Court Opinion

ID: 9746997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 14:51:35.294088+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:19.200315
License: Public Domain

LAMBDEN, J.,
Concurring.—  I am constrained to separately concur because the vigor of the debate between *184my colleagues may suggest the need for a new rule, where none is required, and create an impression of confusion in the law where none exists.
The potential for confusion results in part from the nature of Penal Code section 12021, which creates a status offense which cannot be characterized by identification of any particular victim. It is enough to sustain a conviction under this section that a defendant is found to be a convicted felon simply possessing a firearm; and both the nature of the possession and “firearm” are broadly defined. The lack of an identifiable victim allows the dissent to argue that the “offense” alleged in the information, and described by the evidence produced at the preliminary hearing, can result in a sustainable guilty verdict even if the evidence adduced at the trial describes a different gun observed by different witnesses at a different time and place. My dissenting colleague concludes that because the offense is a simple matter of “felon plus gun equals conviction” any combination of evidence can suffice to support the conviction, even if such evidence describes circumstances neither described in the information nor mentioned at the preliminary hearing. The only limitation apparently placed by the dissent upon this broad rule would be the requirement that the offense charged occur “on the same day and in the same neighborhood.” (Dis. opn., post, at p. 191.)
The issue presented by this case is the definition of what may constitute separate “offenses” under the statute for purposes of the due process requirement for a preliminary hearing to support each offense charged. I conclude that no usable distinction between offenses can be described solely by reference to the date and general location of the offense or by identification of the particular firearms possessed. I agree with my colleague in the majority that the existence of separate offenses must be determined by comparing the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing with the evidence ultimately presented at trial. The test is whether the defendant had fair notice of what the witnesses could be expected to say at trial pertinent to the charged offense in light of the evidence considered at the preliminary hearing. Subsequent discovery of evidence to support a different chargeable offense — as differentiated from disclosure of variant details of the same charged offense — cannot substitute for the required preliminary hearing.
Confusion also results from the quibbling of the dissent over the lead opinion’s use of the term “incident” to differentiate the uncharged offense described at this trial from the wholly different evidence adduced at the preliminary hearing. There is nothing shifty in the use of both terms. The majority does not attempt to contend that either of the “incidents” (or occurrences, events, episodes, etc.) could not have been charged as an offense. The majority simply contends that the prosecution could not support *185the charged offense with one set of facts adduced at the preliminary hearing and then produce a different set of facts at trial.
These facts are much more than amply described by my colleagues. The dissent, in particular, stresses that it does not matter whether the same pistol was possessed on two occasions or that there were two very similar weapons. I agree that, because the statute is violated by the possession of any firearm satisfying the broad definition, just about any firearm will suffice. My dissenting colleague also correctly observes that the prosecution is not required to charge all possible offenses and that evidence suggesting possession of two guns could, under some circumstances, result in only one charged offense. It is also undisputed that once there is evidence of possession of any qualifying firearm, the details of its identification are largely a matter testing the credibility of the witnesses. The only relevance of the evidence of multiple guns in this discussion goes to the tangential question of whether the prosecutor might have charged multiple offenses, as permitted by the amendment of Penal Code section 12001 in 1994, to allow a separate charge for each firearm possessed at any given time.
However, the ability of the prosecutor to charge multiple offenses under the statute does not mean that there is no limit to the number of offenses which can be presented to the jury under the aegis of a single charge. It is conceded by both the lead and dissenting opinions that the prosecutor could have charged more than one offense based on the two available sets of evidentiary facts. Instead, the information described a particular .38-caliber revolver, and the preliminary hearing disclosed witnesses, Wallace and the Weighills, who testified that appellant displayed that particular weapon in a particular place on January 8, 1996. At trial, the prosecutor wanted to use an entirely distinct set of facts and another witness, Daniels, to describe a different pistol possessed in a different place at another time. In order to eliminate the conflict between the information and the evidence presented by Daniels, the prosecutor asked at trial to amend the information to simply remove the specification of the caliber of the revolver. From these facts the dissent argues not only that there were two distinct offenses which could have been charged, but also that “the offense is the same — possession of a gun by a felon; all that is different is the gun and the witnesses to its possession!” (Dis. opn., post, at p. 191.) The fact that the time and place of the possession, as well as the gun and the witnesses, were shown to be different at trial, is dismissed as trivial by the dissent. The only logical explanation for this view is that the offense is regarded by the dissent as a “continuing” offense. In other words, during the entire time frame within which the defendant possesses a gun, any one of a indefinite number of “evidentiary snapshots” could be used to convict him.
