Citation 46 Cal. 4th 539, 208 P.3d 78, 94 Cal. Rptr. 3d 322
People v. Davis
Filed 6/1/09
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA
THE PEOPLE,
Plaintiff and Respondent,
S056425
v.
RICHARD ALLEN DAVIS,
Santa Clara County
Defendant and Appellant.
Super. Ct. No. 186000
____________________________________)
A jury found defendant Richard Allen Davis guilty of the first degree
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murder of 12-year-old Polly Hannah Klaas (Pen. Code, §§ 187) as well as the
burglary of her home (§ 459), robbery (§ 211), kidnapping (§ 207, subd. (a)), and
an attempted lewd act against her (§ 664/288, subd. (a)). As to the murder, the
jury found to be true special circumstance allegations of burglary, robbery,
kidnapping, and attempted lewd act upon a child under the age of 14. (§ 190.2,
subd. (a)(17).) With respect to other crimes, the jury found that defendant
personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon during the commission of these
crimes, that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on the victim, and that he
knew or reasonably should have known that his victim was 14 years old or
younger. (§§ 12022, subd. (b), 12022.7, 211/459/667.9, subd. (a).)
1
All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise
indicated.
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The jury also found defendant guilty of two counts of false imprisonment
(§ 236), two counts of assault with a deadly weapon (a knife)(§ 245, subd. (a)(1)),
and two counts of robbery (§ 211) for crimes he committed against Polly‟s
classmates, Kate M. and Gillian P. In addition, the jury found that defendant used
a deadly and dangerous weapon in committing these crimes (§ 12022, subd. (b),
and that he knew or reasonably should have known that each of these victims was
14 years old or younger (§§ 211/667.9, subd. (a).)
The jury further found that defendant personally inflicted great bodily
injury on Polly Klaas after having served two or more prior separate prison terms.
(§ 667, subd. (a)(1).) Finally, the jury found that defendant had four prior serious
felony convictions (§ 667, subd. (a)), and that he had served three prior prison
terms (§ 667.5(b)).
At defendant‟s penalty trial, the jury returned a verdict of death. The trial
court denied defendant‟s motion for a new trial (§ 1181) as well as the automatic
motion to modify penalty (§ 190.4, subd. (e)), and sentenced defendant to death.
This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in its
entirety.
I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
A. Guilt Phase
1. Prosecution’s case
a. Defendant’s release on parole: June to October 1993
Defendant, who had a long criminal history that included convictions for
assault, burglary, kidnapping, and robbery, was paroled from state prison on June
27, 1993. In early July 1993, defendant gained admission into the Turning Point
Shelter in San Mateo, a transitional housing facility for the homeless. While at
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Turning Point, defendant initially worked at a precision sheet metal company, later
as a painter.
On the weekend of August 21-23, 1993, defendant took a bus to visit his
sister and brother-in-law, Darlene and Richard Schwarm, who lived on the Coyote
Valley Indian Reservation in Ukiah. The bus stopped at a depot in Petaluma near
Walnut Park and Wickersham Park, which were frequented by transients and drug
users. That same weekend, defendant bought Richard Schwarm‟s 1979 Ford Pinto
hatchback, after which he quit his job. He used the car to make several trips to
Ukiah to visit the Schwarms from September through November 1993. During this
period, defendant told an employee at Turning Point that he had gone to Petaluma
to look for his mother, and on two different occasions he told one of his employers
that he was visiting family in Petaluma.
At least four witnesses saw defendant loitering around Walnut Park and
Wickersham Park in Petaluma in August and September of 1993. Defendant stood
out because of his disheveled appearance, his yellow headband, his heavily
tattooed arms, his public drinking, and his peppered-gray hair and beard. On at
least one of those occasions, he was seen drinking and laughing in the park with
his sister Darlene.
On either September 30 or October 1, 1993, defendant entered the
Seductions adult store in Ukiah and bought a blue Rough Rider condom that the
proprietor, Jeannette Turner, was “pretty sure . . . was studded or ribbed.”
b. The disappearance of Polly Klaas: October 1, 1993
Eve Nichol lived with her daughters, 12-year-old Polly Klaas and six-year-
old Annie, in a small three-bedroom house in Petaluma near Walnut Park and
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Wickersham Park.2 On Friday, October 1, 1993, Polly had a slumber party at her
home with two classmates, 12-year-old Kate M. and 12-year-old Gillian P.
Gillian arrived between 7:00 and 7:15 p.m. After a few minutes, she and
Polly walked to a nearby convenience store, bought popsicles, and returned home.
Their walk took them past Wickersham Park. Just before Kate arrived, Gillian and
Polly went out to the front doorstep to wait for Kate.
Between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m., Kate arrived with her mother. As Kate‟s
mother got back into her car, which was blocking the sidewalk, she saw a man
walking straight at her vehicle, as if he was going to crash into it, so she jerked her
car forward. The man wore dark clothing; he had rather bushy, gray and brown
hair (possibly swept back in a ponytail); and he was carrying something that
looked like a bag. Thirteen-year-old Kamika Milstead, a nearby resident, saw
defendant get out of his car and head down the same sidewalk, carrying a bag or a
box.
Meanwhile, the three girls played in Polly‟s bedroom. As Halloween was a
few weeks away, Kate, who was dressed as a “hippie,” and Gillian applied
makeup to Polly‟s face to make her look “dead.” Polly later changed into a white
cotton denim skirt and a pink blouse that was tied into a knot in front, and
removed most of the makeup.
Around 10:00 p.m., Nichol told the girls not to stay up too late and to keep
the noise down, as she and Annie were going to bed. Nichol went to her bedroom,
which was separated from Polly‟s bedroom by a bathroom and another bedroom.
She read in bed for a few minutes, with Annie next to her, and she and Annie then
fell asleep.
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Eve Nichol and Polly‟s father, Marc Klaas, had divorced in 1984.
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From 10:00 to 10:30 p.m., the three girls played board games and video
games. Around this same time, nearby resident Taleah Miller was returning from
a movie with her uncle. As her uncle was about to drop her off, Taleah saw
defendant carrying a duffel bag and walking toward her house. Because Taleah
was leery of homeless people, she asked her uncle to wait until the “scary looking”
defendant passed the car. As defendant passed, he looked into the car and slid his
hand over his face, as if to conceal it. Defendant was wearing dark clothing; he
had combed-back, collar-length dark hair and a gray-patched beard.
Around this same time, Sean Bush, Aaron Thomas, and Thomas‟s girlfriend
were watching a movie in Thomas‟s “granny unit” behind Polly‟s home. While
Bush smoked a cigarette in Thomas‟s doorway, he could see Thomas‟s bathroom,
which was separately located on Nichol‟s back porch. At about 10:30 p.m., Bush
saw defendant walking calmly and slowly up the stairs to Thomas‟s bathroom.
When defendant noticed Bush looking at him, he turned his head away and
reached for the bathroom door. Bush described defendant as stocky with very
thick and wiry hair that was styled straight back and lighter on top than on the
bottom. Unaware that anything unusual was occurring, Bush resumed watching
the movie.
Meanwhile, the girls decided to set up their sleeping bags. When Polly
opened the bedroom door to retrieve the sleeping bags, she discovered defendant
in the doorway holding a knife and a bag. Defendant said, “Don‟t scream or I‟ll
slit your throats,” and promised not to hurt them if they did what he said. He told
the girls to lie facedown on the floor and not to look at him. Gillian and Kate
initially thought defendant was a friend of Polly or her family who was engaged in
a prank. Defendant asked, “Where is [sic] the valuables?” He repeatedly told
them not to be scared and “he was only doing this for the money.” Defendant
wondered aloud why there were so many people present and expressed surprise
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when Polly told him that her mother was in the house. Polly said there was money
in her jewelry box and asked him not to hurt her mother and sister. Defendant was
calm at first, but he sounded more “frantic” as events unfolded.
All three girls lay down in a row on Polly‟s bedroom floor, and defendant
tied their hands using a silky cloth, cords cut from Polly‟s Nintendo machine, and
a strap from Polly‟s leather purse. He also gagged them with a silky cloth. He
removed the cases from pillows in the bedroom and placed them over the girls‟
heads. At that point, Gillian no longer believed it was a joke.
Defendant told the girls that he was going to take Polly to show him where
the valuables were, that he would then return Polly to Gillian and Kate, and that he
would be gone after they counted to 1,000. Defendant then took Polly out of the
room, promising he would not touch her. At that point, defendant had been in the
bedroom for approximately 10 minutes.
After a few minutes‟ counting, with no sign of Polly, Gillian and Kate
freed themselves, went to Nichol‟s bedroom, and told her what had happened.
After they all unsuccessfully searched for Polly around the house, Nichol called
911 around 11:00 p.m. Nichol did not find any personal property missing from the
home, but a pair of red leggings was later discovered missing from a chest of
drawers in the bedroom.
c. Police encounter near Pythian Road: October 1, 1993
Dana Jaffe lived with her 12-year-old daughter on a 192-acre parcel in
Sonoma County, between Santa Rosa and Sonoma, on a rural hillside past the end
of Pythian Road. From its intersection with State Highway 12, Pythian Road
proceeds northward. At its end is a series of steep, curving, and narrow private
roads, one of which leads to Jaffe‟s home. “No Trespassing” signs were posted on
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the private road leading to Jaffe‟s property, and her house was several hundred
yards past a gate.
About 10:45 or 11:00 p.m. on October 1, 1993, Jaffe arrived home from
work and relieved her babysitter, Shannon Lynch. About 11:15 or 11:20 p.m.,
Lynch began driving away from the Jaffe residence and, while still behind the
gate, she saw defendant‟s Ford Pinto wedged against an embankment and stuck in
a ditch with defendant hunched over the rear bumper. As she drove up, defendant
appeared surprised to see someone else on the darkened road. Lynch stopped her
car and defendant approached. He had bad breath and body odor, with leaves
embedded in his hair as if he had been caught in the brush, and he was wearing a
dark-colored long-sleeved sweatshirt that was inside out. She asked what he was
doing, and he replied, “I‟m stuck. I need some rope.” When Lynch called
defendant “illiterate” for not obeying the private road signs, he placed his hands on
her window, told her to get out of her car, and demanded, “What‟s up the road?”
Lynch remained in her car and told him there were people up the road who would
call the police. She then drove off.
Frightened and upset, Lynch quickly drove to the nearest pay phone and, at
11:24 p.m., called Jaffe, urging her to call the police about a “scary guy” on her
hill. Concerned about being alone with her young daughter, Jaffe dressed and got
into her car with her daughter. As they drove down their private road they saw
defendant‟s car but saw no one on the road. Jaffe drove to a pay phone and called
the police at 11:46 p.m.
Some 15 minutes later, Sonoma County Sheriff‟s Deputies Mike Rankin
and Thomas Howard arrived in separate cars and met Jaffe at the intersection of
Pythian Road and Highway 12. Because the Sonoma County Sheriff‟s Department
and the Petaluma Police Department used different radio frequencies, Deputies
Rankin and Howard were unaware of Polly‟s abduction.
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Jaffe led the officers back up the road, where they found defendant leaning
against his car, smoking a cigarette. Jaffe told defendant he was on posted private
property. Defendant acknowledged the signs but claimed that he had tried to turn
and had become stuck in the ditch. Leaves, twigs, and other debris were in his hair
and clinging to his socks, and he was wearing a yellow-and-blue-striped long-
sleeved button down shirt. Jaffe told him the officers would help him and she
went home.
