Opinion ID: 2519742
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Prosecutorial misconduct (guilt phase)

Text: Defendant complains of four alleged instances of prosecutorial misconduct at the guilt phase. Prosecutors have wide latitude to discuss and draw inferences from the evidence at trial. ( People v. Dennis (1998) Cal.4th 468, 522, 71 Cal.Rptr.2d 680, 950 P.2d 1035.) Whether the inferences the prosecutor draws are reasonable is for the jury to decide. ( Ibid .) In order to preserve a claim of prosecutorial misconduct for appeal, the defense must make a timely objection at trial and request an admonition. ( People v. Earp (1999) 20 Cal.4th 826, 858, 85 Cal.Rptr.2d 857, 978 P.2d 15; People v. Hill (1998) 17 Cal.4th 800, 820, 72 Cal. Rptr.2d 656, 952 P.2d 673.) In the absence of a timely objection the claim is reviewable only if an admonition would not have otherwise cured the harm caused by the misconduct. ( People v. Earp, supra, 20 Cal.4th at p. 858, 85 Cal.Rptr.2d 857, 978 P.2d 15.) Defendant first urges us to find misconduct in the prosecutor's cross-examination of defense witness Kay Zenk. Zenk testified her husband and defendant participated together in an alcohol- and drug-treatment program at a Veterans Administration hospital in 1984. At that time she learned defendant would be going to prison. Thereafter, Zenk and her husband visited defendant in prison. Zenk testified defendant cared very much for his daughter and had a good relationship with his wife, Rose V., but that after the couple was going to get a divorce, defendant changed to a man with no purpose in life whose spirit was gone. In an apparent attempt to rebut the defense suggestion that defendant was a caring and loving husband and father, the prosecutor cross-examined Zenk about the circumstance that defendant never spoke about his other children. When the prosecutor then sought to question Zenk about whether defendant had told her of his belief that Rose V. had given birth to their daughter just to trap him, and that he did not want the baby and wanted Rose V. to get an abortion, defense counsel's objections to the line of inquiry were sustained. In front of the jury, the court admonished the prosecutor that there was no evidence on the subject matter of his inquiries. The prosecutor asserted he had the evidence, but when he apparently pointed to a document, the court stated that's not evidence and cautioned him against that type of nonsense. A mistrial motion based on the sustained objection was thereafter denied. Perhaps the prosecutor was alluding to the contents of a letter defendant wrote to Rose V. while he was in prison, or a letter he received from her, because the court immediately told the prosecutor he would be allowed to recall Rose V. on rebuttal to testify directly about the matters he was trying to explore through his cross-examination of Zenk. [9] The prosecutor was of course entitled to seek to rebut the defense's portrayal of defendant as a loving husband and father who would not have killed had Rose V. not betrayed him. Nevertheless, it is error to seek to use hearsay as a substitute for properly admitted evidence. But defense counsel's contemporaneous objection to the line of inquiry was sustained, and the jury heard the court admonish the prosecutor that no evidence had been introduced as a foundation for the questions. The prosecutor's transgression was minor, and any possible prejudice was avoided through the admonition given. In light of the properly admitted evidence that already cast serious doubt on defendant's role as a good husband and father (e.g., defendant's self-admitted acts of kidnapping his second wife after killing her lover, and his involving Joseph in the murderous plot and then aiding and abetting him in the rape of Rose V.), the error was harmless. Defendant next assigns as prosecutorial misconduct questions on cross-examination designed to elicit the fact that he was found in possession of drugs and prescription medications unlawfully obtained by him from other inmates in the county jail. Several objections to this line of inquiry were sustained, others were overruled. Defense counsel again sought a mistrial, arguing the prosecutor's questions regarding defendant's unlawful possession of drugs and medications while in jail had no relevance to the charges in this case and were designed strictly to embarrass and somehow paint [defendant] in a negative light.... The court ultimately overruled defense counsel's objections and denied the motion for a mistrial. We find no error in the ruling. A prosecutor is permitted wide scope in the cross-examination of a criminal defendant who elects to take the stand. ( People v. Mayfield (1997) 14 Cal.4th 668, 754, 60 Cal. Rptr.2d 1, 928 P.2d 485.) Defendant testified on direct examination that he used drugs with Jones and was involved in an attempted drug buy that aborted shortly before her death. Defendant thereby opened the door to further inquiry concerning his admitted drug use. In particular, the prosecution could seek to show that defendant's possession and hoarding of drugs and medications while in the county jail was possibly probative on his performance on brain performance tests administered to him by defense expert Dr. Pursich while he was in the county jail. The prosecutor elicited from defendant the fact that he was on Motrin at the time he was interviewed by Dr. Pursich, and that he was found in possession of 74 Dilantin pills, a seizure medication that affects the brain, on August 24, 1989. (Brain function tests were performed on defendant in the latter part of 1989, including an MRI on Nov. 10, 1989.) Defendant also contends it was misconduct for the prosecutor, on cross-examination, to ask his first wife if defendant had ever beaten her in the past. His first wife, Joseph's mother, testified defendant came to her house on the night of October 30, 1986, in the company of another Hispanic male, that defendant appeared intoxicated, but that she did not fear defendant at that time. The prosecutor impeached her with her testimony from Joseph's juvenile court trial that she feared defendant on that date. When she claimed she could not recall her prior testimony, the prosecutor asked her if defendant had ever beaten her in the past. At that point a defense objection to the line of inquiry was sustained. We find no prejudicial misconduct. The first wife had also testified in juvenile court that when defendant entered her house on the night of October 30, 1986, he pushed her aside. Moreover, the jury was instructed that counsel's questions are not evidence (CALJIC No. 1.02), and they were already fully aware, from defendant's own testimony, that he had kidnapped Rose V., his second wife, after killing Stopher, her livein partner, with a shotgun; that he fired shots at Officer Dunavent during the gun battle that led to his arrest; and that he was thus capable of great violence. Last, defendant argues the prosecutor committed misconduct during cross-examination of Dr. Pursich through improper belittlement and disparagement of the defense expert. To the extent defendant failed to object to the specific questions he now assigns as misconduct, he has waived the claim on appeal. In any event, the record reveals no misconduct in the cross-examination of Dr. Pursich. In particular, there was no impropriety in the prosecutor's cross-examining Dr. Pursich in an effort to clarify his direct examination testimony and learn in how many past cases he had testified for the defense and found the defendants to be suffering from brain damage.