoot and Sandoval's statements to Lupori would have shown the vast amount of drugs defendant absorbed in the day before the crime, and would also have shown how extremely impaired defendant was by this overindulgence. Defendant did not include in his offer of proof to the court, either when the evidence was offered or when the motion for new trial was made, the material he cites now. This material, consisting of an unsworn memorandum by defense counsel, apparently addressed to the prosecutor, and relating what the defense investigator told counsel that Sandoval and Croffoot had told the investigator, was presented to the court during an unrelated hearing after the end of the guilt phase, after this issue was litigated. We cannot rely on unverified double hearsay as an appropriate or reliable basis for evaluating on direct appeal whether any error on the part of counsel in failing to secure the admission of Lupori's testimony was prejudicial. In any event, this material does not suggest that either Sandoval or Croffoot stated that defendant was nearing unconsciousness; on the contrary, it demonstrates a great deal of purposeful activity on defendant's part and could even show motive for the felony murders, as it indicates defendant obtained his drugs on credit upon an agreement to pay for them the next day. We also reject defendant's argument that the trial court erred in refusing to permit Lupori's testimony regarding statements made to him by Croffoot and Sandoval under the authority of Chambers v. Mississippi, supra, 410 U.S. 284. In that case the trial court excluded defense evidence relating to a witness's out-of-court confessions because Mississippi law excluded hearsay without any exception for statements against penal interest. State law also precluded cross-examination of non-adverse witnesses, so defendant was unable to cross-examine the witness regarding his prior confession when the witness denied complicity on the stand. The high court explained that evidence of the out-of-court confessions was critical to the defense but was excluded despite overwhelming indicia of reliability. ( Id. at pp. 302-303 [35 L.Ed.2d at pp. 312-314].) It declared that the exclusion of this evidence, along with limitations on the defendant's ability to cross-examine the witness, were a denial of due process in that they deprived defendant of the right to present a defense. ( Id. at pp. 294, 297-298, 302 [35 L.Ed.2d at pp. 308, 310-311, 312-313]; see also People v. Hawthorne (1992) 4 Cal.4th 43, 56 [14 Cal. Rptr.2d 133, 841 P.2d 118] [interpreting Chambers as holding, in particular circumstances of case, that combined effect of state rules of evidence violated defendant's right to present defense by exclud[ing] potentially exculpatory evidence crucial to the defense].) (19) Defendant asks us to hold that the application of the general rule excluding hearsay evidence amounted to a denial of due process in his case. We have observed that: `[a]s a general matter, the ordinary rules of evidence do not impermissibly infringe on the accused's right to present a defense.' ( People v. Hawthorne, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 58.) Defendant does not point to a rule of evidence peculiar to California jurisprudence, nor one that is considered archaic or otherwise subject to scholarly criticism. (Cf. Chambers v. Mississippi, supra, 410 U.S. at pp. 296, fn. 8, 300 [35 L.Ed.2d at pp. 309, 311-312]; People v. Hawthorne, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 57, and cases cited.) (17c) Moreover, defendant did not demonstrate at trial that application of the general rule excluding hearsay would deprive him of crucial evidence bearing persuasive assurances of trustworthiness. As we have noted, other evidence was available to defendant to show that he was under the influence of drugs on the day of the murder. Moreover, he did not allege that Sandoval or Croffoot was with him at the time of the crimes, so their ability to describe his state of intoxication or possible unconsciousness at the relevant period was limited. Nor was there evidence before the court establishing the trustworthiness of the declarants' statements to Lupori  in fact nothing in defendant's offer of proof described the circumstances under which they had made their statements. Accordingly, we see no violation of defendant's due process rights as established by Chambers v. Mississippi, supra, 410 U.S. 284.