Deputies Howard and Rankin spoke to defendant, who smelled of alcohol
and appeared to be sweating profusely. Deputy Rankin patted defendant down and
noticed that defendant‟s pants were wet but his shirt was not. Defendant asked the
officers, “What the fuck are you doing here?” and Rankin explained that the
property owner wanted defendant removed for trespassing. Defendant claimed he
was passing through the area from Oakland on the way to see a relative in
Redwood Valley and had pulled off the roadway to do some sightseeing. He said
he had tried placing dirt and brush under his car‟s wheel to get traction. The
deputies, however, saw little indication of any dirt or other debris placed under the
wheel. Deputy Rankin ran a check of defendant‟s license plate, but he transposed
some of the numbers and did not notice that the car was not registered to
defendant. Defendant said he was not on parole and had never been to prison.
Although defendant smelled of alcohol, Deputy Howard did not think he
was intoxicated based upon the deputy‟s observations of defendant‟s pupils,
balance, and speech. During a consent search of defendant‟s Ford Pinto, the
deputies found a paper bag on the floorboard with three or four unopened
Budweiser beer cans as well as two bags containing clothes, some of which
appeared to be torn.
As the two deputies discussed ways to free defendant‟s car and made
unsuccessful efforts to that effect, defendant became more relaxed. At one point,
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defendant opened a can of beer and began drinking it, but Deputy Rankin told him
to pour out the beer.
After borrowing a chain from property owner Jaffe, the two deputies pulled
defendant‟s car off of the embankment and out of the ditch. While Deputy
Howard returned Jaffe‟s chain, Deputy Rankin escorted defendant as he drove
down Pythian Road to Highway 12. When both deputies drove onto Highway 12
from Pythian Road, they saw defendant parked near the intersection. At 12:46
a.m. on Saturday, October 2, 1993, the deputies cleared the incident with dispatch.
d. The discovery of the crime scene near Pythian Road: November
27, 1993
Polly Klaas‟s abduction attracted national attention. During the early stages
of the investigation, as many as 75 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) and 50 Petaluma police officers canvassed Polly‟s neighborhood for
evidence regarding her disappearance.
For nearly two months, the investigation received thousands of leads and
tips. Defendant, however, was not linked with Polly‟s disappearance until
November 27, 1993, when property owner Jaffe discovered, in a clearing a few
feet from where defendant‟s car had been stuck on October 1, a pair of child-sized
red knitted tights (knotted at the knee), an adult-sized dark sweatshirt (turned
inside out), and a knotted piece of white silky cloth shaped like a hood. The hood
was triangle-shaped with one knot at its broader end, two knots forming two loops
at its apex end, and a concave area in the middle that appeared to have makeup
smears on it. The soil in the clearing was exposed, as if someone had purposefully
cleared the area of ground cover. That night, Jaffe called the sheriff‟s office, left a
message, and called again the next morning.
On November 28, 1993, Deputy Sheriff Mike McManus arrived at Jaffe‟s
property to inspect the scene. He and Jaffe found an unrolled condom one to two
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feet away from the clothes, a torn Rough Rider condom wrapper, two pieces
of strapping tape, a beer bottle, an empty plastic six-pack holder, and a book
of matches.
Jaffe told Deputy McManus of the October 1 incident involving defendant
on her hillside. Because it was starting to rain, Deputy McManus was concerned
about damage to trace evidence, and he did not follow normal evidence-collection
protocol; instead of leaving the scene intact, he picked up the items and placed
them in a box. He left the unrolled condom because he did not have materials in
his patrol vehicle to collect such evidence and he believed it was a sealed
container that would not be damaged by the rain. Later that day, an FBI team took
photographs and recovered the condom.
Deputy McManus researched the October 1, 1993, incident on Dana Jaffe‟s
hillside and determined defendant‟s identity and his prior criminal record of
assault and kidnapping. He gave this information to the Petaluma Police
Department. The Petaluma Police Department‟s lead investigator, Sergeant
Michael Meese, examined the evidence collected by Deputy McManus with his
department‟s lead evidence technician, Officer Larry Pelton, and they agreed that
the hood-shaped white cloth matched cloth pieces found in Polly‟s bedroom. The
next day, an FBI laboratory confirmed the match.
The Petaluma Police Department learned that defendant was a parolee who
had an outstanding parole violation warrant against him based on an October 19,
1993, drunk driving arrest in Mendocino County. Defendant‟s parole officer told
them that defendant was at his sister‟s home in Ukiah.
e. Defendant’s arrest and confessions: November 30 to December
6, 1993
On November 30, 1993, Petaluma police officers and FBI agents arrived at
defendant‟s sister‟s residence in Ukiah and arrested him, without incident, on the
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parole violation warrant. They also seized defendant‟s car and personal
belongings. Defendant had shaved off his beard. Later that day, the officers
transported defendant to the Mendocino County Sheriff‟s Department, where
Petaluma Police Officer Pelton and FBI Agent Larry Taylor confronted him about
Polly Klaas‟s kidnapping. Defendant denied any involvement.
Two days later, on December 2, 1993, criminalists matched defendant‟s palm
print with a print found in Polly‟s bedroom. On December 4, 1993, after Petaluma
Police Sergeant Meese had spoken to defendant in jail and encouraged him to
contact Meese if there was any hope that Polly was still alive (see pt. II. D. 3., post)
defendant asked to speak to Meese and told him over the telephone, “I fucked up big
time.” He admitted that Polly was dead and agreed to help find her body.
That afternoon, Sergeant Meese met with defendant at the Mendocino County
Jail where he, Sonoma County District Attorney Investigator Mike Griffith, and FBI
Agent Larry Taylor questioned defendant for nearly two hours. Defendant claimed
he went to Petaluma on the night of October 1, 1993, to contact his mother. Unable
to find her, he went to a park, where he drank beer and smoked a marijuana cigarette
that may have contained phencyclidine (PCP). Defendant said he did not have a
clear recollection of what he did next. He recalled entering a home through a
window and hearing some voices in a room, but he said he had never seen Polly
Klaas before that point. He remembered tying the three girls up with items in the
bedroom. He then recalled driving and suddenly realizing that he had Polly in the
front seat of his car, when she complained that the bindings were too tight and her
hands were going numb. Polly kept saying she wanted to go home. Defendant
drove around for a while, confused about what to do, and got lost driving up Pythian
Road, where his car eventually got stuck on Jaffe‟s property. He then untied Polly
and placed her on the embankment where she remained while he tried to free his car,
at which point the deputies arrived.
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According to defendant, he waited for about 30 minutes after the deputies
escorted him off Pythian Road before returning to the hillside and retrieving Polly.
He then drove to a gas station so Polly could use the bathroom. After leaving the
gas station, defendant realized he had to kill Polly to avoid returning to prison, so
he strangled her with a piece of knotted cloth. He later cinched a piece of cord
tight around Polly‟s neck “just to make sure,” then dragged her to some bushes
and covered her body with a piece of plywood and chunks of wood that he found
in the area. Defendant said he did not think that he had sex with Polly or that he
tried to have sex with her.
That same evening, defendant, accompanied by Petaluma Police Sergeant
Meese, FBI Agent Taylor, Sonoma County District Attorney Investigator Griffith
and other law enforcement officers, retraced his route after Polly‟s kidnapping.
When they arrived at Dutcher Creek Road, located 100 feet from Highway 101, just
south of Cloverdale, defendant pointed the officers in the direction of Polly‟s body.
Polly‟s badly decomposed body lay under a piece of plywood and other
pieces of wood in an area covered with thorny blackberry briar, thick underbrush,
and debris. Her skeletonized skull lay a short distance from the rest of her body,
probably as a result of animal activity. Much of her body had skeletonized,
including her entire abdominal cavity, with soft tissues and organs all absent, but
some portions of the body, including her limbs, had dried in a “mummified” state.
Polly‟s remains were partially covered by the nightgown Gillian P. had brought to
Polly‟s slumber party; according to an FBI agent who observed her body, the
nightgown was pulled up and inverted under her arms, which were folded across
her lap. Her pink blouse was untied and her white mini-skirt had been pulled up to
her chest, but she was still wearing her bra and panties. Her legs were spread
outwards, bent at the knees and hips, which suggested that the body
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had not been haphazardly thrown into the brush or that rigor mortis had previously
set the legs in that position.
Strands of Polly‟s hair, located separately from her body and skull, had a
braided rope and a knotted cloth tangled within them. The examining pathologist,
Dr. A. Jay Chapman, testified that the cause of Polly‟s death was
“unascertainable” because of the condition of her body, but that the rope and
knotted cloth could have fit around Polly‟s neck and might have been used to
strangle her. During the autopsy, when members of the FBI‟s Evidence Response
Team examined the remnants of Polly‟s panties with an alternative light source, a
stain fluoresced, indicating the possible presence of semen. Further forensic
testing, however, did not detect any semen at that location, which meant either that
semen was never present or that it was present but had degraded so as to be
unidentifiable.
After returning from the Dutcher Creek site on the night of December 4,
defendant again described how he had strangled Polly with a piece of cloth. He
added that when he eased up on the cloth, he thought he heard her groan, so he
tightened up the cloth again and tied a knot. He then tied a cord around her neck
and waited for Polly‟s movements to stop, which he described as taking “forever.”
On December 6, 1993, Petaluma Police Sergeant Meese and FBI Agent
Taylor questioned defendant again and confronted him with evidence that he had
sexually assaulted Polly before killing her. Sergeant Meese told defendant that
they found semen during an examination of Polly‟s remains. When defendant
asked where the semen was found, Sergeant Meese responded, “on the body,” to
which defendant replied, “not in her though.” Defendant denied sexually
assaulting Polly. When asked how semen could have wound up on Polly‟s body,
defendant replied, “Look I told you at least it wasn‟t in her.” He added: “What
I‟m trying to tell you is that in my mind, at least I didn‟t try to stick my dick in the
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fucking little girl.” When pressed again about the semen, defendant responded,
“that‟s something that I‟m going to have to live with and run through my mind
over and over and over and over again.” He also claimed it was a “load off” his
mind and he was “glad” when FBI Agent Taylor told him that semen was found on
Polly but not necessarily in her because he did not want that “hanging over” him.
Defendant expressed concern that he would be mistreated in prison if other
inmates considered him a child killer and molester. At the end of the interview,
defendant said: “I have to see what comes out of forensic — hope nothing comes
up. Hope nothing‟s in there.”
f. Forensic evidence
FBI Special Agent Chris Allen concluded that the pieces of white
cloth found in Polly‟s bedroom, at the Pythian Road site where defendant‟s car
had been stuck in a ditch,3 and in Polly‟s hair at Cloverdale had been cut by
scissors from a larger piece of nylon cloth, which might have originally been an
article of lingerie or a nightgown, as the pieces of cloth all fit together like pieces
of a puzzle. Allen believed the cloth could have been cut inside defendant‟s car,
because fibers matching the cloth were found on the car‟s center console and rear
passenger floor.
Fibers matching the carpet fibers in defendant‟s car were found in Polly‟s
bedroom. Cotton fibers recovered from defendant‟s sweatshirt found at the
Pythian Road site were consistent with fibers from Gillian‟s nightgown found on
Polly‟s body at Cloverdale. Fibers found in Polly‟s hair were consistent with the
3
The place where defendant‟s car had been stuck was not on Pythian Road
itself, but on the private road leading from Pythian Road to Dana Jaffe‟s home. At
trial, the parties referred to this location as the “Pythian Road site”; for
convenience, we will do the same.
