Opinion ID: 2630185
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Challenges to the Validity of Mercurio's Testimony

Text: Defendant contends his convictions violate his right to due process under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution because they are based on insufficient evidence, namely, the uncorroborated testimony of Mercurio, who was an accomplice. Alternatively, defendant contends Mercurio's testimony cannot support a conviction because it was inherently incredible. Neither contention has merit.
Section 1111 provides: A conviction can not be had upon the testimony of an accomplice unless it be corroborated by such other evidence as shall tend to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense; and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows the commission of the offense or the circumstances thereof. [ถ] An accomplice is hereby defined as one who is liable to prosecution for the identical offense charged against the defendant on trial in the cause in which the testimony of the accomplice is given. The jury was instructed with CALJIC Nos. 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.18, and 3.19, which defined an accomplice, instructed the jury to determine whether Mercurio was an accomplice, and set forth the standard for determining whether accomplice testimony was corroborated. Defendant does not contend the jury was misinstructed, nor that it should have been instructed under CALJIC No. 3.16 that Mercurio was an accomplice as a matter of law. Rather, defendant contends the jury's not true finding on the personal gun use allegation indicates the jury must have found Mercurio to be an accomplice, and that his testimony was uncorroborated. As discussed above, we reject defendant's contentions about the split verdict's meaning. Assuming, however, for the sake of argument that the jury found Mercurio was a mere accomplice, we conclude below that sufficient evidence corroborated his testimony under the standards of section 1111. (14) `The trier of fact's determination on the issue of corroboration is binding on the reviewing court unless the corroborating evidence should not have been admitted or does not reasonably tend to connect the defendant with the commission of the crime.' ( People v. Abilez (2007) 41 Cal.4th 472, 505 [61 Cal.Rptr.3d 526, 161 P.3d 58].) `The corroborating evidence may be circumstantial or slight and entitled to little consideration when standing alone, and it must tend to implicate the defendant by relating to an act that is an element of the crime. The corroborating evidence need not by itself establish every element of the crime, but it must, without aid from the accomplice's testimony, tend to connect the defendant with the crime.' ( Ibid. ) As discussed in detail above, ample evidence corroborated Mercurio's testimony and connected defendant with the crime: Michelle Keathley established the connection between defendant and Gitmed, testifying that they left her house together and that defendant returned to her house without Gitmed and gave suspicious and contradictory accounts about Gitmed's absence. Charlene Triplett's testimony established that defendant and Gitmed were together at the compound, that they left that night with Mercurio in the red truck, that defendant was driving Gitmed's car after that night, and that defendant was burning papers by the trash dumpster and cleaning a gun. Barbara Triplett and Danny Dalton testified to defendant's incriminating statements about a person floating in Canyon Lake. The physical evidence, to which various witnesses testified, also corroborated Mercurio's testimony. Gitmed's body was found without a shirt or jacket, corroborating Mercurio's account that defendant took these items before shooting him. The contents of Gitmed's stomach corroborated Mercurio's account of the hamburger and french fries dinner the group ate at the compound. The presence of methamphetamine in Gitmed's blood confirmed Mercurio's account that he, defendant, and Gitmed had ingested the methamphetamine Gitmed brought with him that night. In short, ample evidence corroborated Mercurio's testimony.
(15) Alternatively, defendant contends Mercurio's testimony was inherently incredible because it described events that were physically impossible. The standard for rejecting a witness's statements on this ground requires `either a physical impossibility that they are true, or their falsity must be apparent without resorting to inferences or deductions.' ( People v. Barnes (1986) 42 Cal.3d 284, 306 [228 Cal.Rptr. 228, 721 P.2d 110].) Defendant points to (1) the angle of the bullet wounds in Gitmed's body as contradicting Mercurio's testimony regarding where defendant stood when he shot Gitmed, and (2) that Gitmed's body was found in the water, although Mercurio testified at trial he did not see the body fall into the water. But Mercurio's testimony did not recount facts that were physically impossible, nor did it exhibit falsity on its face. Rather, defendant's contention that Mercurio's testimony was inherently incredible depends on the asserted inconsistencies that defendant argues exist between Mercurio's testimony and other evidence presented at trial. We reject defendant's attempt to reargue the evidence on appeal and reiterate that it is not a proper appellate function to reassess the credibility of the witnesses. ( People v. Jones (1990) 51 Cal.3d 294, 314-315 [270 Cal.Rptr. 611, 792 P.2d 643].)