Opinion ID: 1391736
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: (19) Admissibility of Evidence of Victim Ott's Injuries

Text: At the guilt phase, the prosecution, outside the presence of the jury, offered to prove that the investigating officers had discovered a single human hair (possibly a pubic hair) on the neck of a wine bottle found on the floor near victim Ott's body. The prosecution further offered to prove that the officers also observed an injury or abrasion near the victim's private parts. Defendant objected to the proposed testimony as unduly prejudicial (see Evid. Code, § 352) and the trial court sustained the objection. (The evidence was subsequently introduced at the penalty phase.) Thereafter, Doctor Breton, the autopsy surgeon, testified that in addition to Mrs. Ott's various injuries and bruises, her vagina had been torn or lacerated, and that in his opinion the injury could have been caused by a foreign object such as a bottle. Furthermore, the prosecution elicited from defendant's jail cellmates, Mikles and McFarland, that defendant had boasted of his sexual assault with a bottle on one of the victims. Defendant contends that the admission of the foregoing testimony was improper because of its overwhelming prejudicial nature. To the contrary, the trial court acted well within its discretion under Evidence Code section 352. The court properly rejected evidence of the hair on the bottle as unduly prejudicial in the light of its speculative nature. Trial courts, vested with broad discretion under this section, frequently sustain many objections to real or demonstrative evidence on the ground that its gruesome or shocking nature may unduly prejudice a defendant in the eyes of the jury. (E.g., People v. Love (1960) 53 Cal.2d 843, 856-857 [3 Cal. Rptr. 665, 350 P.2d 705]; People v. Cavanaugh (1955) 44 Cal.2d 252, 267-268 [282 P.2d 53].) On the other hand, expert testimony regarding the extent of a victim's injuries and the means used to inflict such injuries, is generally held admissible. ( People v. Jackson (1971) 18 Cal. App.3d 504, 507 [95 Cal. Rptr. 919]; People v. Sampo (1911) 17 Cal. App. 135, 150 [118 P. 957]; see 1 Wharton, Criminal Evidence (13th ed. 1972) § 183, pp. 344-347.) Such evidence is often relevant on the issues of malice and intent. (See People v. Pierce, supra, 24 Cal.3d 199, 211.) Furthermore, the testimony of defendant's cellmates regarding defendant's admission was relevant to establish that it was defendant, not his accomplice Boyd, who committed the sexual assault on victim Ott. We conclude that the trial court did not err in admitting the foregoing evidence.