Opinion ID: 1374541
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Exclusion of Tape Recording Offered to Impeach Klaess on Source of Appellant's Gun

Text: (7) As already noted, Klaess testified that during the month or so before the crime, appellant acquired a .22 handgun from a stranger at Torey's restaurant and also acquired such a gun from Sanchez. She stated at some points in her testimony that the gun at the crime scene (exhibit 6) was the one acquired at Torey's and at other points that she did not know whether the man at Torey's or Sanchez was appellant's source of exhibit 6. She was confronted during her testimony with the transcript of her pretrial interview with the prosecutor, and in particular with a statement in that transcript that the source of exhibit 6 was Sanchez. Defense counsel offered the original tape recording of that interview to show Klaess's demeanor in making the statements concerning the gun. Counsel asserted that the recording would demonstrate that her voice was forthright and spontaneous in stating that the gun was acquired from Sanchez but slow, equivocal, and evasive in stating that it came from the man at Torey's. The trial court ruled that the sound of Klaess's voice on the tape, her pauses, her hems and haws, were irrelevant to her state of mind and so ruled the tape inadmissible. Appellant invokes the best evidence rule (Evid. Code, § 1500), but that objection is unavailable since there is no claim that the transcript is inaccurate. ( People v. Fujita (1974) 43 Cal. App.3d 454, 473 [117 Cal. Rptr. 757].) Without assessing the theoretical soundness of the stated reason for the court's ruling, we are satisfied that exclusion of the tape was not prejudicial. The transcript itself reflected much of Klaess's hesitancy and indecision in speaking on the source of the gun, and defense counsel challenged her at length with her inconsistent statements in the transcript. The jury was thus able to observe her demeanor in dealing with the subject on the stand. Finally, as noted in connection with the exclusion of the Sanchez statement to the clinical social worker, Boyle, it was relatively unimportant to the issues before the jury whether appellant had obtained the gun from Sanchez or from the man at Torey's. Klaess's testimony was clear that regardless of the source of the gun, it was appellant himself who had last had it in his possession before the crime.