Opinion ID: 844263
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendants as Crimies

Text: In discussing the Skyles and Price murders, the prosecutor discussed defendants' close criminal partnership: First of all, both defendants, Soliz and Gonzales are `crimies' [ sic ]. And when I say `crimies,' I don't simply mean fellow gangsters or home boys in the same gang. They're that. . . . But they go beyond being fellow gangsters. The prosecutor then turned his attention to Gonzales's argument that no evidence showed Gonzales had known and shared Soliz's intent to kill Skyles and Price: [H]ow can you possibly know that either one of those two men knew the other was going to commit a murder when he got out of the car . . . . Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I'll tell you why. These are people who commit crimes together.. . . [¶] If you looked at this crime in isolation, just as the one situation . . . you might be able to say how would they know what the other is going to do. [¶] But, Ladies and Gentlemen, you're talking about people who robbed a market together. You're talking about people who walked into the Hillgrove Market with guns and pointed them in the faces of two people that owned that market. You're talking about two people who killed a 67-year-old man because he had the audacity to stand up to the people who came into his store. . . . [¶] So you're talking about two people who are not only members of the same gang, but they're people who at the time of the Skyles/Price murder had already committed another murder together: the Hillgrove Market robbery murder. They knew what each was about. They knew what each was going to do. Gonzales contends the prosecutor's argument was an improper attempt to convict Gonzales of the Skyles and Price murders solely on the basis he had committed another crime (the Eaton murder) and was a person of generally bad character. As an initial matter, Gonzales's claim is forfeited for failure to object below. Gonzales acknowledges this failure, but argues the claim is nonetheless preserved because similar issues were raised by his pretrial motion to sever his trial from that of his codefendant, and any objections would have been futile given the trial court's denial of the motion. We reject the argument. The trial court's denial of the severance motion did not foreclose the asserted misconduct issue that Gonzales now raises. Trial counsel therefore was still required to make a specific objection to the prosecutor's arguments and seek an admonition from the court. Turning to the merits of the claim, we reject Gonzales's characterization of the prosecutor's argument. Gonzales's contention presupposes the very claim we rejected in concluding that sufficient evidence supported his conviction for the Skyles and Price murders as an aider and abettor. The prosecutor did not assert Gonzales was guilty of the Skyles and Price murders solely on the basis that he committed the Eaton murder. As we have explained, and as the prosecutor explained in the remainder of his closing argument, the evidence at trial established that Gonzales knew of and shared Soliz's intent to murder Skyles and Price. Defendants were not only members of the same criminal gang, but also had been partners in a previous fatal armed robbery. The jury could draw reasonable inferences from this evidence concerning whether Gonzales knew Soliz intended to assault Skyles and Price with a gun, when he and Soliz got out of the car to confront them at the gas station. The prosecutor's argument was proper, and there was no reasonable likelihood the jury construed or applied any of the complained-of remarks in an objectionable fashion. ( People v. Smithey, supra, 20 Cal.4th at p. 960.)