Opinion ID: 2625875
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Robbery Trial

Text: On August 27, 1979, two men robbed Koll of cash at his pharmacy, located at 939 East Walnut Street in Pasadena. Defendant and James Phillips were charged with the robbery and with felony assault. At the preliminary examination, Koll identified defendant as one of the robbers. On November 3, 1980, the robbery case was scheduled for trial in a department of the Los Angeles County Superior Court located in the Pasadena courthouse. Koll had been subpoenaed as a witness and was on call if needed. During the morning session, before court and counsel started to select a jury, the prosecutor, Gerald Haney, and defense counsel, Adolfo Lara, discussed a disposition by plea. Haney offered to drop the assault charge if defendant pled guilty to robbery. According to Haney, Lara left the room to talk to defendant, then returned and said, My guy wants to think about it overduring the lunch hour. Around 11:30 or 11:45 a.m., court recessed until 1:45 p.m. At the beginning of the lunch break, a bailiff saw defendant make a telephone call from the hallway just outside the courtroom. Brother Ed Bryant, an acquaintance of defendant, saw him sometime between 11:30 a.m. and noon in the hallway. Bryant invited defendant to join him for lunch, but defendant declined, saying he had something else to do. While in his office during the lunch hour, Haney learned that Koll had been shot and killed. He returned to the courtroom around 1:25 p.m. When defendant and his attorney, Lara, entered, Haney asked Lara whether his plea offer had been accepted. Lara answered that his client wanted to go to trial. Haney then told Lara and defendant that Koll had been killed. While Lara reacted with incredulity, defendant had no reaction at all, not a flicker of emotion. A Pasadena police officer who witnessed the conversation agreed that Lara reacted with surprise and disbelief, while defendant had no reaction whatever. Police arrested defendant later that afternoon, during a recess in the robbery trial. When officers sought to test defendant's hands for gunshot residue in a conference room just outside the courtroom, defendant asked to use the bathroom first and, when he was refused, became agitated, yelling, I got to take a piss, I got to take a piss. The residue test proved negative, but, according to an expert, this result was inconclusive as to whether defendant had fired a gun; residue would be absent if a shooter wore gloves while firing, and could be washed off the hands or removed by incidental rubbing.