Opinion ID: 2639434
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Joanna

Text: As recounted in detail in our opinion in the automatic appeal ( People v. Cox, supra, 30 Cal.4th at pp. 929-930, 135 Cal. Rptr.2d 272, 70 P.3d 277), Joanna testified at trial in 1985 that she accompanied petitioner and Denise to a wooded area near Placerville. She heard Denise screaming and saw her running in the nude, her hands behind her back, with petitioner in pursuit. Petitioner caught up with Denise, pushed her down, and stabbed her. Joanna then ran to a road, flagged down a passing car, and got a ride back to Placerville with a person named Joe. Joanna recanted her trial testimony on January 16, 1992, but the circumstances surrounding her recantation were suspect. In 1990, Joanna separated from her husband, Allen Dwyer. The two became embroiled in a bitter custody battle over their daughter. In March and April of 1990, Dwyer, Anita Hooser (Dwyer's mother), and Laura Lawrence (Dwyer's friend) executed signed declarations, prepared by the State Public Defender's Office, that stated Joanna told them she had lied at trial. Dwyer further claimed that Joanna told him she was passed out in a park at the time she claimed to have witnessed the murder. On April 27, 1990, Joanna executed a responding declaration denying she ever told Dwyer, Hooser, or Lawrence that she had lied at trial; she admitted that she originally had lied to police shortly after the murder because she was afraid they would think she was involved in the murder if she said she was a witness; she added that her trial testimony was true. Joanna stated that Dwyer's allegations stemmed from the custody dispute and the fact she had filed a child abuse claim against Dwyer.
In September 1990, Marilyn Mobert, an investigator with the State Public Defender's Office, armed with the Dwyer declaration, arrived at Joanna's house unannounced and, in front of Joanna's daughter, accused Joanna of having lied at trial and threatened her with a perjury charge. She told Joanna that a witness would place Joanna in a park in the late night hours of June 12, 1984, which would show that Joanna's trial testimony about witnessing the murder was a lie. (No such witness ever came forward.) Mobert then told Joanna that she would not go to prison and lose her children if she told the truth. Mobert suggested that there was a solution; Joanna could hire a lawyer who could arrange a grant of immunity. Joanna could then safely go to court, recant her trial testimony, receive no punishment and keep her children. Joanna testified she was so upset by Mobert that she burst into tears. Immediately thereafter, Joanna phoned El Dorado County Sheriff's Sergeant Bill Wilson in a panic. Joanna told him that she did not want this case to interfere with her custody dispute. Sergeant Wilson thereafter told his wife that Joanna might recant her trial testimony. His fears were realized. On January 16, 1992, Joanna, in the presence of her attorney, formally recanted her trial testimony after she had been granted immunity.
Dr. Frank Dougherty, a psychologist, conducted a portion of the interview of Joanna that took place on January 16, 1992. Joanna told Dr. Dougherty she did not see petitioner kill Denise. She claimed she had lied about witnessing Denise's murder because she felt ... pressure whether it be [from her] own self or from the fact that she felt she had to say something significant. She asserted she had not seen petitioner on June 12, 1984, the night Denise was murdered. Joanna claimed to remember an incident in which a cement block was thrown through the windshield of a police car (see People v. Cox, supra, 30 Cal.4th at pp. 928-929, 135 Cal.Rptr.2d 272, 70 P.3d 277), but after that point she was not sure what she did for the next ... hour or so, but recalled that she ended up sleeping at Bruce Nesthus's house. She said she was not frightened when she was with Nesthus and did not hide behind him when cars drove by. She said she made up the little details of the murder, like throwing up once she got out of petitioner's car at the murder scene, as I went along. Joanna also stated that in 1987, after the trial was concluded, she had a conversation with Sergeant Wilson in which she told him that she had lied at trial about getting a ride back from the scene of the murder with a person named Joe. She added that she may have told Sergeant Wilson that she lied about seeing Denise get stabbed, but she had heard Denise scream. Sergeant Wilson, she said, told her that these details were not significant. Dr. Dougherty pointed out that Joanna told him, back in November 1984, that on the night of Denise's murder, she had seen Denise at the Stancil's Toyota dealership and near the tunnel underpass. Joanna replied that she made that up. Dr. Dougherty asked why she made that up, given that she had not yet told him she was a witness to the murder. Joanna replied: I don't know. I don't really have a good reason for it. When asked why she told Fay Harnage and her husband, El Dorado County Sheriffs Detective Erol Harnage, that she knew something about the case when she now claimed she knew nothing, Joanna replied: I ... I really don't know the answer to that, except that I was a very confused teenager at the time and ... ah ... I ... I don't have a good explanation for it.