*186My dissenting colleague adopts this logic in concluding that the result of the amendment of the information at trial was inconsequential: “The information in this case, as amended, advised appellant that he was charged with being a felon in possession of a revolver. He also knew that the prosecution was addressing, and addressing only, such possession on January 8, 1996, in Bay Point, Contra Costa County. The only thing he didn’t know, from the combination of the preliminary hearing testimony and the information, was whether the charge encompassed both revolvers and both sets of witnesses or, if not, which one.”1 (Dis. opn., post, at p. 195.) Of course, under the facts thus relied upon by the dissent, the appellant did not know the potential combination of these facts until trial. This is because the second witness, Daniels, who would describe possession of a different gun at a different time and location, did not testify at the preliminary hearing; the appellant only learned of this potential testimony when it was disclosed by the prosecution a relatively short time before trial. However, the significance of this later disclosed testimony could not have been fully apparent until the amendment at trial. Moreover, the requested amendment itself suggests a belated realization by the prosecution that an offense different from the one described at the preliminary hearing would be argued at trial.
The dissent relies primarily upon the Supreme Court’s ruling in People v. Jones (1990) 51 Cal.3d 294 [270 Cal.Rptr. 611, 792 P.2d 643], one of several child molestation cases discussed in both the lead and dissenting opinions, that considered the specificity of the evidence required to be adduced at the preliminary hearing. I also rely on the reasoning of People v. Jones and I do not disagree with the Jones opinion’s citation of People v. Luna (1988) 204 Cal.App.3d 726 [250 Cal.Rptr. 878] for the proposition that due process does not require a high degree of specificity in the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing. (Dis. opn., post, at pp. 195-196; lead opn., ante, at pp. 175-178.) But it must be observed that these sexual molestation cases, which are factually problematic on many levels, are easily distinguished because they uniformly involved relatively minor variances in the factual details of offenses committed against single victims and did not charge a “status” offense of the sort alleged here. Also, the molestation cases *187involve repeated and distinct offenses rather than the sort of “continuing” offense proposed by the dissent. My dissenting colleague has not read closely enough the limiting language of his own citation of the opinion in People v. Jones, supra, 51 Cal.3d at page 312., which begins: “ ‘So long as the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing supports the number of offenses charged against defendant . . . . ’ ” (Italics added.) My point is precisely that the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing did not support the number of charges brought against this defendant at trial.
The conclusion of the dissent seems to suggest that the unusual nature of the Penal Code section 12021 offense should allow a prosecutor to simply allege that “between such-and-such dates in the vicinity of so-and-so” the defendant was a felon who had a gun. The logic of the dissent suggests that, so long as he has at least one gun, he is continually committing the offense, and that if he has two guns he is continually committing two offenses. And it follows, according to the dissent, that so long as the defense is at some point provided a list of witnesses who might testify to support this vague charge, the constitutional requirements for due process would be satisfied. Here, of course, the information was restricted in time to a single day, January 8, 1996, and to a single location, Bay Point. But, if “one town, one day” is to be the measure, would the dissent permit an allegation that a defendant was a felon in possession of a firearm on a particular day “in the City of Los Angeles?” Would “between January 8 and January 10, in the City of Mendocino” suffice? The dissent does not even describe any rule sufficient to satisfy due process even with reference to allegations of different offenses within a single 24-hour period at a single location. I submit that such a rule is neither practical nor constitutionally permissible, at least under the circumstances presented by this record.
Could the prosecution in this case have amended the information to present evidence of yet more occasions where hitherto undisclosed witnesses saw the defendant with a gun? Clearly not, but why not? Such a procedure would be properly prevented by the rule limiting the prosecution to the offenses shown by the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing. (People v. Pitts (1990) 223 Cal.App.3d 606, 903 [273 Cal.Rptr. 757] [which dismissed 47 counts alleging sexual abuse of children because supporting evidence was not adduced at the preliminary hearing].) The point of divergence between the majority and the dissent is illustrated by the dissent’s reference to People v. Salvato (1991) 234 Cal.App.3d 872, 880 [285 Cal.Rptr. 837], which discusses the election required when “. . . the evidence tends to show more distinct criminal acts than charged.” Contrary to the implication of the dissent, Salvato does not say that the pertinent evidence need not have been shown at the preliminary hearing. Salvato *188discusses the range of permitted charged offenses which can be considered at trial based on the evidence preliminarily disclosed; Salvato does not countenance new evidence presented at trial to support new charges.
