Opinion ID: 1199719
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of gun and ammunition; evidence of subsequent crimes.

Text: (1) Defendant contends he was deprived of effective representation because of his counsel's failure to object to the admission of the .30-caliber rifle and the ammunition found inside the pickup truck parked at the crime scene. He asserts that, because the rifle was not the murder weapon and neither the rifle nor the ammunition was relevant to any issue relating to the commission of the crimes, this evidence was far more prejudicial than probative of any material issue, and for that reason would have been excluded had defense counsel made a proper objection. In support of his claim, defendant cites People v. Riser (1956) 47 Cal.2d 566, 577 [305 P.2d 1]. In Riser, this court held that admission of evidence of weapons, other than the murder weapon, discovered in the defendant's possession at the time of his arrest, several weeks following his commission of the murder, was error. The court stated: When the prosecution relies... on a specific type of weapon [as the murder weapon], it is error to admit evidence that other weapons were found in [defendant's] possession, for such evidence tends to show, not that he committed the crime, but only that he is the sort of person who carries deadly weapons. ( Ibid. ) In the present case, admission of the gun and the ammunition was not prohibited by the rule stated in Riser. Under circumstances unlike those present in Riser, the weapon and the ammunition located in defendant's truck were found by deputy sheriffs at the crime scene, shortly after commission of the crimes, and there was no direct evidence as to the fatal shooting that would render this evidence irrelevant to establish facts material to proof of the charged offenses. For these reasons, defendant has failed to establish that the challenged evidence was inadmissible under Riser. (2) Defendant also characterizes as incompetent his attorney's failure to object to evidence of his activities following the commission of the crimes, including his theft of items of clothing from the firefighters' vehicles, and his illegal entry into the vacant residence in Cameron Park. He contends that this evidence was more prejudicial than probative of any disputed material issue, and that counsel's failure to object to its admission pursuant to Evidence Code section 352 deprived him of competent representation. Again, defendant fails to show the evidence was not properly admissible. Evidence of defendant's whereabouts before his arrest and during the three-day period following commission of the crimes, indicating he was in flight and avoiding apprehension, was highly probative of his participation in the crimes and of his consciousness of guilt (see People v. Perry (1972) 7 Cal.3d 756, 780-781 [103 Cal. Rptr. 161, 499 P.2d 129]; People v. Hall (1926) 199 Cal. 451, 460 [249 P. 859]), and thus was admissible under Evidence Code section 1101, subdivision (b), for these purposes. Because this evidence was neither inflammatory, nor misleading with respect to any other issue, the record fails to demonstrate that an objection on the grounds now suggested would have been successful.