As more fully explained in our opinion in the automatic appeal ( People v. Cox, supra, 30 Cal.4th at pp. 931-932, 135 Cal. Rptr.2d 272, 70 P.3d 277), on two occasions prior to trial, Joanna led Dr. Dougherty and El Dorado Sheriffs deputies, Detective Harnage and Sergeant Wilson to the scene of Denise's murder. The first time, on November 2, 1984, Joanna directed them to Ferrari Mill Road as far as the intersection known as Four Corners, where she became nonresponsive. On November 6, 1984, they returned to Four Corners and Joanna, who had started to cry, recognized a tree stump painted with yellow paint and told them to go straight ahead but, after they had gone about a half-mile, said they were on the wrong road. They returned to Four Corners and Joanna pointed to the road on their left, which was the road leading to where Denise's remains had been found. During trial, Joanna returned to Four Corners with Sergeant Wilson. She told him to drive straight ahead but after they had gone about 75 yards she told him to return to the intersection and directed him to the right. After they had gone about 150 yards, she again had him return to the intersection and take the road to the left, which was the road leading to where Denise's remains had been found. When they reached the area where Denise's body had been found, she asked Sergeant Wilson to stop the car. She exclaimed, This is the spot, and began to cry. During the January 16, 1992 interview in which Joanna recanted her testimony, Dr. Dougherty asked Joanna how she was able to give directions to the murder location. Joanna said: We drove up there, and the only reason why I did know was that I, somehow I ... I knew that it was off of Ferrari Mill Road. She continued: And so I was able to show you that was where it was. And I don't know if I read that in the paper. There's a possibility that maybe the bodies had been found there ... or ... ahm ... somebody maybe had said that to me. But I think it was through the paper. Dr. Dougherty asked Joanna how she knew how to get to Ferrari Mill Road, adding that he did not know how to get to that location. She replied: I didn't really know. Joanna continued: I didn't really know, but ... since I had found Debbie's clothes approximately, I don't know, a few miles around that area, I assumed that it was in the same area. And I was looking for the road. When asked how she knew to get to the Sly Park area, Joanna replied: Ah, I had found Debbie's clothes in that ... in a similar area. I'm not sure if it's the same road but called Camp Creek which is up Sly Park, same area. Later, Joanna was asked if it was just a coincidence that she began crying when they reached the scene of the murder. Joanna replied: I have no idea how I did that, I have no idea. In fact, Joanna claimed she learned the location of the body was on Ferrari Mill Road, Not long before they ... they had taken me out there. I, in fact, maybe it had been the day before.

