Opinion ID: 844221
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence to Support Kidnapping Special Circumstance

Text: Defendant argues that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury's true finding regarding the kidnapping special circumstance. He asserts that this error violated his constitutional rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, his analogous rights under the California Constitution, and his rights under state law. [3] (1) Section 190.2, subdivision (a) provides in relevant part: The penalty for a defendant who is found guilty of murder in the first degree is death or imprisonment in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole if one or more of the following special circumstances has been found under Section 190.4 to be true: [¶] . . . [¶] (17) The murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in, or was an accomplice in, the commission of, attempted commission of, or the immediate flight after committing, or attempting to commit, the following felonies : [¶] . . . [¶] (B) Kinapping . . . . (Italics added.) At the time of defendant's offense, this special circumstance required an independent felonious purpose to commit one of the listed felonies (in this case, kidnapping). [4] In other words, the kidnapping could not be merely incidental to the murder, with the murder being the defendant's primary purpose. ( People v. Navarette (2003) 30 Cal.4th 458 [133 Cal.Rptr.2d 89, 66 P.3d 1182]; People v. Green (1980) 27 Cal.3d 1, 61-62 [164 Cal.Rptr. 1, 609 P.2d 468].) We have, however, found sufficient evidence to support this special circumstance so long as there was a concurrent purpose to commit both the murder and one of the listed felonies. ( People v. Bolden (2002) 29 Cal.4th 515, 554, 558 [127 Cal.Rptr.2d 802, 58 P.3d 931]; People v. Raley (1992) 2 Cal.4th 870, 903 [8 Cal.Rptr.2d 678, 830 P.2d 712].) Here, according to defendant, the evidence showed that his intent from the outset was to kill Kelly Gordon, and that the kidnapping was merely incidental to that killing. Defendant asserts that the record includes no evidence of an independent purpose to kidnap Gordon. The evidence that related to the kidnapping charge and kidnapping special circumstance was the testimony that defendant placed Gordon in the trunk of the Cadillac while she was still alive, shut the trunk, asked for the keys to the car, and left. The same Cadillac was later found in a different location, burning, with Gordon's burned body in the trunk. Defendant points out, however, that before any of these events, he told Savidan of his intent to kill Gordon, he placed a bag over Gordon's head, he choked her from behind, and then, after putting Gordon in the trunk of the car, he told Uele and Myers: We got to take her out . . . because she w[ill] tell. In defendant's view, all this evidence suggests that his primary intent was to kill Gordon, and that the kidnapping was undertaken merely in furtherance of the killing, not with an independent purpose. In the trial court, defendant twice moved for dismissal of the kidnapping special circumstance allegation, and the trial court denied the motion both times. Defendant is wrong when he asserts that there was no evidence from which the jury could infer an independent felonious purpose to kidnap Gordon. The initial assault took place at night (after 7:00 p.m.), in a complex of automotive repair shops that were likely closed for the night, at the end of a long, narrow parking lot, behind a four-to-five-foot-high brick wall. Defendant could have killed Gordon right there, by choking her, clubbing her, or by using a knife from the motel (assuming he had no access to a firearm). Or, he could have obtained gasoline from a nearby gas station, returned to the same secluded location where the assault took place, and done his horrible deed right there, in the dark parking lot, behind the brick wall. He then could easily have walked back to his motel room, which was right next door. Instead of killing Gordon where he was, however, defendant chose to take her for a driveand not just a few miles. He drove 16 miles, from Anaheim to an unincorporated area near Lakewood. It took a detective from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department about 25 minutes to drive the same distance in light traffic. Defendant had not mentioned to anyone an intent to burn Gordon alive, and her transgression would not seem to warrant so horrible a death. A reasonable jury therefore could infer that defendant was not sure what he wanted to do with Gordon when he drove away with her in the trunk. He wanted to think about it, and going for a drive was his way of thinking about it. It is also possible that defendant's initial plan was to use the gasoline to destroy evidence of the assault, such as bloodstains in the interior of the Cadillac or in the trunk. He may have kidnapped Gordon with the purpose of obtaining the gasoline and then later decided to use the gasoline to kill Gordon. Moreover, even if defendant intended from the beginning to kill Gordon and even if that was his primary purpose, that point is irrelevant to our analysis. The jury only needed to find that defendant also had another concurrent objective when he kidnapped Gordon. (See People v. Bolden, supra, 29 Cal.4th at p. 554, 558; People v. Raley, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 903.) If defendant intended to kill Gordon, but he wanted first to drive her around in a locked trunk, thoroughly terrifying her before she actually died, then the independent purpose requirement of People v. Green, supra, 27 Cal.3d at pages 59 to 62, is satisfied. (See People v. Raley, at p. 903 [Concurrent intent to kill and to commit an independent felony will support a felony-murder special circumstance . . . .].) While lying bruised and bleeding in the dark trunk of a car that was being driven toward some unknown destination, Gordon must have been terrified, and defendant must have known that by driving her such a long distance, he was increasing her terror. If, independent of any other purpose he might have had, he took some satisfaction in the terror she was experiencing during the drivethat is, if the terror was at least one of his purposesthen he had the independent, concurrent purpose for the crime of kidnapping that our case law requires. Defendant's actions during the assault on Gordonwhich included placing a plastic bag over her head (a bag she could easily tear off) and choking her by putting his arm around her neckwere better calculated to instill fear than to kill. The jury therefore could reasonably infer that even if defendant's ultimate purpose was to kill Gordon, he also wanted to terrify her before she died. Finally, our own view of what the evidence shows is irrelevant. The relevant inquiry is whether it would be irrational for a jury to conclude that defendant intended to kidnap Gordon for some reason (such as to instill fear) that was in addition to and independent of his intent to murder her. ( People v. Raley, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 902.) Although the evidence of such a goal is far from overwhelming, it is sufficient to support the jury's verdict. It is true that the jury also could have inferred defendant's version of the facts, but defendant is wrong to assert that his interpretation of the evidence is the only reasonable interpretation. Because, as discussed above, the record contains sufficient evidence to support the jury's finding of an independent purpose to kidnap Gordon, we need not set aside the kidnapping special circumstance finding on that ground. (See People v. Raley, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 903 [because the defendant put his victims in the trunk of his car and drove them to his home, he might not have formed the intent to kill until after the asportation]; see also People v. Barnett (1998) 17 Cal.4th 1044, 1158 [74 Cal.Rptr.2d 121, 954 P.2d 384] [although some evidence showed that the defendant threatened to kill the victim on the day of the murder, the jury could infer that the defendant had not finally decided the victim's fate at the time of the asportation].)