Opinion ID: 2630185
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Asserted ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to exclude evidence of the wallet

Text: In a contention related to his claim of insufficiency of the evidence, defendant argues defense counsel was ineffective for failing to move to exclude evidence that police found a wallet in defendant's room during the September 25, 1991, search of his mother's house. Defendant contends evidence of the wallet was irrelevant under Evidence Code section 350 or was more prejudicial than probative under Evidence Code section 352 and, if defense counsel had moved to exclude it under these grounds, the trial court would have been compelled to grant the motion. (13) To establish a violation of the constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel, a defendant must show both that his counsel's performance was deficient when measured against the standard of a reasonably competent attorney and that counsel's deficient performance resulted in prejudice to defendant in the sense that it `so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result.' ( People v. Kipp (1998) 18 Cal.4th 349, 366 [75 Cal.Rptr.2d 716, 956 P.2d 1169], quoting Strickland v. Washington, supra, 466 U.S. at p. 686.) Preliminarily, we note that rarely will an appellate record establish ineffective assistance of counsel. ( People v. Mendoza Tello (1997) 15 Cal.4th 264, 267-268 [62 Cal.Rptr.2d 437, 933 P.2d 1134].) On this record we see none. Counsel is not ineffective for failing to make frivolous or futile motions. ( People v. Memro (1995) 11 Cal.4th 786, 843 [47 Cal.Rptr.2d 219, 905 P.2d 1305].) Contrary to defendant's contention that the wallet was irrelevant because no evidence showed it belonged to Gitmed, Marc Brendlin, Thompson's son, provided testimony from which the jury could have inferred the wallet belonged to Gitmed. Brendlin testified that a wallet containing business cards but no identification was among the items defendant left at Thompson's house. Brendlin moved the items to Churder's house along with Gitmed's duffel bag and jacket. Because the jury could reasonably have inferred the wallet thus belonged to Gitmed, counsel was not remiss in failing to object to the wallet's admission into evidence.