Opinion ID: 1179512
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Failure to Investigate PCP Usage

Text: (10) Petitioner was interviewed by several psychiatrists and psychologists beginning in September 1981. He consistently told them about his involuntary PCP ingestion and described his physiological and psychological reactions, which were consistent with PCP intoxication. On March 15, 1982, petitioner was interviewed by Dr. Ronald Linder, a PCP researcher, at attorney Lorenz's request. Petitioner told him about the yellow powder that was put in his beer and how he felt afterward. A short time after the interview, and before trial, Dr. Linder obtained a urine sample from petitioner which he had tested at USC Medical Center. The urine sample showed trace positive for PCP content. Dr. Orm Aniline, an associate of Dr. Linder, describes the further testing done and the basis of his request to Lorenz for additional tests: Based on the history Mr. Sixto related to Dr. Linder, and the trace positive testing of his urine sample at USC Medical Center in March 1982, I asked Lorenz for a part of the blood sample extracted from Sixto on June 7, 1981, the day of his arrest. I wanted to conduct further testing to verify the possibility of PCP concentration in Sixto's blood on the day of the offense. [¶] In May 1982, a blood sample was sent to me by the Kern County Sheriff's laboratory. I had the sample run through the testing equipment at USC Medical Center. This blood sample indicated a positive PCP peak at the detection limit. This, in my opinion, along with the urine sample tested in March 1982, provided equivocal results of PCP in Sixto's system. I then wrote Mr. Sixto's attorney, Eugene Lorenz, on August 5, 1982 [after the start of trial], advising him an acidification test was necessary to determine if trace levels of PCP were still in Mr. Sixto's blood or urine. This would assist me in deciding whether Sixto was suffering from altered consciousness and diminished capacity at the time of the offense in question. I was aware Mr. Sixto had been in custody since his arrest on June 6, 1981. It was unlikely Sixto could have obtained any PCP while in custody in the Kern County Jail. A positive PCP blood analysis would indicate to me that a quantity of PCP was in his system at the time of his arrest. Lorenz never replied to Dr. Aniline's letter of August 5, 1982, and no further PCP testing was done. All of Dr. Aniline's communications regarding the Sixto case were with attorney Lorenz. Dr. Aniline explains in his declaration that PCP has the unique property of remaining in the human body for many months or years while undetectable in the bloodstream or urine. It may be detected by an acidification test, which was recommended here but never done. Dr. Aniline also explains that the lab facilities at USC Medical Center were more advanced than those at Western Laboratories (used by the prosecution) and were able to detect smaller amounts of PCP. Both Dr. Linder and Dr. Aniline state that petitioner's description of the subjective effects of PCP are entirely consistent with scientific findings on PCP intoxication. They also think that petitioner's lack of education and sophistication make it unlikely he could have described these symptoms unless they had actually been experienced. Dr. Linder states in his declaration: As a result of the positive test results of the blood sample and the urine sample, I believe Felipe was suffering from PCP intoxication at the time of the alleged homicide. [¶] At the time I interviewed the defendant I was aware of the fact he had been incarcerated for several months and had the opportunity to learn the symptoms of PCP intoxication from conversations with fellow inmates. [¶] Knowing the defendant was placed in a padded cell shortly after his arrest; the claimed lapse of memory for an approximately 45-minute period surrounding the homicide; the physical symptoms described to me by defendant, I seriously discount the possibility defendant made up the symptoms. Based on defendant's abnormal brain waves under alcohol-induced symptoms and his physical description of the symptoms which are consistent with PCP intoxication, I am led to believe defendant actually did ingest PCP and could well have suffered from PCP intoxication at the time of the homicide. Attorney Cook was aware at the time of trial that the Western Laboratories test of petitioner's blood had been negative for PCP. Although the record reveals that Lorenz produced the August 5 letter from Dr. Aniline during trial, Cook apparently was unaware of its significance. Cook stated in a declaration in support of the motion for new trial: He was unaware during trial of the letter written by Dr. Linder to Lorenz in March 1982. Cook inadvertently learned of the positive PCP findings of Dr. Linder after the jury's verdict. He also learned that Dr. Linder had been in contact with Lorenz several times in 1982 and that Drs. Linder and Aniline believed that petitioner had a meritorious PCP defense that was not pursued. It had been Cook's understanding at the time of trial that there was no PCP defense. It was on the basis of this previously unknown information that Cook moved for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence, which he believed presented a meritorious and viable defense. The failure to have obtained the recommended further PCP testing and to have shown the medical experts the reports from Dr. Linder and Dr. Aniline was a crucial deficiency which cannot be attributed to reasonable trial tactics. Dr. Martin Blinder has submitted a declaration stating that he had examined petitioner in May 1982, read the police reports and reports of other medical examinations of petitioner, and had concluded in his report to counsel that PCP was a very likely explanation for the episode; the symptoms described by petitioner were consistent with PCP ingestion and intoxication. According to Dr. Blinder's report, petitioner stated that all of the guests at the barbecue (including petitioner) were consuming lots of beer and marijuana. The others were also snorting a yellow powder that petitioner thought was PCP. They urged petitioner to try it, telling him, You're not a man if you don't take this, but he repeatedly declined. Around 8 p.m. petitioner left a half can of beer on the table while he went to the bathroom. He returned and finished this can and several additional cans. During this period he was told that PCP had been added to his first can of beer. Petitioner attempted to induce vomiting but failed. Within a few minutes he began to develop symptoms  his head getting larger, his body feeling light, his vision cloudy, and an evolving sense of restlessness. He estimates that by this time he had consumed approximately 24 cans of beer in a 7-hour period (from 2 to 9 p.m.). Petitioner said he saw Jorge leave the house, followed him into the field, has no recollection of harming him but does recall seeing him dead. He recalls hearing Jorge's mother call and moving Jorge's body to the edge of the field. At this point petitioner felt hot, strange, detached  like it wasn't me. In October 1982, however, immediately before Dr. Blinder was to testify, attorney Cook advised Dr. Blinder that he could not discuss PCP in his testimony because the prosecution's lab report indicated no PCP was found in petitioner's blood sample. This determination made Dr. Blinder's testimony completely ineffective since his report had been premised on PCP usage. If Dr. Blinder had known of the Aniline-Linder test results, he would have been even more firmly convinced of his original diagnosis and would have stressed the impact of PCP ingestion. Dr. Richard Burdick, who testified for the prosecution as a rebuttal witness, has submitted a declaration stating that had he known of the two positive PCP tests, he would have answered the questions regarding the issues of deliberation, malice, intent and the general motive for killing differently and I would probably have said that it was highly probable that his ability to do these things was greatly limited if not absent at the time of the offense. Dr. Burdick notes that he had stated in his rebuttal testimony that he had originally thought that if PCP consumption had been substantiated it might very well have contributed to a significant alteration of petitioner's mental state. At defense counsel's request the court did not give CALJIC No. 4.23 on involuntary intoxication. Counsel stated that this was a tactical decision based on the lack of any substantive evidence supporting PCP ingestion. Thus, the jury was never allowed to consider the most plausible explanation for petitioner's conduct. The destructive effects of PCP are widely recognized. According to Dr. Linder, PCP can cause otherwise law-abiding individuals to commit acts of degradation and violence which are completely out of keeping with their character and which acts are committed without the individual being aware of their actions. Dr. Burdick had stated in his rebuttal testimony that PCP is one of those [drugs] that will predictably cause psychosis in essentially all of us.