Court Opinion

ID: 9566533
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:40:42.088198+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:21.360523
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J.
I dissent. Defendant was jointly indicted with Rudy Mercado on one count of furnishing marijuana to Beverly Detrick, a minor. (Health & Saf. Code, § 11714.) Mercado pleaded guilty, and defendant was convicted after a trial before a jury. Beverly testified that defendant shared one marijuana cigarette with her and others present on the occasion on which the indictment was based and that he shared another cigarette with her and another person a night or two later. She did not pay defendant for the puffs she took from his cigarettes. Defendant admitted that he knew Beverly but denied that he had ever given her any marijuana or shared any marijuana cigarettes with her. Thus the only issue in the case was whether or not defendant shared his cigarette with Beverly on the first occasion mentioned above. To prove its case, the prosecution was permitted to introduce evidence over defendant's objection that a few days before the date of the alleged crime, defendant had discussed prostitution with Beverly and other girls and that during the next two weeks she had engaged in prostitution for defendant on 12 occasions. Defendant secured the customers for her and shared the proceeds with her. He did not supply her with marijuana or discuss marijuana on any of the occasions when he took her to hotels for purposes of prostitution.
*174It is my opinion that this evidence that defendant was pimping for Beverly was not admissible to prove that he shared his cigarette with her and could serve only to prejudice the jury against him and induce them to convict him, not because he was guilty of the crime for which he was on trial, but because he was a pimp.*
Although the rule with respect to the admission of evidence of crimes other than the one charged in a criminal prosecution has frequently been stated as one generally excluding evidence of other crimes subject to certain recognized exceptions (see People v. Albertson, 23 Cal.2d 550, 576 [145 P.2d 7]), it is now “settled in this state that except when it shows merely criminal disposition, evidence which tends logically and by reasonable inference to establish any fact material for the prosecution, or to overcome any material fact sought to be proved by the defense, is admissible although it may connect the accused with an offense not included in the charge.” (People v. Woods, 35 Cal.2d 504, 509 [218 P.2d 981]; see also American Law Institute, Model Code of Evidence § 311; National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws, Uniform Rules of Evidence, rule 55; Stone, Exclusion of Similar Fact Evidence, 46 Harv.L.Rev. 954 and 51 Harv.L.Rev. 988.) In the application of this test, however, the reasons for the exclusionary rule must not be forgotten; there must be care to avoid unnecessary prejudice to the defendant. Evidence that defendant has committed other crimes is excluded as proof of his criminal disposition for the same reasons that other evidence of his criminal character is excluded. “The inquiry is not rejected because character is irrelevant; on the contrary it is said to weigh too much with the jury and to so overpersuade them as to prejudge one with a bad general record and deny him a fair opportunity to defend against' a particular charge. The overriding policy of excluding such evidence, despite its admitted probative value, is the practical experience that its disallowance tends to prevent confusion of the issues, unfair surprise and undue prejudice.” (Jackson, J., in Michelson v. United States, 335 U.S. 469, 475-476 [69 S.Ct. 213, 93 L.Ed. 168].) “The common law has not grown in the tradition of convicting a man and sending him to prison because he is generally a bad man or generally regarded as one. General bad character, much less general bad reputa*175tion, has not yet become a criminal offense in onr scheme. Our whole tradition is that a man can be punished by criminal sanctions only for specific acts defined beforehand to be criminal, not for general misconduct or bearing a reputation for such misconduct.” (Rutledge, J., dissenting in Michelson v. United States, supra, 335 U.S. at p. 489.) The prejudicial effect of evidence of other crimes lends support to the view that even when such evidence is directly relevant to the proof of a material fact, the trial court should have discretion to exclude it when its relevance is negligible as compared with its prejudicial effect and other proof of the issue is at hand. ‘ ‘ This is a situation where the policy of protecting a defendant from undue prejudice conflicts with the rule of logical relevance, and a proper determination as to which should prevail rests in the sound discretion of the trial court, and not merely on whether the evidence comes within certain categories which constitute exceptions to the rule of exclusion.” (State v. Goebel, 36 Wn.2d 367 [218 P.2d 300, 306]; see also Adkins v. Brett, 184 Cal. 252, 258-259 [193 P. 251]; Stone, Exclusion of Similar Fact Evidence, 46 Harv.L.Rev. 954, 984-985; McCormick on Evidence, § 157, pp. 332-333.) In any event the court “should be guided by the rule that such proof is to be received with 1 extreme caution, ’ and if its connection with the crime charged is not clearly perceived, the doubt is to be resolved in favor of the accused, instead of suffering the minds of the jurors to be prejudiced by an independent fact, carrying with it no proper evidence of the particular guilt. ’ ’ (People v. Albertson, 23 Cal.2d 550, 577 [145 P.2d 7]; see also People v. Peete, 28 Cal.2d 306, 316 [169 P.2d 924]; People v. Lane, 100 Cal. 379, 387-390 [34 P. 856]; People v. Carvalho, 112 Cal.App.2d 482, 492 [246 P.2d 950].)