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carpet fibers in defendant‟s car, suggesting that her head might have come in
contact with the floor of his car.
One of Polly‟s hairs was found intertwined in a knot on the red tights
recovered at the Pythian Road site, and it appeared to have been forcibly removed
from her head. Two hairs found in Polly‟s bedroom matched defendant‟s DNA
profile, and they also appeared to have been forcibly removed from defendant‟s
head.
Examination of the condom and condom wrapper found at the Pythian
Road site did not reveal the presence of any fingerprints or biological evidence.
g. Defendant’s prior crimes
On September 24, 1976, defendant, then 22 years old, abducted 26-year-old
Frances M. at knifepoint from the South Hayward BART station as she entered her
car. Pushing Frances into the passenger seat and placing a paper bag containing
twine behind the seat, defendant took her keys and drove off, claiming he would
not hurt her and he needed to get away because someone was following him.
Defendant, who smelled of alcohol, hit Frances on the head and told her to stop
crying. Defendant eventually pulled over and exposed his flaccid penis, but as he
tried to push Frances‟s head down to his crotch, she grabbed the blade of his knife
with one hand, used her other hand to open the door, and ran from the car.
Frances flagged down a passing car, which happened to be occupied by an off-
duty California Highway Patrolman, who chased defendant and arrested him.
Defendant later told a court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. George Ponomareff, that
he had attacked Frances because he heard “a voice of a woman wondering what it
would be like to be raped.” Defendant also stated that Frances “wanted it” and
“was only protesting for the sake of appearance.”
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In December 1976, defendant, who had been transferred to Napa State
Hospital after faking a suicide attempt, escaped and engaged in a five-day crime
spree.
On December 16, 1976, defendant broke into the Napa home of Marjorie
Mitchell and beat her on the head with a fireplace poker while she slept. After she
screamed, defendant dropped the poker and walked out of the room. Mitchell, her
head bleeding, went to the bathroom to get a towel and saw defendant standing at
the end of the hallway. Mitchell began walking towards him, but he fled.
Defendant later told police that he was surprised Mitchell was still alive. He said
he had intended to look for her car keys, but he forgot about the keys after he hit
her. Defendant explained that he had hit her “to relieve tension” and that
committing violent acts was “how he relieved tension.” “It felt good. I felt
glowing. We both got something out of it,” he later told Dr. Ponomareff.
Defendant told another court-appointed psychiatrist he believed Mitchell “wanted
to know how it felt to be beaten.” Mitchell required 30 sutures to close the
wounds on her head.
Defendant told police that he remained in Mitchell‟s neighborhood for the
next few days, hiding under a tarp in a fishing boat that was parked on a trailer,
and that he entered an open garage to a nearby house on Linden Street, stealing a
metal file, which he used to sharpen a kitchen knife he carried with him.
Defendant turned off the power to the house, intending to use his knife to steal a
vehicle from the female resident as she came out to investigate, but his plan was
thwarted when the intended victim did not come out as expected.
On December 20, 1976, defendant broke into 40-year-old Hazel Frost‟s car,
pointed a shotgun at her neck, and told her to drive to Santa Rosa. After a half-
hour drive, he ordered her into a dark gas station, and he pulled out white tape or
gauze from his pocket. Frost rolled out of the car, grabbing a gun she kept
16
underneath the seat. As defendant fled, she fired four or five times at him.
Defendant later told police he wanted Frost‟s car to get to San Mateo County, and
told Dr. Ponomareff that, before his attack on Frost, he had again heard the voice
of a woman wondering “what it would be like to be kidnapped and assaulted.” He
told another court-appointed psychiatrist that he had decided he “would have some
fun with the lady and assumed that from her attire and her single status she was
looking for the same.”
On December 21, 1976, Josephine Kreiger, a bank employee, returned to
her La Honda home in San Mateo County and discovered it had been ransacked
with some of her jewelry and coins missing. Responding police officers found
defendant hiding under a bush with an unloaded shotgun on the ground next to him
and two knives on his person. Defendant admitted he had burglarized Kreiger‟s
home. He explained that he had intended to wait for the residents to return home,
at which time he planned to tie them up and steal their car, but that he gave up on
the plan when more people than he expected came home. Defendant later also told
Dr. Ponomareff he thought there were people inside the Kreiger home who wanted
to be tied up.
Defendant told a court-appointed psychiatrist that he masturbates twice
daily while thinking of the female victims of his past crimes, and that he imagines
tying them up.
The prosecution introduced evidence of defendant‟s convictions for the
crimes against Frances M., Mitchell, Frost, and Kreiger. The prosecution also
introduced evidence of defendant‟s convictions for three second degree burglaries
occurring in the summer of 1973, May of 1974, and December of 1976; receiving
stolen property in December 1976; armed burglary and kidnapping in November
1984; and attempted armed robbery in March 1985.
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h. Paraphilia
Dr. Park Elliott Dietz, a clinical professor of psychiatry in the biobehavioral
sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, testified
as to a sexual disorder known as “paraphilia.” He explained that paraphilia, a
classification in the American Psychiatric Association‟s Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders—Fourth Edition (DSM IV), is defined as “a
continuing preference for some unusual sexual object . . . , [a]nd that means that
individuals who are aroused sexually by people of the wrong age, by objects that
are not people, or activities that are unusual or harmful.” For some paraphiliacs,
arousal is generated by the desire to control, render helpless, and humiliate the real
or imagined sex partner. In a particular deviation called “cordophilia,” the
paraphiliac uses bindings to keep the sexual partner subservient. Intricately
prepared bindings, corded or rope bindings, or silky bindings made from “feminine
materials” may be particularly sexually stimulating to the paraphiliac. Some
paraphiliacs use unconsenting victims to fulfill their sexual desires. In such cases,
the paraphiliac will formulate a plan, prepare the weapons and bindings, pick a
suitable victim, control the victim, and take the victim to a secluded location to
enact the sexual fantasy. Impotence and other sexual dysfunctions are common
among paraphiliacs. A paraphiliac in his 40‟s, Dr. Dietz stated, may still have the
same sexual preferences he had in his 20‟s.
In Dr. Dietz‟s opinion, defendant‟s prior crimes involving Frances M.,
Mitchell, and Frost were “consistent” with the stages of a sexual assault by a
paraphiliac, using weapons and preparing bindings for use on lone female victims.
In describing defendant‟s crime against Frost, Dr. Dietz stated his opinion that
defendant selected her to commit a sex crime. Dr. Dietz explained that
defendant‟s justifications for some of his crimes did not make sense and appeared
to be rationalizations for sexual offenses. In Dr. Dietz‟s view, defendant‟s
18
statement that he masturbated twice a day while fantasizing about tied-up crime
victims was strong evidence that he was a paraphiliac.
Dr. Dietz believed that defendant‟s behavior in the kidnapping and murder
of Polly was “consistent” with paraphilia.
2. Defense case
The defense conceded that defendant had killed Polly, but asserted that the
evidence did not show that he sexually assaulted her.
The defense called as witnesses Petaluma Police Sergeant Meese and
Sonoma County District Attorney investigator Michael Griffith to impeach the
testimony of Jeannette Tuner, who had testified under a grant of immunity for an
unrelated fraud case, regarding her inconsistent statements about whether
defendant had purchased a particular condom from her adult store just before the
crimes.
The defense also presented testimony from defendant‟s parole officer,
Thomas Berns, about his contacts with defendant in August and September 1993,
in an attempt to show that defendant could not have been in Petaluma before the
crimes as frequently as the prosecution‟s eyewitnesses had claimed.
3. Defendant’s conduct after the guilt phase verdict
After the jury returned its verdict at the guilt phase of trial, defendant
turned toward the television cameras in the courtroom and made an obscene
gesture with both hands by extending his middle fingers. He then winked his eye
and blew a kiss.
19
B. Penalty Phase
1. Prosecution’s case
a. Defendant’s prior violent offenses
Marjorie Mitchell, Frances M., and Hazel Frost, who had been assaulted by
defendant in 1976 (see pp. 15-18, ante), described being frightened, missing work,
and losing sleep as a result of defendant‟s violent crimes against them. Mitchell
described the wound to her head, which required 30 sutures to close, and said that
she still experienced periodic headaches from the blows. She and her daughter
consulted a psychiatrist, and she began locking her doors and covering her
windows at night. Frances M.‟s hand was severely cut during her escape and
required treatment at the hospital. Frost described herself as “a basket case” until
defendant was arrested. She received psychological counseling and took
medication for several years to help cope with her fears.
The prosecution also presented evidence of the facts underlying defendant‟s
November 1984 convictions for armed burglary and kidnapping, for which he had
been released on parole when he committed the current offenses against Polly
Klaas. Defendant and his then-girlfriend, Susan Edwards, forcibly entered Selina
Varich‟s residence in Redwood City. Edwards and her sister, Sandra Brinkley,
had previously extorted over $15,000 from Varich by threatening to reveal
Varich‟s prior lesbian relationship with Brinkley to members of Varich‟s family.
When defendant and Edwards confronted Varich, she reached for her telephone,
but either defendant or Edwards pulled it off the wall. Defendant threatened to kill
Varich and members of her family if she did not go to her bank and pay him and
Edwards $6,000. Varich described defendant as the person “in charge of the
situation,” who intimidated both her and Edwards. When Varich tried to run to
her deck, defendant dragged her back inside and struck her on the head with a gun,
causing profuse bleeding.
20
Defendant and Edwards attempted to silence Varich‟s cries, forced her to
shower to wash off the blood, and ordered her to lie on her bed. Defendant then
gave his gun to Edwards, who drove with Varich to the bank to obtain the $6,000,
after which she ordered Varich to drop her off at a location where she had
arranged to meet defendant. Varich required eight sutures to close her head
injuries, and missed about a week of work. She described being “absolutely
terrified,” locking her doors and sleeping with the radio and lights on, until
defendant was arrested several months later.
The prosecution presented evidence of seven robberies and one attempted
robbery defendant committed between December 1984 and March 1985 in
Kennewick, Washington, and Modesto, California. In each instance, defendant,
with Edwards as his getaway driver, entered a bank, a restaurant, or a retail store
and robbed persons at gunpoint. In 1989, defendant, in an effort to retaliate
against Edwards (who had failed to make good on a promise to help him while he
was in prison for the crimes against Varich), confessed that he and Edwards had
committed the robberies. He was convicted of only one of the offenses — an
attempted armed robbery in March 1985.
b. Victim impact testimony
Polly Klaas was born January 3, 1981. She was described as funny,
intelligent, and beautiful, “an absolutely extraordinary child” who was warm-
hearted with a sunny disposition and an infectious laugh. She played the piano
and the clarinet, and had a particular love for acting on stage. She was afraid of
being alone in the dark, often sleeping with her lights on and fearful that “a bad
man would come and take her in the night.”
Although Polly‟s mother, Eve Nichol, did not testify at the penalty phase,
Petaluma Police Sergeant Meese described her, on the night of Polly‟s abduction,
21
as being “in a state of shock and anguish,” which was reflected in a photograph
taken of Nichol with her six-year-old daughter, Annie, that night. Nichol‟s father
(Polly‟s maternal grandfather), Eugene Reed, drove up to see his daughter soon
after Polly‟s abduction and found her “in deep shock,” describing her as being “too
numb to even cry.”
