Opinion ID: 2623595
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence of Special Circumstances as to Coffman at Close of Prosecution's Case-in-chief; Trial Court's Failure to Dismiss Felony-murder Charge on Coffman's Motion Pursuant to Section 1118.1

Text: Coffman moved for acquittal at the close of the prosecution's case on the ground of insufficient evidence to support the sodomy and burglary special-circumstance allegations. (§ 1118.1.) She now asserts error in the trial court's adverse ruling and its failure to dismiss the felony-murder and all special circumstance allegations. The test applied by the trial court in ruling on a motion for acquittal is the same test applied by the appellate court in reviewing a conviction for sufficiency of the evidence, namely, to determine whether from the evidence then in the record, including reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, there is substantial evidence of the existence of every element of the offense charged. ( People v. Cuevas (1995) 12 Cal.4th 252, 261, 48 Cal.Rptr.2d 135, 906 P.2d 1290; People v. Trevino (1985) 39 Cal.3d 667, 695, 217 Cal.Rptr. 652, 704 P.2d 719, disapproved on another ground in People v. Johnson (1989) 47 Cal.3d 1194, 1220-1221, 255 Cal.Rptr. 569, 767 P.2d 1047.) Coffman first contends there was no substantial evidence that she intended to kill Novis, as required in this Carlos -era case (see Carlos v. Superior Court, supra, 35 Cal.3d at p. 135, 197 Cal.Rptr. 79, 672 P.2d 862; People v. Anderson, supra, 43 Cal.3d at pp. 1139-1140, 240 Cal.Rptr. 585, 742 P.2d 1306 [overruling Carlos ]; People v. Duncan, supra, 53 Cal.3d at p. 973, fn. 4, 281 Cal.Rptr. 273, 810 P.2d 131 [holding Anderson could not be applied retroactively]), and that the trial court therefore erred in failing to dismiss the special circumstance allegations pursuant to section 1118.1. [27] We are unpersuaded. The prosecution's evidence of Coffman's participation in the crimes was sufficient to permit the trial court to reasonably find that Coffman knew of and shared Marlow's intent to kill Novis in order to eliminate the witness to their crimes. The evidence included, among other acts, Coffman's leading Novis into a bedroom at the Drinkhouse residence; standing guard while Novis was handcuffed to a bedpost; alerting Marlow to Drinkhouse's behavior suggesting he might be trying to leave the house while defendants were holding Novis and trying to obtain her PIN; emerging, in changed clothing, from the bedroom where Novis was being held, which was adjacent to the bathroom in which the shower had been heard to run during this period; leading the handcuffed Novis, whose hair was wet and whose mouth was taped shut, from the Drinkhouse residence; and driving Marlow and Novis in Novis's car to the vineyard where the body was found. Testimony that the date of Novis's death could be estimated only within a five- or six-day span, and the evidence that sperm can be preserved in a living person for up to 96 hours, neither undermined the prosecution's case nor dictated a contrary verdict. The record at the conclusion of the prosecution's case thus contains substantial evidence of Coffman's participation, with the required intent, in the murder and each of the felonies underlying the special circumstance findings. Even were we to agree with Coffman that the trial court erred in denying her motion to dismiss the sodomy special circumstance for insufficient evidence at the close of the prosecution's case, reversal of the remainder of the judgment would not be required, as the evidence more than sufficed to support the remaining special circumstance allegations at the time of the court's ruling. Coffman further argues the evidence showed two kidnap offenses, one involving bringing Novis from the mall to the Drinkhouse residence and the other taking her from the residence to the vineyard. She urges that the first kidnapping was not part of a continuous transaction with the killing because it was a kidnapping for robbery completed at the time of their arrival at the residence and that the second kidnapping was incidental to the killing and thus cannot support a felony-murder-kidnap special circumstance. To the contrary: Based on the evidence presented to it, the jury could reasonably conclude that defendants murdered Novis to advance the underlying felonious purposes of kidnapping, robbery, burglary and sexual assault, none of which was merely incidental to the murder. Although Coffman relies on People v. Ford (1966) 65 Cal.2d 41, 52 Cal.Rptr. 228, 416 P.2d 132, overruled on other grounds in People v. Satchell (1971) 6 Cal.3d 28, 35, 98 Cal.Rptr. 33, 489 P.2d 1361, that case is not on point. In that case, the defendant shot a deputy sheriff who had stopped his car, which the defendant had been driving aimlessly for several hours after a reported robbery. This court concluded that insufficient evidence supported a conviction of felony murder because the robbery and escape from it did not motivate the defendant's conduct in killing the officer. ( Ford, supra, at p. 57, 52 Cal.Rptr. 228, 416 P.2d 132.) Here, as respondent argues, the evidence clearly showed the murder was committed to facilitate and conceal the other offenses. Coffman additionally contends that the prosecution's theory of the case, supported by the testimony of Robin Long, was that the robbery and burglary were complete before the commission of the murder, that after committing the robbery and burglary, but before the killing, defendants had reached a place of temporary safety, and that the robbery and burglary hence were not part of one continuous transaction with the killing for purposes of the felony-murder rule. (See People v. Hayes, supra, 52 Cal.3d at pp. 631-632, 276 Cal.Rptr. 874, 802 P.2d 376.) As discussed above in connection with Marlow's similar claim, we reject Coffman's initial premise. On the evidence presented to it, the jury could reasonably have believed defendants formulated the intent to commit burglary before killing Novis and carried out the burglary after doing so.