Opinion ID: 2626390
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: Defendant claims insufficient evidence supports both first degree murder theories presented at trial: (1) murder in the commission of forcible rape, and (2) willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder. Federal due process guarantees allegedly compel reversal of the murder count. We disagree.
Defendant notes that he could be convicted of first degree murder under a felony-murder-rape theory if he accomplished sexual intercourse against Carol's will by means of force or fear. (See § 261, subd. (a)(2); People v. Maury (2003) 30 Cal.4th 342, 403, 133 Cal.Rptr.2d 561, 68 P.3d 1.) He insists the prosecution did not prove these elements because there was no real injury to Carol's vagina, and because he told detectives that she consented to vaginal sex. However, viewing all of the evidence most favorably to the judgment, we reject the claim. ( People v. Johnson (1980) 26 Cal.3d 557, 578, 162 Cal.Rptr. 431, 606 P.2d 738; see Jackson v. Virginia (1979) 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560.) The evidence suggested that defendant formed a sexual interest in Carol inside the bar the night she was killed. After only one dance, defendant looked or stared at her with such intensity that his conduct was noticed by at least one bystander. When Carol told the bartender that she planned to leave by taxi, defendantwho apparently continued to watch her closely volunteered to drive her home. Defendant made this offer even though he did not know where Carol lived, and even though the pair hardly knew each other. The jury could infer that Carol had no similar interest in defendant. By asking him to dance, Carol treated defendant no differently than other bar patrons with whom she danced the same night or on prior occasions. She did not follow defendant to his table afterwards, but returned to her barstool instead. Moreover, Carol balked at being alone with defendant. Though she eventually accepted a ride from him, she first asked the bartender whether it was safe to go. In a related vein, Carol told the bartender that she was going home to her family. The jury could have accepted this statement at face value, and concluded that Carol did not intend to have sexual relations with defendant after she left the bar. Such evidence was clearly probative of both lack of consent and rape, and supported conviction under the prosecution's first degree felony-murder theory. ( People v. Rowland (1992) 4 Cal.4th 238, 264, 14 Cal.Rptr.2d 377, 841 P.2d 897 [rape-murder victim's statement about going home to sleep, which she made after enduring the defendant's sexual advances in bar, suggested she did not thereafter consent to sex with him].) Against this backdrop, defendant apparently saw Carol consume alcohol in the bar. He also later told the police that she was drunk while riding in his car. To rational jurors, defendant might have believed that Carol's condition would make her receptive or vulnerable to his sexual advances once they were alone together. However, subsequent events indicate that Carol rejected such advances and thatconsistent with evidence in the Valery C. casedefendant forced her to have sex anyway. Carol likely died within 30 minutes of leaving the bar with defendant. During that time, a violent struggle occurred in his car, as evidenced by Carol's defensive and other injuries, the seat foam stuck to her body, and defendant's own statements. Jurors also learned that he penetrated and ejaculated into her vaginal and anal cavities. Given the compressed time frame, and the sheer number of violent and sexual acts, the jury could reasonably conclude that they were part of one continuous criminal transaction in which defendant forced Carol to submit to both vaginal and anal intercourse against her will. Defendant highlights his statements to police indicating that Carol consented to vaginal sex, and that they fought afterwards about whether to visit another bar. However, the jury could have discredited this account. (See, e.g., People v. Berryman (1993) 6 Cal.4th 1048, 1084, 25 Cal.Rptr.2d 867, 864 P.2d 40 [finding substantial evidence that consensual sex did not precede violence, and that violence accompanied sex].) Defendant initially denied knowing Carol or being in the bar the night she was killed. When Detective Coffey disclosed contrary evidence, defendant admitted driving Carol home, but insisted no sex or violence occurred. Only after Coffey implied that defendant's semen would be found in Carol's body did he admit vaginal intercourse. He also eventually admitted a struggle in his car. In addition, defendant denied anal intercourse a stance inconsistent with medical, blood, and DNA evidence indicating that defendant forcibly sodomized Carol. Faced with defendant's changing stories and with evidence contradicting much of what he said, jurors could infer that none of his exculpatory statements about sex was true, and that he lied to defeat both sodomy and rape charges. Contrary to what defendant further implies, the lack of vaginal injury does not preclude the jury from finding rape or prevent this court from upholding that determination on appeal. ( People v. Berryman, supra, 6 Cal.4th 1048, 1084, 25 Cal. Rptr.2d 867, 864 P.2d 40; see People v. Griffin (2004) 33 Cal.4th 1015, 1027, 16 Cal.Rptr.3d 891, 94 P.3d 1089 [rape involves force sufficient to overcome the will of the victim, and does not require evidence that such force physically facilitated sexual penetration or prevented the victim from physically resisting her attacker].) Here, of course, the jury was free to accept testimony by Dr. Cogan and investigator Kitchings describing apparent trauma to Carol's vagina, e.g., bruised labial skin. The inference that such injury occurred during nonconsensual sex was strengthened by evidence that Carol's body was found naked from the waist down with her legs spread apart. ( People v. Berryman, supra, 6 Cal.4th at p. 1084, 25 Cal.Rptr.2d 867, 864 P.2d 40.) Such degrading circumstances could have convinced jurors that there was nothing lawful about defendant's sexual encounter with Carol, including the act of vaginal intercourse. In sum, we find sufficient evidence to support defendant's conviction of first degree murder under a felony-murder-rape theory.
