Opinion ID: 1172140
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission at Penalty Phase of Defendant's Possession of Weapons and Silencer

Text: (10) In 1971, police in Pennsylvania searched defendant's home and found firearms (including several sawed-off rifles), silencers, and material and instructions for making silencers. At the penalty phase in this case, the trial court admitted evidence of defendant's possession of these items under factor (b) of Penal Code section 190.3 as evidence of criminal activity by the defendant which involved the use or attempted use of force or violence or the express or implied threat to use force or violence. ( Ibid. ) Defendant objected unsuccessfully to the admission of this evidence, contending that possession of the firearms and silencer materials did not carry with it an implied threat to use force or violence. [4] (Pen. Code, § 190.3, factor (b).) Admission of the evidence was proper. We reject defendant's contention that in the absence of any accompanying assaultive conduct the illegal possession of a firearm does not carry an implied threat to use force or violence. In People v. Garceau, supra, 6 Cal.4th 140, 203, we concluded that the defendant's illegal possession of an arsenal including a machine gun, silencers, and handguns clearly involved an implied threat to use force or violence. Strengthening that conclusion, we noted, was the defendant's possession of a silencer found next to the machine gun. ( Id. at pp. 203-204.) Although defendant contends that our conclusion in Garceau was dictum because in that case we had earlier concluded that the defendant had failed to preserve the issue, he presents no persuasive reason to question that conclusion in this case. Possession of sawed-off firearms and silencer materials carries an implied threat of violence because their obvious purpose is to harm humans. (See ibid. ) Defendant does not suggest that the sawed-off firearms and silencer materials he possessed in 1971 were intended for any legitimate, nonviolent use.