Polly‟s father, Marc Klaas, who was divorced from Polly‟s mother,
maintained a very close relationship with Polly, seeing Polly every weekend and
talking to her almost daily. In the weeks before Polly‟s remains were discovered,
he helped establish a volunteer center to direct the search for her. During this
period, he abandoned his successful car rental business, lost 30 pounds, developed
a severe sleep disorder, and began seeing a therapist. After learning that Polly was
dead, he went “berserk” and became so enraged that members of his family had to
restrain him. It was an anger that, he said, “carries on to this day.” He became a
child advocate, promoting “an agenda to spare other children from her fate.” He
continued to have sleep disorders, often experiencing dreams and nightmares about
Polly, and continued to see a therapist.
Polly also enjoyed a close relationship with her maternal grandfather,
Eugene Reed, often visiting him and his wife at their home on the Monterey
Peninsula, where she would play music with him and take walks on the beach.
Reed described the 64 days Polly was missing as “just about the worst time we
ever had in our lives.” Even worse was the discovery that Polly was dead. In her
memory, he and his wife put up a bench in Pacific Grove facing the ocean with an
inscription for Polly.
2. Defense case
Defendant spent his early years in South San Francisco, where his mother,
Evelyn Smith, and his father, Robert Davis, lived with defendant‟s maternal
22
grandmother, Norma Wasson Johnny (a Paiute Indian), and his stepgrandfather
George Johnny. Defendant had two younger sisters, Patty and Darlene, and two
older brothers, Don and Ron.
Defendant‟s father eventually moved the family into a small house in the
rural mountain town of La Honda, in San Mateo County. Soon after, when
defendant was about nine years old, his parents separated, and the children and
their mother returned to the home of the Johnnys. After a bitter divorce in 1965,
the children were eventually allowed to choose which parent they wanted to be
with. Defendant‟s two older brothers stayed with their mother while defendant
(then 12 years old) and his two younger sisters chose to live with their father. At
some point, defendant‟s brother Don returned to live with his father.
Defendant‟s father moved the family frequently, sending the children to
live, at various times, with his mother in Chowchilla, with the Johnnys, and briefly
in Half Moon Bay and in Reno, eventually settling down again in La Honda.
When defendant was 14 years old, his 10-year-old sister, Patty, died of an illness.
Defendant‟s family members and caretakers described him as an average,
“nice little boy,” who was sometimes rambunctious but very lovable and cute. As
he grew older, defendant became quiet, shy, and subdued, but very protective of
his sisters, often taking responsibility for their welfare and making sure they went
to school and did their homework.
Defendant‟s mother drank frequently, was cold and distant to her children,
never hugged or kissed them, and made little or no effort to remain in touch with
them after their father gained custody of them. At the funeral of 10-year-old Patty,
the mother made no attempt to talk to defendant or his siblings.
Defendant‟s father was a longshoreman; during the week he was away, but
he returned to the family on some weekends. When he was present, he often was
gruff and harsh with the children. There was conflicting evidence as to whether he
23
had a problem with alcohol. On occasion, he hit defendant, once breaking
defendant‟s jaw. When the father was away, various women, who were either
hired caretakers or romantically involved with him, took care of defendant and his
siblings, but at times they were left alone at home.
According to defendant‟s juvenile probation reports, he committed his first
offenses (a burglary and forging a $10 money order) when 12 years old while he
was living in Chowchilla with his paternal grandparents. Defendant returned to
live with his father, was remorseful, appeared amenable to rehabilitation, made
good progress, and did better in school. He successfully completed his juvenile
probation, but at the age of 15 he burglarized a home in La Honda. He again
successfully completed probation, but he did poorly in school.
Employees of the California Men‟s Colony at San Luis Obispo, where
defendant was incarcerated in the 1980‟s and early 1990‟s, described defendant as
an exceptionally skilled and productive metal worker and a cooperative metal shop
student. One of his metal shop instructors estimated that defendant‟s
metalworking skills saved the state millions of dollars in manufacturing and
installation costs. As a result, defendant was considered part of an “elite group” of
inmates.
James Park, a psychologist, retired prison administrator, and part-time
prison consultant, testified regarding the security designation applied to all
prisoners serving sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole
(“Level 4” inmates). Level 4 institutions are characterized by high security
features with no conjugal visits. Based on his review of defendant‟s prison
records, he concluded that defendant had been “useful and productive” in prison,
with few serious disciplinary incidents over 20 years. Dr. John Irwin, an expert on
prisoner institutionalization, concluded from defendant‟s prison record that he was
a “conforming prisoner that causes very little trouble,” and that he was an “asset”
24
and “model prisoner” who would have no difficulty adjusting to the routine of
incarceration.
Clinical Psychologist Lorelei Sontag compiled a social history of defendant
based on interviews of defendant, members of his family, and a neighbor as well
as on letters, juvenile probation records, school records, medical records, and
divorce records. In defendant‟s early years, he was exposed to serious domestic
violence between his parents. A neighbor reported seeing the mother hold
defendant‟s hand over a flame on a stove to punish him for playing with matches
when he was three years old. Defendant did not cry and appeared unreactive,
which Dr. Sontag found “very alarming” and a sign that defendant was
“developmentally askew.” In a second incident, Evelyn burned the hands of
defendant and his brothers after catching them smoking.
According to Dr. Sontag, defendant later might have felt responsible for his
mother‟s emotional rejection of him and his sisters, after their parents‟ divorce,
when they chose to live with their father. Although the father did provide for the
family financially, he often provided no emotional support to his children,
especially the boys. Once, he struck defendant hard enough to push him through a
Sheetrock wall. When defendant was 16 years old, he ran away from home and
asked juvenile hall authorities to place him with a foster family. Defendant‟s
juvenile probation officer eventually recommended enlisting in the Army.
Defendant did so in July 1971.
Psychiatrist George Woods diagnosed defendant as having avoidant
personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and schizoid personality
disorder, based upon his interviews of defendant and a review of many reports and
records. According to Dr. Woods, individuals with personality disorders often
make “self-destructive and damning” decisions. Dr. Woods found no indication
that defendant suffered from any neurological problem or brain damage. He
25
described defendant‟s intelligence as average, based upon intelligence quotient
(IQ) tests in 1975 and 1985, on which defendant scored 129 and 105, respectively.
Although the IQ score of 129 indicated above average intelligence, Dr. Woods
noted that defendant failed his first attempt to pass the General Educational
Development test at age 20 in 1974 and that his performance on that exam was
consistent with a 10th grade level, the point at which defendant dropped out of
school.
On cross-examination by the prosecution, Dr. Woods acknowledged that
after defendant‟s crimes against Frances M. in 1976, he faked a suicide attempt
and falsely claimed he heard voices in his head to support an insanity defense.
3. Prosecution’s rebuttal
Witnesses from the Turning Point facility described defendant as a very
sociable person who had admitted to them he had tried to manipulate the system
by feigning mental illness so he would be moved into a mental health facility, so it
would be easier for him to escape. Correctional officers testified that they saw no
signs that defendant had mental problems while he was in jail for the current
crimes.
Psychiatrist Leonti Thompson, who had examined defendant in 1978 for a
court-ordered mental evaluation, disagreed with Dr. Woods‟ diagnosis and found
defendant‟s behavior consistent only with antisocial personality disorder.
Clinical therapist and Forensic Psychologist Kathleen O‟Meara reviewed
defendant‟s records and concluded that the defense allegations of childhood abuse
were exaggerated, although she acknowledged that defendant‟s family was
seriously dysfunctional. Disagreeing with Dr. Woods‟s diagnosis, she expressed
the view that defendant suffered from antisocial personality disorder and sexual
sadism, which motivated his prior sexual offenses. In her opinion, defendant‟s
26
childhood would not necessarily cause him to commit the crimes he was convicted
of as an adult, and she mentioned that defendant‟s brother Don had told her he did
not believe that defendant‟s childhood was the cause of his problems. She also
noted that, notwithstanding adverse circumstances during childhood, individuals
can motivate themselves to adapt to normal adulthood, as had defendant‟s brothers
Ron (who became a Highway Patrol officer, studied law, and later became a tribal
magistrate in Nevada), and his brother Don (who had a stable marriage and was
employed at Lockheed).
4. Sentencing hearing
Before the trial court denied defendant‟s automatic motion for modification
of the death verdict (§ 190.4, subd. (e)) and imposed sentence, Polly‟s father,
Marc Klaas, and her grandfather, Eugene Reed, asked the court to sentence
defendant to death. The court then allowed defendant to read a statement in which
he complained at length about the failure of the police to provide him a lawyer
after he invoked his right to counsel, and said he only confessed, after not seeing a
lawyer for four days, because he assumed no attorney wanted to represent him
because of the infamy of the case and because Petaluma Police Sergeant Meese
had exploited defendant‟s symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. Defendant asserted
that, because of the “intentional disregard” of his Miranda rights (Miranda v.
Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436), his attorneys were forced to admit guilt on some of
the charges against him. At the close of his statement, defendant set off a
commotion in the courtroom when he claimed he knew he did not commit a lewd
act upon Polly “because of a statement the young girl made to me when walking
her up the embankment: „Just don‟t do me like my dad.‟ ” After pronouncing
defendant‟s sentence of death, the trial court concluded the proceedings by stating,
27
“Mr. Davis, this is always a traumatic and emotional decision for a judge. You‟ve
made it very easy today by your conduct.”
II. PRETRIAL ISSUES
A. Change of Venue to Santa Clara County
Defendant claims the trial court violated his right to a fair trial when, after
granting defendant‟s motion for a change of venue, it transferred the case to Santa
Clara County, rejecting a defense request to hold the trial in a county farther from
the location of the murder. As we explain, we find no error.
1. Facts
Venue was originally in Sonoma County, as all of defendant‟s charged
crimes took place in that county. After more than six weeks of jury selection,
however, the parties and the assigned Sonoma County trial court judge, Lawrence
Antolini, agreed that a change of venue was necessary because of concerns that
defendant could not receive a fair and impartial trial in Sonoma County.
During the change of venue proceedings, the trial court noted that the
search for Polly Klaas had created enormous “personal involvement” for residents
of Sonoma County that “surprised probably all of us, even those who have been
born and raised in this county.” In addition, despite the court‟s repeated
admonitions during the sequestered jury selection, prospective jurors often
discussed the case in the waiting areas, making inflammatory comments about
defendant‟s guilt and calling for his execution, with some expressing the desire
that defendant be castrated by means of a rope and a truck.
The Administrative Office of the Courts proposed San Diego, Los Angeles,
Fresno, and Santa Clara Counties as possible venue sites. (See Cal. Rules of
Court, former rule 842, now rule 4.152.) After the parties were unable to agree as
to the new venue site, the trial court appointed Steven Schoenthaler, Ph.D., a
28
professor of sociology at California State University, Stanislaus, to conduct
telephone surveys of the four candidate counties as well as Sonoma County (used
a basis for comparison).
The survey sampled 300 people per county, consisted of 21 questions, and
was designed to measure knowledge of specific facts obtained from pretrial
publicity, the magnitude of prejudgment of defendant‟s guilt, and the magnitude of
prejudgment of defendant‟s penalty.