Comparison of the evidence at the instant preliminary hearing with the evidence used at trial to convict this appellant shows two different sets of witnesses, two different fact situations and, of least importance, possibly two different weapons. It is undisputed that one confluence of evidence was shown at the preliminary hearing and another was presented at trial. The two sets of evidence cannot be simply merged because the appellant could have been convicted under either set of facts. Neither can the “. . . hard realities of this case” (dis. opn., post, at p. 195) permit later disclosure of evidence not described at the preliminary hearing to substitute for the requirement of fair notice of the particular evidence supporting the charged offense. A minor variance in the description of the revolver would be permissible (and this is precisely what the pretrial amendment in this case appeared to propose), but different witnesses describing a different offense in a different place and at a different time is quite another matter.
In an effort to suggest that the effect of the shift in the prosecutor’s argument was inconsequential, the dissent considers it significant that the appellant’s defense was he “flatly denied having any revolver in his possession at any time on January 8 in Bay Point.” (Dis. opn., post, at p. 196.) This begs the question; and I am left to wonder what other defense to the charge my dissenting colleague thinks could have been presented. The appellant could hardly have been expected to say, “I had a pistol but it wasn’t the one described by the witnesses.” The only other defensive tactic available was to attack the credibility of the witnesses, either directly or by alibi testimony; and the appellant did attack the credibility of Daniels without apparent success. It is not hard to imagine that such an attack on the credibility of this tardily disclosed witness, if it had been fully informed by the required preliminary hearing, could have had a better chance of success. Fair notice of the facts and witnesses upon which the prosecution intends to rely to prove a particular offense is a principal reason for requiring the preliminary hearing. Exceptions to the rule requiring the facts supporting the charges to be adduced at the preliminary hearing have been limited and should not be expanded in the manner proposed in the dissenting opinion. The purposes of early review by a magistrate and notice of the evidence to support the charged offense, which are fundamental to the preliminary hearing, would be largely subverted if informal disclosure, or even actual notice, were permitted to substitute for the required formal hearing.
Finally, this record cannot support the conclusion that appellant suffered no prejudice by his counsel’s waiver of the jurisdictional defect which is *189described at length in the lead opinion. The dissent contends at some length that the acquittal on the brandishing count, which involved the witnesses to the offense actually described at the preliminary hearing, can be explained away. I conclude the far simpler explanation offered by the majority is correct: the jury did not believe the witnesses to the brandishing and convicted appellant on the uncharged count belatedly argued by the prosecutor. The idea that the jury could have acquitted appellant of the brandishing count (Pen. Code, § 417, subd. (a)(2)) and yet believed the other testimony of the victims of the brandishing, and the suggestion that the jury found the charges to be “petty” or believed that this appellant deserved leniency, are hard to accept. I am well aware, as are both of my colleagues, that this record describes appellant to be a frightening, rude, angry and potentially dangerous fellow. Accordingly, I regard as highly dubious the dissent’s proposition that the jury had any impulse toward leniency or believed much, if any, of appellant’s version of these events.
This conviction must be reversed because the constitutional guaranty of due process is more important than the fate of any single defendant, however reprehensible he might appear to be.

Under the circumstances the amendment may have seemed relatively inconsequential, possibly explaining defense counsel’s rather mild objection and request for a hearing regarding the relevance of the Daniels testimony because “it sounds like we are talking about a different gun.” However, I am reminded of Mark Twain’s observation that there is considerable difference between the lightning and the lightning bug. As noted in the lead opinion, by the time the opening statements were completed, it still appeared that appellant faced a single charge of an offense witnessed by several people, rather than two distinct charges which would be described by two different sets of evidence. Even so, the subtlety of the amendment cannot satisfactorily explain counsel’s failure to object to the presentation of evidence of an offense not described at the preliminary hearing.