Opinion ID: 2633199
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Additional physical evidence

Text: Inspector Wolke testified that on August 16, he examined a sand pile north of where Gioia's body had been found and adjacent to the spot where Kniffin's body was recovered. He observed two sets of drag marks in the sand and bloodstains on some rocks near the water. Detective Eihl testified to the same observations. A corncob pipe with a broken stem was recovered from the area. Thomas's rifle and the distinctive match pouch he said he had loaned the victims were never found. In short, though circumstantial, the evidence against Thomas was considerable. In addition, the prosecution called rebuttal witnesses that cast doubt on Cercy's testimony. Inspector Wolke testified that he interviewed Cercy on August 17 after Harry Shorman, the unofficial mayor of Rainbow Village and Cercy's boyfriend, introduced him to her. She told Wolke that she had had quite a bit to drink on the night of August 15. She did not mention seeing a rifle, but said that, while overhearing the conversation she reported, she saw a person stick a 10- or 12-inch object down his waistband. She was positive it was not a rifle. She did not tell Wolke that someone had threatened to kill her. Additionally, Rainbow Village resident Vincent Johnson testified that in September or October 1985, Cercy had told him she basically hadn't seen anything on the night of the murders, and everything she had said she was told to say by Shorman. Against that evidence, a competent investigation would have offered, in addition to Cercy's testimony, Cho's testimony that he knew of a man named Bo who was tall, thin, and blond and who had gone swimming in the bay the night of the murders, and Turley's testimony that he too knew of a tall, blond Deadhead named Bo. Neither Cho nor Turley could have provided any corroboration of what Cercy saw the night of the murders, nor could either have offered any testimony that would materially sharpen suspicion that Bo, not Thomas, was the true killer. In short, their evidence would not have made a difference; when compared with the evidence against Thomas, we conclude there is no reasonable probability it would have led to a more favorable verdict. Our conclusion would not change even if we were to disregard the referee's findings that many of the habeas corpus witnesses could not reasonably have been located or would not have been called had they been found. The sum total of the evidence presented at the evidentiary hearing establishes that a person known as Bo existed in the Deadhead community and was one of many Deadheads in Rainbow Village in the days before and after the murders. It does nothing to move from the realm of speculation what Bo's ties were to Gioia, if any, whether he had access to a weapon, whether he had reason to kill Gioia, andgiven the absence of foundation for how Cercy attached the name Bo to a person she had never metwhether the blond man others knew as Bo was even the person Cercy saw with Gioia the night of the murders. The real difficulty with the potential case against Bo, however, is that it does absolutely nothing to undermine the case actually presented against Thomasthe fortuitous disappearance of his .44 magnum rifle, the multiple witnesses who saw him with the victims, his identification of Gioia the next morning, the repeated inconsistencies in his shifting explanations, and the corncob pipe found at the scene. Put another way, even if listening to the habeas corpus witnesses might in the abstract make one ponder a small possibility that Bo might have killed Gioia and Kniffin, listening to the prosecution case would have established in a reasonable juror's mind the near certainty that Thomas did kill them. We thus conclude that Thomas has not demonstrated a reasonable probability of a more favorable outcome.