At the hearing to determine the new venue site, Professor Schoenthaler
presented the results of the survey for each county in question and then
extrapolated the data using six models to analyze the survey results. His preferred
model was his “Model 1” because, in his view, it best minimized the probability of
error. Model 1 focused on those participants who had prejudged defendant as
guilty (and could not set aside this opinion or were unsure about their ability to set
aside this opinion) and/or those who had prejudged defendant as deserving the
death penalty (and were absolute in their belief as to this penalty). To focus on the
effect of pretrial publicity, Schoenthaler included only participants who recognized
at least one of three facts: the kidnapping of a little girl from her Petaluma home,
the name Richard Allen Davis, or the name Polly Klaas; and he subtracted
participants who could not recognize any of these facts. According to these
criteria, Model 1‟s publicity-induced “total prejudgment” rate was 55 percent in
Sonoma County, 37 percent in Santa Clara County, 34 percent in Fresno County,
27 percent in Los Angeles County, and 21 percent in San Diego County.
Professor Schoenthaler testified that the 16 percent difference in his Model
1 prejudgment rate between Santa Clara and San Diego Counties was statistically
significant and would translate to two fewer eligible potential jurors per panel of
12 in Santa Clara County. Using the same criteria, but focusing only on those
prejudging defendant as deserving the death penalty and being absolute in that
29
belief, Schoenthaler calculated the sentence prejudgment rate as 12 percent in
Sonoma County, 4 percent in Santa Clara County, 13 percent in Fresno County, 11
percent in Los Angeles County, and 6 percent in San Diego County.
Because the case had generated massive publicity, the percentage of survey
participants who were unaware of the case (those who were unaware of the
kidnapping of a little girl from her Petaluma home and did not recognize the names
Richard Allen Davis or Polly Klaas) was only 1 percent in Sonoma County, 4
percent in Santa Clara County, 7 percent in Fresno County, 21 percent in Los
Angeles County, and 22 percent in San Diego County. In Schoenthaler‟s opinion,
based on his Model 1 for prejudgment of both penalty and guilt, San Diego County
was the best venue site for the defense, followed by Los Angeles, Fresno, and
Santa Clara. Aside from a high rate of prejudgment of penalty in Fresno County,
Schoenthaler found no statistical difference among the remaining counties.
The prosecution‟s expert, Ebbe B. Ebbesen, Ph.D., a professor of
psychology at the University of California, San Diego, presented his own four
models to measure prejudgment. Although these models showed that, of the four
candidate counties, San Diego had the lowest prejudgment (or tied for lowest with
Los Angeles) and Santa Clara had the highest prejudgment, in Ebbesen‟s view, the
ability of participants to set aside their knowledge of the case and their opinions of
defendant‟s guilt did not differ significantly among the four candidate counties.
He based this opinion on a survey question asking participants if they could set
aside their opinions of defendant‟s guilt and base their decision on the evidence
presented in court alone. The percentage of participants who answered yes to this
question was 46 percent in Sonoma County, 58 percent in Santa Clara County, 60
percent in Fresno County, 63 percent in Los Angeles County, and 67 percent in
San Diego County. According to Professor Ebbesen, the only significant
30
difference was between Sonoma and the remaining four counties, a finding that, in
his opinion, reflected the unsuccessful attempt to select a jury in Sonoma County.
Professor Ebbesen‟s analysis showed that in each of the candidate counties,
the more a participant knew about the case, the greater the likelihood that he or she
would prejudge defendant as guilty and deserving a death sentence. Ebbesen
found no significant differences between the counties with regard to the
participants‟ prejudgment of penalty, with the percentage of participants selecting
the death penalty being 59 percent in Sonoma County, 61 percent in Santa Clara
County, 62 percent in Fresno County, 56 percent in Los Angeles County, and 57
percent in San Diego County. As the effect of pretrial publicity did not appear to
generate particularly strong, fixed opinions of guilt, Professor Ebbesen theorized
that no matter where the case was tried, publicity would shift to that county,
thereby increasing knowledge and prejudgment and creating a “saturation” level at
the time of jury selection that would “equalize” differences in knowledge or
prejudgment measured by the survey.
According to Professor Ebbesen, jury selection in Sonoma County had
failed because prospective jurors were “emotionally involved” in the case, which
resulted from the circumstance that the crime had occurred in their “backyard,”
making it more difficult for them to set aside their opinions. This factor, he noted,
would be absent in other counties. He acknowledged that the survey was not
specifically designed to measure this factor.
Professor Schoenthaler agreed with Professor Ebbesen that transferring the
case to a new county would generate more publicity in the new venue, but he
disagreed with Ebbesen‟s conclusion that this would equalize the level of
knowledge among the candidate counties, because each county started with a
different knowledge level. He conceded, however, that there might not be a
statistically significant difference if trial were to begin more than 90 days after
31
selection of the new venue, because the increased publicity would spread
knowledge and eventually infect potential jurors in the new venue “like the flu.”
The defense expert, Edward J. Bronson, Ph.D., a professor of public law at
California State University, Chico, presented several of his own models, including
“Model 4,” which calculated the percentage of participants who were “absolute” in
their opinion that defendant should receive the death penalty but excluded those
who had no knowledge of the case. In Model 4, the percentage of participants
who recognized the case and had an “absolute” belief that defendant deserved a
death sentence was 45 percent in Sonoma County, 41 percent in Santa Clara
County, 43 percent in Fresno County, 32.3 percent in Los Angeles County, and
31.3 percent in San Diego County. In “Model 5,” Professor Bronson created a
category of “high risk respondents,” comprising those who recognized the
kidnapping of a girl from her home in Petaluma or the name Polly Klaas, who
prejudged defendant as guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and could not or were
unsure if they could set that opinion aside, and who determined death was the
appropriate penalty. The percentage of participants who met this “high risk”
category, Bronson testified, was 28.7 percent in Sonoma County, 19.3 percent in
Santa Clara County, 14.3 percent in Fresno County, 11.7 percent in Los Angeles
County, and 8 percent in San Diego County.
Professor Bronson testified that his Models 4 and 5 and Professor
Schoenthaler‟s Model 1 demonstrated “substantial differences” between the
candidate counties. The models showed a “continuum,” with Santa Clara County
“the worst” and prejudgment dropping off as one headed southward, with San
Diego County being “the best.” He was particularly concerned about Santa Clara,
as it was in the Bay Area, not far from Sonoma County, where the crimes
occurred. Bronson disagreed with Professor Ebbesen‟s conclusion that the survey
participants in each of the four candidate counties showed equal hostility toward
32
defendant. According to his analysis, the percentage of participants who
expressed strong feelings and/or hostility toward defendant was 18 percent in
Santa Clara County, 13 percent in Fresno County, and 9.67 percent in San Diego
County (Bronson did not have time to examine the results in Los Angeles or
Sonoma Counties).
Professor Bronson disagreed with Professor Ebbesen‟s theory that publicity
following the change of venue would equalize the degree of prejudgment. He
reasoned that the “baseline” for each county was different and beliefs that have
been held for a couple of years tend to be more deep-seated than beliefs created by
new information. He stated that a county‟s population size was important because
larger communities could better “absorb” the impact of a large case such as this.
He gave these population estimates for the pertinent counties: 432,000 in Sonoma,
1,607,700 in Santa Clara, 764,800 in Fresno, 9,244,600 in Los Angeles, and
2,720,900 in San Diego.
All three experts agreed that, generally speaking, participants‟ knowledge of
the case and their prejudgment dropped the farther away they were from Sonoma
County.
The parties stipulated that Santa Clara County would be the most
convenient and least expensive venue for travel and hotel costs.
In deciding to set the case in Santa Clara County, the trial court expressed
the view that an unbiased jury could have been selected in Sonoma County if its
residents had not been so personally involved in the search for Polly Klaas, the
prayers at local churches, her memorial service, and the amount of social
networking in the county. The court discounted the models presented by the
prosecution and defense experts and gave greatest weight to Professor
Schoenthaler‟s Model 1, noting that any difference in prejudgment of penalty was
negligible between Santa Clara and San Diego counties under that model. The
33
court compared San Diego with Los Angeles and Fresno Counties; it concluded
that Los Angeles was not substantially different from San Diego in costs and
hardship and that Fresno, although less costly, had a higher prejudgment of penalty
because of publicity, making San Diego the preferred county among the three.
Comparing San Diego with Santa Clara, the court found that the cost and hardship
to the witnesses would be substantially less in Santa Clara County and that this
benefit outweighed the 16 percent difference in total prejudgment between the two
counties because this difference would only necessitate identification of an
additional 16 out of 100 potential jurors during jury selection in Santa Clara. The
court noted that Santa Clara County‟s population (though smaller than San Diego
County) was nearly four times that of Sonoma County, making the jury pool much
larger. The court mentioned that the factors measured by the survey would change
after a transfer because continued publicity would “drive knowledge and
prejudgment up regardless of where the case is sent.” Finally, the court stressed
that the survey did not measure the “country atmosphere,” the “networking,” and
the “personal involvement” in Sonoma County, none of which would be present in
Santa Clara County. For these reasons, the court transferred the matter to Santa
Clara County.
2. Analysis
Defendant claims the change of venue to Santa Clara County “amounted to
no change of venue at all” and that the trial court abused its discretion by
transferring the case there, instead of to Los Angeles County or San Diego County.
He relies heavily on the results of the survey and the testimony of Professors
Schoenthaler and Bronson to argue that the people of Santa Clara County were as
prejudiced against him as those in Sonoma County. We disagree.
34
After a motion to change venue is granted, absent an agreement as to the
new venue, the parties have a right to an evidentiary hearing to determine where
the case should be transferred. (People v. Stanley (1995) 10 Cal.4th 764, 790-791;
People v. Cooper (1991) 53 Cal.3d 771, 804; McGown v. Superior Court (1977)
75 Cal.App.3d 648, 652.) “The presence or absence of prejudicial publicity in [a
successor county] is one of many facts and circumstances which should be
considered by [a] court in the exercise of its discretion to decide where the cause
should be transferred.” (McGown, supra, 75 Cal.App.3d at p. 653.) Even if the
magnitude of pretrial publicity in a successor county may not otherwise merit a
change of venue from that county, it may still be large enough to persuade a court
not to transfer the case to that county. (People v. Cooper, supra, 53 Cal.3d at
p. 804; McGown, supra, 75 Cal.App.3d at p. 653.) In addition, we have
previously held that, even in capital cases, “considerations of relative hardship,
and the conservation of judicial resources and public funds, are important factors
in deciding between various possible venue sites.” (Cooper, supra, 53 Cal.3d at
p. 805.) This may include choosing a new venue site near the original venue site
for the convenience of witnesses, attorneys, and interested residents of the original
venue site. (Ibid.) After hearing any evidence, the court must make a decision in
“the interest of justice” in choosing where the case should be transferred, and we
review that decision for an abuse of discretion. (Id. at pp. 804-805; McGown,
supra, 75 Cal.App.3d at pp. 653-654.)
Of the four candidate counties in this case, Santa Clara, in virtually every
model presented by all three experts, had a level of knowledge and prejudgment of
guilt and sentence significantly higher than those found in Los Angeles County or
San Diego County. But the media attention remained pervasive throughout the
state, including the four candidate counties, even though the crime had occurred
two years before the hearing. As a result, the trial court could reasonably conclude
35
that, regardless of where the case would be tried, media attention would shift to
the new venue. As in People v. Manson (1976) 61 Cal.App.3d 102, another high-
profile case, media coverage of defendant‟s crimes “permeated every corner of this
state with varying degrees of intensity,” and, despite relocating the case to a
different venue, “nothing could have prevented the public media from swinging its
attention to that place” because “[t]he magnetic pull of such notorious cases is
compelling.” (Id. at p. 177; see also Irvin v. Dowd (1961) 366 U.S. 717; Note,
Prejudicial Publicity in Trials of Public Officials (1975) 85 Yale L.J. 123, fn. 2.)