Defendant argues that evidence of premeditation and deliberation was insufficient to support the first degree murder conviction. Under this approach, Carol's strangulation was impulsive or accidental. Defendant points to the lack of any evidence that he procured a weapon in advance or planned the killing. Suggesting he had no motive to kill, defendant notes that he and Carol were virtual strangers who met on friendly terms in the bar. An intentional killing is premeditated and deliberate if it occurred as the result of preexisting thought and reflection rather than unconsidered or rash impulse. ( People v. Perez (1992) 2 Cal.4th 1117, 1125, 9 Cal.Rptr.2d 577, 831 P.2d 1159, applying People v. Anderson (1968) 70 Cal.2d 15, 26-27, 73 Cal.Rptr. 550, 447 P.2d 942.) However, the requisite reflection need not span a specific or extended period of time. `Thoughts may follow each other with great rapidity and cold, calculated judgment may be arrived at quickly....' ( People v. Bolin (1998) 18 Cal.4th 297, 332, 75 Cal.Rptr.2d 412, 956 P.2d 374.) Appellate courts typically rely on three kinds of evidence in resolving the question raised here: motive, planning activity, and manner of killing. ( People v. Perez, supra, 2 Cal.4th 1117, 1125, 9 Cal. Rptr.2d 577, 831 P.2d 1159, applying People v. Anderson, supra, 70 Cal.2d 15, 26-27, 73 Cal.Rptr. 550, 447 P.2d 942.) These factors need not be present in any particular combination to find substantial evidence of premeditation and deliberation. ( People v. Pride (1992) 3 Cal.4th 195, 247, 10 Cal.Rptr.2d 636, 833 P.2d 643.) However, [w]hen the record discloses evidence in all three categories, the verdict generally will be sustained. ( People v. Proctor (1992) 4 Cal.4th 499, 529, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 340, 842 P.2d 1100.) In conducting this analysis, we draw all reasonable inferences necessary to support the judgment. ( People v. Perez, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 1124, 9 Cal.Rptr.2d 577, 831 P.2d 1159, citing People v. Johnson, supra, 26 Cal.3d 557, 578, 162 Cal.Rptr. 431, 606 P.2d 738.) As noted, the murder occurred during a sexually motivated attack. It appears defendant became fixated upon Carol after she asked him to dance. He paid close attention to her words and movements afterwards, and made sure she did not take a taxi home. The evidence further indicated that not long after they drove away from the bar, and while they were alone in his car, defendant forcibly raped and sodomized Carol, and subjected her to lethal violence. The jury could reasonably have believed that defendant killed Carol to silence her as a possible witness to her own sexual assault. ( People v. Pride, supra, 3 Cal.4th 195, 247, 10 Cal.Rptr.2d 636, 833 P.2d 643.) It also appears defendant planned the fatal confrontation to some extent. After watching Carol much of the night, he offered her a ride home. Far from being altruistic, this offer could reasonably be seen as a pretext for the pair to be alone. Such circumstances made Carol vulnerable not only to sexual assault, but also to murder. Indeed, as revealed during the police interview, defendant knew when he left the bar with Carol that Valery C. had formally accused him of rape. The jury could have concluded that defendant decided before the murder to ensure that Carol, a subsequent rape victim, did not survive to report the crime. The manner of killing also suggests premeditation. The pathologist, Dr. Cogan, testified that lethal pressure had been applied to Carol's neck for a long time. This evidence suggests defendant had ample opportunity to consider the deadly consequences of his actions. (See, e.g., People v. Davis, supra, 10 Cal.4th 463, 510, 41 Cal.Rptr.2d 826, 896 P.2d 119 [strangulation of sexual assault victim for up to five minutes suggested deliberate plan to kill her].) However, instead of easing the pressure on Carol's neck (as he did during the rape of Valery C.), defendant used multiple means of strangulation, namely, manual choking sufficient to break the thyroid cartilage, use of a choke hold sufficient to break the cricoid cartilage, and application of a ligature sufficient to damage the neck. Such acts seem calculated to ensure death. (See People v. Bonillas (1989) 48 Cal.3d 757, 792, 257 Cal.Rptr. 895, 771 P.2d 844 [describing ligature strangulation as inherently deliberate act].) Accordingly, we find substantial evidence of first degree premeditated murder, and decline to reverse the conviction on this ground.