On direct examination at the reference hearing, Joanna made several claims that were inconsistent with the 1985 trial evidence, her 1985 trial testimony, and her 1992 recantation. Joanna testified that she did not recall seeing Placerville Police Officer Phillip Dannaker upon her return to Placerville on October 30, 1984, and said she spoke to Fay Harnage about a week or a week and a half after her return and not, as she had testified at trial, on the day of her return. Joanna testified that she was concerned when the El Dorado County Sheriffs deputies wanted her to take them to where she claimed Denise was murdered because they would find out she was lying. But she had read in the paper that Ferrari Mill Road was where the bodies were found and she knew probably where it was, knowing it was past the second dam and knowing where I'd found Debbie's clothes, that it was probably nearby. Joanna claimed she had specific knowledge of Ferrari Mill Road because of two newspaper articles in the Mountain Democrat, dated August 13 and 22, 1984, that mentioned where the girls' skeletons were found. Specifically, the August 13 article stated that female skeletons were found within three quarters of a mile of each other off Ferrari Mill Road, which runs off Mormon Emigrant Trail (Iron Mountain Road) near the second dam and Jenkinson Lake. The August 22 article stated that dental charts determined that skeletal remains found off Ferrari Mill Road Aug[ust] 4 were those of Lynda and Denise. Joanna claimed she was familiar with that area because [t]hat was the area near where [Debbie's] clothes were found. When the referee pointed out to Joanna that the area where Debbie's clothes were found was several (actually 12) miles away from where Denise's body was located, Joanna hesitantly replied: Well, it was stillit was several miles, but it was near comparative to it being out in the country out there. She claimed not to have the faintest idea where the bodies were found on Ferrari Mill Road itself. Joanna asserted that, contrary to her trial testimony, petitioner never requested anal intercourse from her. She stated that, contrary to her trial testimony, Joe never gave her a ride off the mountain, but that Joe was a real person by the name of Joe Shamblin. Joanna stated that when Sergeant Wilson, prior to petitioner's jury trial in 1984, told her they thought they had found Joe, she lied to Sergeant Wilson and told him that that was the wrong Joe because the Joe who had given her a ride had moved to Reno, Nevada. Joanna testified that on June 22, 1985, during trial, Sergeant Wilson, without warning, told her they needed to go to the murder scene. Once they got to Four Corners, Wilson told Joanna to take him to the murder location. Joanna knew the first two roads she directed Wilson to drive on were incorrect simply because Wilson was very agitated. As she knew there was only one road left, Joanna said she lied when she said, I knew this was the road all along. She knew where to stop on this road because Wilson was silent the whole time on this road, but he just was completely silent, so she knew she must be near the right place. She said she was lying when she pointed out to Wilson different areas where she did things and where she saw things the night of the murder. Joanna testified that she lied in 1990 when she signed the declaration stating that her trial testimony was true. She claimed, however, that her 1992 recantation was truthful.
Joanna testified that, for a period of a week or two weeks after she found Debbie's clothes, she checked the Mountain Democrat newspaper for articles on petitioner's case and learned about Ferrari Mill Road from two articles, dated August 13 and 22, 1984. She agreed neither article gave directions to Ferrari Mill Road. Joanna volunteered that the only reason she was able to find Ferrari Mill Road was because she saw a road sign. She said she had never noticed the road before November 1984. Once on Ferrari Mill Road, she guessed which direction to go when the road forked before they reached Four Corners. Joanna claimed her clothes were not soiled or dirty at any time when she was with Bruce Nesthus. She claimed she never told Fay Harnage I was there. Nor was she hysterical when she told her story to Fay Harnage; she was just talking about the case to her. She agreed, however, that Fay Harnage was a complete stranger and she met her by accident. Joanna also said she lied when she said she recognized the tree stump with the yellow markings. Joanna was reminded that in her 1992 recantation statement, she had acknowledged that after telling Darlene that she found Debbie's clothes, Darlene replied that she and petitioner had just been to Camp Creek, even though Joanna had not mentioned that Camp Creek was where she found the clothes. Joanna was then confronted with her reference hearing testimony that she did tell Darlene she found the clothes at Camp Creek, and Darlene gasp[ed] because she and petitioner had just been there. Joanna said she could not recall which version was truthful. Joanna said she did not recall telling Officer Dannaker on August 12, 1984 that she had been drinking with Denise, that she had walked with Denise to the Locust Street underpass, had watched Denise walk through the underpass towards the foster home and, at that same time, had seen petitioner drop off Darlene at the foster home. (See People v. Cox, supra, 30 Cal.4th at p. 929, fn. 2, 135 Cal.Rptr.2d 272, 70 P.3d 277.) Joanna agreed, however, that if she made that statement to Officer Dannaker, she would have been telling him the truth.