Consequently, because all three experts agreed (and the surveys confirmed)
that the more knowledge a person had about this case, the more likely that person
would judge defendant guilty, it was reasonable to assume that a transfer to either
Los Angeles County or San Diego County would cause the jury pools in those
venues to experience an increase in knowledge and prejudgment rates, perhaps
reaching rates similar to those in Santa Clara County.
This did not necessarily mean, however, that defendant had no fair or
impartial venue available to him or that moving the case out of Sonoma County
was a useless gesture. We have never required potential jurors to be ignorant of
news accounts of the crime or free of “ „any preconceived notion as to the guilt or
innocence of an accused.‟ ” (People v. Harris (1981) 28 Cal.3d 935, 950, quoting
Irvin v. Dowd, supra, 366 U.S. at p. 723; see also People v. Riggs (2008) 44
Cal.4th 248, 281; In re Hamilton (1999) 20 Cal.4th 273, 295.) The mere presence
of such awareness on the jurors‟ part, without more, does not presumptively deny
a defendant due process, because to hold otherwise “ „would be to establish an
impossible standard.‟ ” (People v. Harris, supra, 28 Cal.3d at pp. 949-950,
quoting Irvin v. Dowd, supra, 366 U.S. at p. 723.) In the absence of some reason
to believe otherwise, it is only necessary that a potential juror be willing to set
aside his or her “ „impression or opinion and render a verdict based on the
36
evidence presented in court.‟ ” (Harris, at p. 950, quoting Irvin v. Dowd, at p.
723; People v. Riggs, supra, 44 Cal.4th at p. 281.)
Because it is impossible to control heightened media attention in any new
venue, it also is virtually impossible to prevent the knowledge and prejudgment
rates for potential jurors living in a new venue from increasing after the change of
venue has occurred. Thus, when evaluating a county under consideration as the
site for the trial of a high publicity case, the ability of potential jurors in that
county to disregard the information they have learned from the media, and to set
aside opinions they have formed based on that information, is significant, because
it bears on the likelihood that the defendant will be able to receive a fair trial there.
The survey in this case showed that the ability of persons to set aside their
opinion of defendant‟s guilt was not dramatically different between Santa Clara
County (58 percent), Los Angeles County (63 percent), and San Diego County (67
percent), especially when compared to Sonoma County (46 percent). But the
survey did not explain why Sonoma County differed so significantly from the
candidate counties in the ability of potential jurors to set aside their opinions. The
Sonoma trial court identified the problem as being Sonoma County‟s “personal
involvement” in the case. Defendant argues that “personal involvement” is an
“intangible” based on “intuition” and that no evidence in the record reliably
supported this factor or showed that it would be absent in Santa Clara County. We
disagree.
The 598 Sonoma County questionnaires paint a picture of a growing county
suddenly exposed to a crime that jolted many of its residents out of their small-
town sense of security and peace. When asked whether the crime affected their
lives, 72 percent of the Sonoma County prospective jurors responded
affirmatively, with many expressing shock over the nature of the kidnapping and
sorrow over the young girl‟s death. One wrote: “It saddened me to know that this
37
type of crime can happen in my home town.” Another explained: “Because I also
come from a small town and not far away from Miss Klaas‟ home town, I felt like
someone I knew had been murdered. . . .” Another wrote: “A sense of general
anguish and pain spread through the entire community.” At least two prospective
Sonoma jurors cried while filling out their questionnaires.
Not only did many prospective Sonoma County jurors indicate they cried or
felt sorrow when they learned that Polly was dead, 23 percent took steps to
improve the security around their homes, such as locking their doors and windows.
As one prospective juror put it: “It has become unsafe. We used to leave our
doors unlocked and didn‟t have to fear for our lives.” Another wrote: “It took
from us our last safe place, our own homes.” Yet another observed: “I feel that
we have lost the trusting way that we once enjoyed. It has made us a suspicious
and untrusting society.” Thirty-nine percent either listened to the broadcast of the
memorial services for Polly or personally attended the services, and dozens
indicated that they cried while watching the service.
Over 14 percent of the 598 prospective Sonoma County jurors said they
knew one of three victims or the victims‟ family members or one of the potential
witnesses or attorneys associated with the case. Nearly 12 percent of those jurors
either participated in the search for Polly Klaas or volunteered or contributed
money to the Polly Klaas Foundation. According to a prospective juror who
mailed fliers during the search: “Everyone seemed „closer,‟ she became like part
of the family.” This emotional involvement continued after Polly‟s death, with 11
percent of the 598 prospective Sonoma County jurors indicating that they
personally visited the site where her body was recovered.
If the 598 prospective Sonoma County jurors‟ social networks are included,
23 percent of the prospective jurors‟ family members, friends, or coworkers
participated in the search; volunteered or contributed to the Polly Klaas
38
Foundation; knew the victims, the victims‟ families, a potential witness, or an
attorney associated with the case; or visited the site where Polly‟s body was found.
As a measure of the total personal and community involvement in this case,
if we include any prospective juror who met at least one of the above criteria,
some 500 of the 598 prospective jurors (84 percent) in Sonoma County had some
kind of personal or community involvement in this case.
Therefore, contrary to defendant‟s argument on appeal, the “personal
involvement” factor was not merely rooted in the trial court‟s “intuition”; it was
overwhelmingly evident from the record of the failed Sonoma County jury
selection. Given the unique circumstances faced in Sonoma County, the trial court
there reasonably concluded that a more urban county would not experience a
similar “small town” reaction or connection to the crime (see Martinez v. Superior
Court (1981) 29 Cal.3d 574, 581), and, as we will explain in defendant‟s second
claim, a review of the Santa Clara County jury selection confirms this conclusion.
“In counties geographically removed from the locale of the crime, lack of a sense
of community involvement will permit jurors a degree of objectivity unattainable
in that locale.” (Corona v. Superior Court (1972) 24 Cal.App.3d 872, 883; see
also Powell v. Superior Court (1991) 232 Cal.App.3d 785, 802.) In addition,
“[l]ocal consciousness of the community‟s reputation for peace and security will
be eliminated.” (Corona, supra, 24 Cal.App.3d at p. 883.)
For these reasons, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in transferring
defendant‟s case to Santa Clara County. The court reasonably concluded that the
“personal involvement” factor, not pretrial publicity by itself, was why jury
selection had failed in Sonoma County, and that this factor was unique to Sonoma
County and would not be present in any of the four candidate counties. The
differences in knowledge and prejudgment rates among the candidate counties
were not decisive because the media would descend on any new venue site and
39
effectively “equalize” these rates. This equalization made it reasonable to consider
costs and convenience as the primary differentiating factor in choosing a new
venue. As a result, the court acted within its discretion in selecting Santa Clara
County, which, because of its proximity to the crime scene, was the most
convenient and least expensive of the four counties for the trial in this case.
B. Change of Venue Motions Brought in Santa Clara County
After the case was transferred to Santa Clara County and before jury
selection, defendant moved for a second change of venue, but the trial court denied
the motion and it denied a renewed motion near the end of jury selection.
Defendant challenges these rulings.
A change of venue must be granted when the defendant shows “there is a
reasonable likelihood that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had in the county.”
(§ 1033, subd. (a).) In deciding an initial motion to change venue, the trial court
considers such factors as the nature and gravity of the offense, the size of the
community, the status of the defendant, the popularity and prominence of the
victim, and the nature and extent of the publicity. (People v. Ramirez (2006) 39
Cal.4th 398, 434.) The same factors apply to a motion for a second change of
venue, except that “the fact that venue has already been changed once affects the
analysis.” (People v. Cooper, supra, 53 Cal.3d at p. 805; People v. Gallego
(1990) 52 Cal.3d 115, 167.)
On appeal, a defendant challenging a trial court‟s denial of a motion for
change of venue must show both error and prejudice: that is, that at the time of the
motion it was reasonably likely that a fair trial could not be had in the county, and
that it was reasonably likely that a fair trial was not had. (People v. Lewis (2008)
43 Cal.4th 415, 447; People v. Williams (1989) 48 Cal.3d 1112, 1126; People v.
Cooper, supra, 53 Cal.3d at pp. 805-806.) We independently review the trial
40
court‟s decision to deny the change of venue motion. (People v. Cooper, supra, at
p. 806.)
With respect to the first factor, the nature and gravity of the offense, the
kidnapping and murder of a young child and the false imprisonment of her friends
are extremely serious offenses, but this factor alone does not compel a change of
venue. “Prospective jurors would sympathize with the girls‟ fate” no matter where
the trial was held, and this sympathy stems from the nature of the crime, “not the
locale of trial.” (People v. Edwards (1991) 54 Cal.3d 787, 808.)
As to the nature and extent of the media coverage, it is undisputed that
Santa Clara County was inundated with press coverage of the case after the matter
was transferred there. But this was both unsurprising and unavoidable, given the
attention the case received from the state and national press, and would have
occurred in any county to which the case was transferred. Consequently, a change
of venue “offered no solution to the publicity problem.” (People v. Manson,
supra, 61 Cal.App.3d at p. 177.)
To support his claim of an unduly prejudicial atmosphere in Santa Clara
County, defendant emphasizes that, just before jury selection in that county, a
“source” who was “close to the case” leaked details of defendant‟s case to a local
television news station. But, as he concedes, such a leak could have occurred at
any venue site. More importantly, defendant has not shown prejudice from the
leaked information, as those details were admitted at trial.
As to the size of the community, at the time of the trial Santa Clara County
had more than 1,600,000 residents and was the fifth most populous county in
California. Therefore, even assuming that the county‟s residents were deluged
with press coverage, the size of Santa Clara County‟s population suggests there
was a reasonable likelihood of finding jurors who had relatively little knowledge
of the case or who knew of the case but did not have fixed opinions. (People v.
41
Dennis (1998) 17 Cal.4th 468, 523.) Indeed, over a three-week period, the trial
court was able to select 82 prospective jurors who were not disqualified for cause.
Neither defendant nor victim Polly Klaas was a prominent member of the
Santa Clara community. While Polly became well known after her death, she had
no significant connection to Santa Clara County, unlike the county of her
residence, Sonoma County. Defendant argues that, because both counties
belonged to the same “media pool,” prospective jurors in Santa Clara County
exhibited the same kind of personal and community involvement as prospective
jurors did in Sonoma County. The record refutes this argument.
The 330 Santa Clara County jury questionnaires indicate a level of personal
and community involvement far below that of Sonoma County. Only 26 percent
of the prospective jurors in Santa Clara County said the case had affected their
lives, far less than the 72 percent who were affected in Sonoma County. Only 2
percent had improved the security around their homes as a result of the crime, a
rate 10 times less than that of Sonoma County. Only 3 percent participated in the
search for Polly, volunteered for the Polly Klaas Foundation, or gave money to the
foundation, a rate nearly four times less than that of Sonoma County. The rate at
which prospective Santa Clara County jurors knew one of the victims, the victims‟
families, a potential witness, or an attorney involved in the case was nine times
less (1.5 percent) than that of Sonoma County (14 percent). The rate they listened
to Polly‟s memorial service was three times less (12 percent) than that of Sonoma
County (39 percent). The rate at which the prospective Santa Clara County jurors
personally visited any of the crime scenes was five times less than that of Sonoma
County. Among them, the social networking involving this case was over 12 times
less than that of Sonoma County: Only two percent of the prospective jurors‟
family members, friends, or coworkers participated in the search; volunteered for,
or gave money to, the Polly Klaas Foundation; knew the victims, the victims‟
42
families, a potential witness, or an attorney associated with the case; or visited the
site where Polly‟s body was found.
