Opinion ID: 2585200
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Denial of view of defendant's cabin

Text: Defendant contends reversal is required because the trial court prejudicially erred in denying his request for a jury view of his cabin pursuant to section 1119, resulting in a miscarriage of justice, denial of due process and an unreliable verdict. We disagree. As noted ante, 115 Cal.Rptr .2d at pages 629-30, 38 P.3d at pages 474-75, Anderson testified to certain observations he had made while inside defendant's cabin. In particular, Anderson testified that he saw defendant, Coonce and Mendonca enter the cabin's bathroom and, through its partly open door, saw a gun change hands. At trial, defendant requested that the jury be allowed to view the cabin and its interior, on the theory that Anderson could not have seen into the bathroom from where he was sitting and thus could not have seen a gun being passed from one person to another. The trial court asked for an offer of proof regarding whether the cabin had been changed since defendant resided there and whether defendant's investigator could go to the cabin, take measurements and prepare a diagram as a defense exhibit, comparable to the existing diagram, People's exhibit 33, thus obviating the need to take the jury there. Defendant used a photograph previously taken of the cabin in cross-examining Anderson. The trial court later inquired whether the parties had any photographs that might clarify the position of the table where Anderson was sitting in relation to the bathroom. The parties agreed there were no photographs illustrating the view from the table toward the bathroom door. The court then directed the prosecution to take several measurements in the cabin to assist it in ruling on defendant's motion. Later, having complied with the court's request, Detective Deckard testified he went to defendant's cabin and took certain photographs and measurements. The interior of the cabin had changed, in that a wall had been added to create a bedroom area and the furniture was different. Deckard took photographs from the new bedroom area looking toward the bathroom, one of which depicted the prosecutor standing in the bathroom with the door open approximately an inch and a half, as well as a photograph from the bathroom sink looking toward the bedroom. From the approximate location where Anderson had been sitting, Deckard testified he could see the prosecutor standing in the bathroom, and that this was depicted in two photographs he had taken. Deckard further testified he took several measurements, establishing that the cabin's interior was 17 feet from east to west and 12 feet two inches from north to south; the width of the bathroom door was two feet six inches; from the west wall to the west opening of the door was four inches; the extension of the wall on the other side of the door was 12 inches; from the north wall to the molding of the closet (the north side of the closet door) was nine feet five inches; and from the approximate location of the chair where Anderson was sitting to the bathroom door was 10 feet. On cross-examination, defendant elicited that Anderson had apparently been sitting five to six feet from the bathroom door, while Deckard's picture was taken 10 feet from the bathroom door. Defendant also elicited from Deckard that when he took the photograph of the prosecutor standing in the bathroom, he could not see all of the latter's body and, in fact, could see only his back against the wall, not the front of his body. The trial court denied defendant's motion to have the jury view the cabin, finding the jury had an adequate view of the scene from the photographs and diagram as marked with the measurements Deckard had taken. This ruling, defendant contends, was prejudicially erroneous and rendered the eventual verdict unreliable. Section 1119 provides: When, in the opinion of the court, it is proper that the jury should view the place in which the offense is charged to have been committed, or in which any other material fact occurred, or any personal property which has been referred to in the evidence and cannot conveniently be brought into the courtroom, it may order the jury to be conducted in a body, in the custody of the sheriff or marshal, as the case may be, to the place, or to the property, which must be shown to them by a person appointed by the court for that purpose; and the officer must be sworn to suffer no person to speak or communicate with the jury, nor to do so himself or herself, on any subject connected with the trial, and to return them into court without unnecessary delay, or at a specified time. [22] A court's ruling on a party's motion for a jury view is reviewed for abuse of discretion ( People v. Kraft (2000) 23 Cal.4th 978, 1053, 99 Cal. Rptr.2d 1, 5 P.3d 68), i.e., whether the court exercised its discretion in an arbitrary, capricious, or patently absurd manner that results in a manifest miscarriage of justice ( People v. Sanders (1995) 11 Cal.4th 475, 512, 46 Cal.Rptr.2d 751, 905 P.2d 420). When the purpose of the view is to test the veracity of a witness's testimony about observations the witness made, the trial court may properly consider whether the conditions for the jury view will be substantially the same as those under which the witness made the observations, whether there are other means of testing the veracity of the witness's testimony, and practical difficulties in conducting a jury view. ( People v. Price (1991) 1 Cal.4th 324, 422, 3 Cal.Rptr.2d 106, 821 P.2d 610.) The trial court did not act absurdly or irrationally in denying defendant's motion in light of the other available means of testing the veracity of Anderson's testimony regarding his observations. The jury could examine the photographs and diagram of the interior of the cabin that were admitted into evidence, and a view of the scene would have added little. Defendant, moreover, was free to send an investigator to the cabin to obtain any measurements he believed essential. Defendant argues a view was necessary because the photographs and diagram did not reflect what he asserts to be the fact that, contrary to Anderson's testimony, it was physically impossible for three people to fit inside the bathroom. Whether defendant voiced this reason in support of his request for the view is unclear from the record. In any event, the jury, aware of the approximate dimensions of the cabin and the bathroom, was capable of drawing appropriate inferences regarding the veracity of Anderson's testimony.