The basic question is whether defendant’s pimping is relevant to prove only his criminal disposition or also relevant to prove facts material to the prosecution’s case. For the reasons stated above, failure of the challenged evidence to emerge as clearly relevant compels resolution of the question in defendant’s favor.
The attorney general contends that the evidence was relevant on the ground that it was defendant’s scheme to reduce Beverly to drug addiction so that he might dominate her completely as a prostitute. The majority opinion does not pass on the validity of this contention. Instead, it moves on to the conclusion that the evidence of pimping was relevant to show defendant’s motive for sharing his cigarette with *176Beverly. The issue of defendant’s motive, however, cannot be so divorced from the contention that both crimes were part of a common plan or scheme since, in the absence of proof of such a plan or scheme, there is no logical basis in the evidence for inferring that defendant’s motive in sharing his cigarette with Beverly was explained by the fact that he was pimping for her.
It is always possible that two distinct crimes committed by a defendant are part of a common scheme or that one provides or illuminates the motive for the other. Were there evidence in this case that defendant had carried out a plan to subjugate Beverly to his will as a prostitute by reducing her to dope addiction, it could reasonably be inferred that his initial acts of pimping and providing marijuana were part of that plan and that the desire to carry it through was the motive for each of the crimes that it involved. The record is barren of such evidence; it presents two apparently unrelated courses of criminal conduct. It is for the prosecution to supply the missing links; if it fails to do so, evidence conditionally admitted should be struck from the record. (People v. Frank, 28 Cal. 507, 518-519; People v. Whiteman, 114 Cal. 338, 343 [46 P. 99]; People v. Wright, 144 Cal. 161, 165-166 [77 P. 877]; People v. Darby, 64 Cal.App.2d 25, 31 [148 P.2d 28]; State v. Goebel, 36 Wn.2d 367 [218 P.2d 300, 306]; see also Boyer v. United States, 132 F.2d 12, 13 [76 App.D.C. 397]; 2 Wigmore on Evidence [3d ed.] § 304, p. 205; 6 Ibid. § 1871, p. 505; Trautman, Logical or Legal Relevancy, 5 Vand.L.Rev. 385, 409.) Else prejudicial evidence would be freely admitted, not for its relevance apart from defendant’s criminal disposition, but for the possibility of its relevance to show more than the defendant’s criminal disposition. What then becomes of the rule excluding evidence that bears only on criminal disposition ?
If the facts of the case in the light of human experience do not make it reasonable to infer that one crime is evidence of the motive for another, evidence of the one is not admissible to prove the other. Thus, if a defendant were charged with the murder of a woman’s husband, proof of his adulterous relation with the woman would be relevant to show the defendant’s motive for killing the husband. But if the evidence showed only that he was committing adultery with a woman who was not his victim’s wife, it would not be reasonable to infer that it was relevant evidence of the motive for the murder. It would become relevant, however, if it were *177shown that the woman’s husband had deserted her and that she had become the mistress of the defendant’s victim. In such connecting evidence is relevance rooted, not in the drifting sands of speculative possibilities.
Had the prosecution established the elements of the scheme it contends existed, it would have established the relevance of the pimping as part of that scheme and defendant’s motive for giving Beverly marijuana. In the absence of such connecting evidence, however, there is no reasonable basis for inferring that defendant’s motive in sharing his cigarette with Beverly was the fact that he was pimping for her. Defendant’s motive might have been to carry out the scheme the prosecution did not prove existed; it might have been no more than to share the enjoyment of the cigarette with others present as the prosecution expert testified marijuana smokers are wont to do; it might have been not to waste the cigarette, for many users apparently do not like to smoke a whole cigarette at once; conceivably it might have been to reward Beverly for acting as a lookout at a bank robbery or assisting him in the commission of some other crime; conceivably also it might have been to secure Beverly as a customer who would purchase narcotics from him in the future. There is a host of possibilities.
Except for its relevance in proving defendant’s criminal disposition, the evidence of defendant’s pimping is a neutral quantity neither adding to nor subtracting from the prosecution’s case, and since it was clearly prejudicial, its admission should compel reversal of the judgment.
Carter, J., concurred.

Since no objection was made to .the evidence that defendant shared a marijuana cigarette with Beverly on another occasion, it is unnecessary to consider whether that evidence would otherwise have been inadmissible.