Finally, as a measure of the total personal and community involvement in
this case, if we include any prospective juror who met at least one of the above
criteria, 35 percent of the prospective jurors in Santa Clara County had some kind
of personal or community involvement in this case, a rate far less than that of
Sonoma County (84 percent). Significantly, the feelings of loss of the
community‟s peace and security, so prevalent in Sonoma County, were virtually
absent in the Santa Clara County questionnaires, which reflected the kind of
sympathy one would expect in any venue for the murder of a young child (see
People v. Dennis, supra, 17 Cal.4th at p. 523), but not the heightened sense of loss
that permeated the Sonoma County questionnaires.
As evidence that he suffered prejudice, defendant claims that some of the
12 jurors selected for his trial exhibited the same kind of “personal involvement”
found in Sonoma County, the original venue. We disagree.
Defendant points out that only one of the 12 jurors, Juror No. 10, who was
living in Texas when the crimes in this case occurred, knew relatively little about
the case, but even she was aware of the crimes and the names involved because of
“national coverage.” As discussed earlier, it would be an “ „impossible standard‟ ”
to require empanelment of a jury untouched by pretrial publicity. (People v.
Harris, supra, 28 Cal.3d at pp. 949-950, quoting Irvin v. Dowd, supra, 366 U.S. at
p. 723.)
Although several jurors expressed sadness over Polly‟s death and the nature
of the crime, these expressions were not unusual as “[p]rospective jurors would
have reason to sympathize with the victims and their families wherever the case
was tried.” (People v. Pride (1992) 3 Cal.4th 195, 225.) That one of these jurors,
a bar owner, allowed a patron to put up Polly‟s missing poster at the bar is hardly
43
evidence of the kind of community involvement that was present in Sonoma
County, the original venue.
Defendant contends that most of the 12 impaneled jurors expressed, in
either their questionnaires or on voir dire, prejudgment of defendant‟s guilt. For
example, Juror No. 1, whom the defense unsuccessfully challenged for cause,
wrote in his questionnaire that he thought defendant “is most likely guilty as sin.”
During voir dire, however, Juror No. 1 explained that his written answer was
flippant because he was “anxious about the length of the trial” and that he would
try to set aside his preconceived notions, be impartial, and follow the law. In
denying the challenge for cause, the trial court found him sincere, honest, and
objective. Although a juror‟s declaration of impartiality is not conclusive and we
are not bound by the trial court‟s findings, we give great weight to a trial judge‟s
finding of fairness. (People v. Cooper, supra, 53 Cal.3d at p. 807.) Moreover, as
we discuss in greater detail below, defendant failed to exercise a peremptory
challenge against this juror.
The remaining jurors who expressed some preconceived notions of
defendant‟s guilt said they could set aside their opinions and follow the law, and
defendant challenged none of them. Moreover, in addition to not being challenged
for cause by either party, all of these jurors expressed significant reservations
about imposing the death penalty. Given that defendant conceded his guilt as to
Polly‟s kidnapping and murder during the trial, the question of his punishment was
the most critical contested issue in this case, and these jurors expressed views on
capital punishment that the defense might well have regarded as favorable.
That defendant still had three unused peremptory challenges when the 12
impaneled jurors were seated is also significant. Unpersuasive is trial counsel‟s
assertion that defendant was reserving these three challenges for “three people who
are still out there” among the 42 remaining potential jurors “who could not give
44
Mr. Davis a fair trial because they prejudged this case.” (See People v. Morris
(1991) 53 Cal.3d 152, 185-186.) Even if the prosecution used one of its seven
remaining peremptory challenges, the probability that one of defendant‟s three
disfavored jurors would be called from the remaining 42 prospective jurors was
low. Similarly, defendant did not use peremptory challenges to excuse any of the
five alternate jurors selected. Because the existence of unused peremptory
challenges strongly indicates defendant‟s recognition that the selected jury was fair
and impartial, the failure of the defense to exhaust all peremptory challenges,
without a reasonable explanation, can be a decisive factor, even in close cases, in
confirming that the denial of a change of venue was justified. (People v. Dennis,
supra, 17 Cal.4th at p. 524; People v. Daniels (1991) 52 Cal.3d 815, 853-854.)
For the reasons given above, the trial court properly denied defendant‟s
motions for a second change of venue, and the trial was properly held in Santa
Clara County.
C. Claims of Errors During Jury Selection
Defendant contends the trial court erroneously denied six of his challenges
for cause during jury selection. None of these prospective jurors actually served
on the jury, and the defense excused two of them by peremptory challenges.
Defendant‟s failure to exhaust his peremptory challenges or to express
dissatisfaction with the jury as selected forfeits this claim on appeal. (People v.
Hillhouse (2002) 27 Cal.4th 469, 487.) Moreover, the claim fails on the merits for
lack of prejudice: Because none of the prospective jurors in question served on
the jury, “there is no basis for us to conclude that the jury empanelled was
anything but impartial.” (People v. Alfaro (2007) 41 Cal.4th 1277, 1314; see also
People v. Hillhouse, supra, 27 Cal.4th at pp. 487-488.)
45
Defendant faults the trial court for overruling his objection to the
prosecution‟s use of peremptory challenges to exclude seven “people of color”
(five Hispanic-surnamed jurors, one unidentified Chinese-American juror, and one
unidentified African-American juror) and ruling that defendant had failed to make
a prima facie showing that the prosecutor had challenged the Hispanic-surnamed
jurors because of group bias.
Both the state and federal Constitutions prohibit the use of peremptory
challenges to remove prospective jurors based on group bias, such as race or
ethnicity. (See Batson v. Kentucky (1986) 476 U.S. 79, 97; People v. Wheeler
(1978) 22 Cal.3d 258, 276-277 (Wheeler).) When the defense raises such a
challenge, these procedures apply: “First, the defendant must make out a prima
facie case „by showing that the totality of the relevant facts gives rise to an
inference of discriminatory purpose.‟ [Citations.] Second, once the defendant has
made out a prima facie case, the „burden shifts to the State to explain adequately
the racial exclusion‟ by offering permissible race-neutral justifications for the
strikes. [Citations.] Third, „[i]f a race-neutral explanation is tendered, the trial
court must then decide . . . whether the opponent of the strike has proved
purposeful racial discrimination.‟ [Citation.]” (Johnson v. California (2005) 545
U.S. 162, 168, fn. omitted; see also People v. Lewis, supra, 43 Cal.4th at p. 469.)
To make a prima facie showing of group bias, “the defendant must show
that under the totality of the circumstances it is reasonable to infer discriminatory
intent.” (People v. Kelly (2007) 42 Cal.4th 763, 779; see also People v. Bonilla
(2007) 41 Cal.4th 313, 341.) When, as in this case, it is unclear whether the trial
court used the recently disapproved “strong likelihood” standard, rather than the
correct “reasonable inference” standard, “we review the record independently to
determine whether the record supports an inference that the prosecutor excused a
46
juror on a prohibited discriminatory basis.” (People v. Kelly, supra, 42 Cal.4th at
p. 779.)
“Though proof of a prima facie case may be made from any information in
the record available to the trial court, we have mentioned „certain types of
evidence that will be relevant for this purpose. Thus the party may show that his
opponent has struck most or all of the members of the identified group from the
venire, or has used a disproportionate number of his peremptories against the
group. He may also demonstrate that the jurors in question share only this one
characteristic — their membership in the group — and that in all other respects
they are as heterogeneous as the community as a whole. Next, the showing may
be supplemented when appropriate by such circumstances as the failure of his
opponent to engage these same jurors in more than desultory voir dire, or indeed to
ask them any questions at all. Lastly, . . . the defendant need not be a member of
the excluded group in order to complain of a violation of the representative cross-
section rule; yet if he is, and especially if in addition his alleged victim is a
member of the group to which the majority of the remaining jurors belong, these
facts may also be called to the court‟s attention.‟ ” (People v. Bell (2007) 40
Cal.4th 582, 597, quoting Wheeler, supra, 22 Cal.3d at pp. 280-281.)
The trial court concluded that people of color was not a cognizable group
for Wheeler analysis, and instead focused on the Spanish-surnamed jurors as a
cognizable group. Based on the court‟s recollection of the jury selection, it ruled
that defendant had failed to establish a prima facie case that the prosecution‟s
exercise of peremptory challenges was motivated by group bias.
At the outset, we reject defendant‟s contention that the trial court erred by
ruling that “people of color” is not a cognizable group for Wheeler analysis. No
California case has ever recognized “people of color” as a cognizable group. Even
if such a group is cognizable, defendant has forfeited this claim, as he fails to
47
identify on appeal the people of color whose excusals he challenged in the trial
court, and we cannot discern their identity from the record. (People v. Morris
(2003) 107 Cal.App.4th 402, 408-409.) Accordingly, we will only review
defendant‟s claim of Wheeler/Batson error based upon the prosecution‟s
peremptory challenges of the five Hispanic-surnamed jurors.
Based on our independent review, we agree with the trial court that
defendant did not make a prima facie case that the prosecutor challenged the five
prospective jurors in question because they were Hispanic. Initially, we note that
the defense did not contest the prosecutor‟s assertion that three of the five
challenged jurors appeared “to be Caucasian with a possible Hispanic surname.”
Although we have held that Hispanic-surnamed jurors are a cognizable class for
Wheeler/Batson purposes, even when “no one knows at the time of challenge
whether a particular individual who has a Spanish surname is Hispanic” (People v.
Trevino (1985) 39 Cal.3d 667, 686, disapproved on other grounds in People v.
Johnson (1989) 47 Cal.3d 1194, 1219-1222; see also People v. Gutierrez (2002)
28 Cal.4th 1083, 1123), the prosecutor‟s unrefuted description of three of the
prospective jurors in question as “Caucasian” weakens any inference of group bias
that can be drawn from his exercise of peremptory challenges against them. (See
generally, People v. Cruz (2008) 44 Cal.4th 636, 655-657 [prosecutor‟s challenge
to White but Spanish-surnamed juror was not based on group bias].)
More significantly, there were obvious race-neutral grounds for the
prosecutor‟s challenges to the prospective jurors in question. Prospective Jurors
E. M. and F. C. voiced strong opposition towards the death penalty. (See People
v. Bolin (1998) 18 Cal.4th 297, 317 [the use of peremptory challenges “to excuse
prospective jurors who expressed scruples about imposing the death penalty” is
proper].) Prospective Juror L. F. also expressed scruples about imposing the death
penalty by testifying that she would “favor the possibility of life imprisonment
48
without the possibility of parole over the death penalty in a murder special
circumstance case,” and by writing in her juror questionnaire that she considered
imprisonment for life a more severe penalty than death. Finally, Prospective
Jurors D. P. and D. G. each had criminal records. (See People v. Roldan (2005)
35 Cal.4th 646, 703 [use of a peremptory challenge to excuse a prospective juror
with negative experiences of the criminal justice system is proper].)
Therefore, the trial court properly ruled that defendant had not met his
burden of raising an inference of discrimination, and it did not err in denying
defendant‟s Wheeler/Batson motion.
D. Admissibility of Defendant’s Confessions
Defendant argues his custodial statements and confessions were obtained in
violation of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, supra, 384 U.S. 436. He
contends that the introduction of this evidence, over his unsuccessful motion to
suppress, violated his rights to remain silent, to a fair trial, to reliable
determinations of guilt and penalty, and to due process under the federal and state
Constitutions. (U.S. Const., 5th, 8th, and 14th Amends.; Cal. Const., art. I, §§ 7,
13, 15-17.) Specifically, he asserts: (1) the police failed to obtain a valid Miranda
waiver at the outset of his first interrogation on November 30, 1993; (2) during
that same interrogation, the police improperly continued to interrogate him after he
invoked his right to counsel; (3) the police further violated his Miranda rights on
December 4, 1993 when an officer questioned him in the morning and again
during a later telephone call; (4) because of the prior Miranda violations, his later
confessions should not have been admitted; and (5) the officers used deception to
coerce involuntary statements from him during interrogations on the evening of
December 4 and again two days later on December 6th.
49
1. Defendant’s Miranda waiver at the beginning of the November 30,
1993, interrogation
Defendant contends Petaluma Police Officer Pelton and FBI Agent Taylor
violated his Miranda rights on November 30, 1993, by failing to obtain a valid
waiver of his right to counsel at the beginning of the interrogation. Defendant
relies on a Miranda waiver form, presented to him at the outset of the
interrogation, in which the answer to question No. 4 is left blank: “Understanding
that right [to talk to a lawyer], do you wish to talk to me now?” Defendant claims
that he intentionally left the answer to that question blank, and that this conduct,
combined with his hesitant oral responses to the question, show that he did not
waive his right to counsel, thus tainting the entire interview as being obtained in
violation of Miranda. We disagree.
Under Miranda and the long line of cases following it, a suspect cannot be
subjected to custodial interrogation unless there has been a knowing and intelligent
waiver of the rights to remain silent, to the presence of an attorney, and, if
indigent, to the appointment of counsel; and “police interrogation must cease once
the defendant, by words or conduct, demonstrates a desire to invoke his right to
remain silent, or to consult with an attorney.” (People v. Johnson (1993) 6 Cal.4th
1, 25-26; see also Dickerson v. United States (2000) 530 U.S. 428, 435-443.)
No particular manner or form of Miranda waiver is required, and a waiver
may be implied from a defendant‟s words and actions. (North Carolina v. Butler
(1979) 441 U.S. 369, 373-375; People v. Whitson (1998) 17 Cal.4th 229, 246-
250.) In determining the validity of a Miranda waiver, courts look to whether it
was free from coercion or deception, and whether it was “ „made with a full
awareness of both the nature of the right being abandoned and the consequences of
the decision to abandon it.‟ ” (People v. Whitson, supra, 17 Cal.4th at p. 247,
quoting Moran v. Burbine (1986) 475 U.S. 412, 421.) Both aspects are tested
50
against the totality of circumstances in each case, keeping in mind the particular
background, experience and conduct of the accused. (North Carolina v. Butler,
supra, 441 U.S. at pp. 374-375.)
On review of a trial court‟s decision on a Miranda issue, we accept the trial
court‟s determination of disputed facts if supported by substantial evidence, but
we independently decide whether the challenged statements were obtained in
violation of Miranda. (People v. Johnson, supra, 6 Cal.4th at p. 25.)
Here, the trial court did not err. The unedited video recording of the
November 30 interrogation, which was played at the pretrial Miranda hearing,
shows that it was Officer Pelton who, based on defendant‟s oral answers, filled in
the blanks on the Miranda form; defendant, therefore, cannot claim that he was the
one refusing to answer question No. 4. Additionally, the video recording shows
that after defendant expressed some hesitation in agreeing to talk to the police
without a lawyer, he reviewed the Miranda form, looked up at Officer Pelton and
said “sure,” asked where he needed to place his signature, and then signed the
form where Officer Pelton had indicated. At worst, the officer inadvertently erred
in failing to fill in the blank for question No. 4. We conclude that defendant gave
an unequivocal waiver, and the blank for question 4 on defendant‟s written
Miranda waiver form is inconsequential.
That defendant was no stranger to the criminal justice system and had fully
waived his Miranda rights on previous occasions, including just six weeks earlier,
when he was arrested on a drunk driving charge, reinforces our conclusion that his
Miranda waiver at the beginning of the November 30, 1993, interrogation was
voluntary, knowing, and intelligent.
51
2. Defendant’s invocation of his right to counsel during the November
30, 1993, interrogation
Defendant asserts that his conduct near the end of the November 30, 1993,
interrogation constituted an assertion of his right to counsel, and that therefore the
continued questioning of him was improper. We disagree.
After defendant signed the Miranda waiver form, Petaluma Police Officer
Pelton and FBI Agent Taylor initially asked him a series of routine questions
regarding his whereabouts on October 1, 1993. After questioning him for about an
hour, Agent Taylor directly accused him of abducting Polly. When Officer Pelton
began alluding to trace evidence and DNA evidence, defendant stood up and
responded, “Well then book me and let‟s get a lawyer and let‟s go for it, you
know.” Defendant said he did not mind answering the initial routine questions,
but he resented being accused of Polly‟s abduction. He then remarked, “let‟s shit
or get off the pot.” When Agent Taylor interjected, “It‟s going to happen,”
defendant responded, “Well, let‟s go for it. That‟s the end, the end.” When asked
whether he still wanted to talk, defendant replied, “Get real. You think I should?”
Officer Pelton answered, “That‟s up to you,” to which defendant responded,
“Fuck.” Pelton and Taylor then asked why he had abducted Polly. Defendant sat
down and replied: “I can‟t answer that question. Get real. I ain‟t done it, how can
I answer it.” He then stated, “I didn‟t kidnap that little fucking broad, man, get
real.”
Thereafter, defendant answered Officer Pelton‟s questions about why,
earlier in the interrogation, defendant seemed to assume that Polly‟s kidnapping
must have involved a sexual assault and he answered questions about whether he
was under the influence on the night of the kidnapping. Defendant then remarked,
“but as far as these questions are going. Get me a lawyer and let‟s go on down the
road.” When Officer Pelton said, “So you want a lawyer, you don‟t want to talk
52
anymore?,” defendant replied, “Hey, it‟s over and done now. Like I say shit or get
off the pot, let‟s go.” The officers then ended the interrogation.
Contrary to defendant‟s argument on appeal, “[t]he rule that interrogation
must cease because the suspect requested counsel does not apply if the request is
equivocal; „[r]ather, the suspect must unambiguously request counsel.‟ ” (People
v. Sapp (2003) 31 Cal.4th 240, 266, italics added, quoting Davis v. U.S. (1994)
512 U.S. 452, 459.)
After viewing the videotape of defendant‟s interrogation, the trial court
concluded that defendant‟s first remark about getting an attorney was not an
invocation of rights but “a challenge,” commenting that defendant was using “as
much technique as the people who were questioning him.” The court ruled,
however, that defendant invoked his Miranda rights when Officer Pelton asked,
“So you want a lawyer, you don‟t want to talk anymore?,” and defendant replied,
“Hey, it‟s over and done now. Like I say shit or get off the pot, let‟s go.”
Defendant claims the court erred by not finding that the invocation occurred
earlier, when he said, “Well then book me and let‟s get a lawyer and let‟s go for it
man, you know.”
Based on our review of the videotape of defendant‟s interrogation, we
conclude that substantial evidence supports the trial court‟s ruling. Defendant
made his initial statements about booking him for Polly‟s abduction, getting a
lawyer, and telling the officers to “go for it” in response to Officer Pelton‟s
comment about trace evidence linking him to the crime. The trial court reasonably
concluded that at this point defendant was employing his own “technique” by
standing up and issuing “a challenge” to his questioners: “[I]f you can prove it, go
for it.” When Officer Pelton tried to clarify whether defendant wished to continue
to talk, defendant said, “let‟s shit or get off the pot.” When asked again, defendant
replied, “Get real. You think I should?” Officer Pelton responded, “That‟s up to
53
you,” to which defendant replied, “Fuck.” Defendant then sat down, indicating his
willingness to continue the interrogation.
Whether a suspect has invoked the right to counsel “is an objective
inquiry.” (Davis v. U.S., supra, 512 U.S. at p. 459.) Here defendant‟s initial
comments were not an unambiguous invocation of the right to “immediate
presence of an attorney.” (People v. Gonzalez (2005) 34 Cal.4th 1111, 1126.)
In contrast, as the trial court correctly found, all ambiguity was dispelled
later, when defendant blurted out, “get me a lawyer,” and said he was “over and
done” answering any questions. This was defendant‟s first clear invocation of his
constitutional rights to counsel and to remain silent.
Even assuming that the trial court erred in not finding an earlier invocation
of defendant‟s Miranda rights, any error is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, as
the portion of the interrogation at issue merely contained defendant‟s
noninculpatory denials of his involvement in Polly‟s kidnapping. (See People v.
Cunningham (2001) 25 Cal.4th 926, 994.)
3. Defendant’s statements to Sergeant Meese on December 4, 1993
Defendant argues that his statements to Petaluma Police Sergeant Meese on
December 4, 1993, when he confessed to the murder of Polly Klaas, were admitted
in violation of his Miranda rights because Sergeant Meese impermissibly elicited
the confession four days after defendant had asserted those rights.
These are the pertinent facts:
Although defendant invoked his right to counsel toward the end of police
questioning on November 30, 1993, no attorney was provided. Defendant
remained incarcerated on his parole violation warrant and on the October 19, 1993
drunk driving charge. On December 1, defendant, without an attorney, was placed
in an in-person lineup and asked to read phrases said by Polly‟s kidnapper to
54
Polly‟s two classmates who were with her in her bedroom on the night of the
crimes. On December 2, defendant appeared without counsel in a Mendocino
court and pled guilty to the drunk driving charge, waiving his right to remain silent
and his right to an attorney for those proceedings.
From defendant‟s arrest through December 3, 1993, the police curtailed
their searches for Polly and evidence of her abduction at the Pythian Road site
where defendant‟s car had been stuck, instead focusing attention on defendant‟s
sister‟s home, where defendant was arrested. During this period, defendant was
housed in isolation and was moved from cell to cell.
On December 4, defendant was moved from an isolation cell to a medical
isolation cell in the Mendocino County Jail because he was considered a suicide
risk. The medical isolation cell, with 24-hour lighting, was surrounded by
observation windows. About 9:30 that morning, William Marvin White, a friend
and former employer, visited defendant and told him that a television report
mentioned that defendant was a suspect in Polly‟s kidnapping and that his palm
print had been lifted from Polly‟s bedroom. Defendant said he was being kept in
isolation at the jail and had not watched any television.
As White‟s visit ended, Petaluma Police Sergeant Meese and FBI Agent
Taylor arrived at the jail to roll defendant‟s hands for fingerprints and palm prints.
According to Meese, he did not intend to obtain a confession from defendant but
was simply trying to discover Polly‟s whereabouts because there was “reason to
believe she was still alive.”
After obtaining prints of defendant‟s fingers and palms, Sergeant Meese
told defendant that if there was “any hope” that Polly was alive, defendant “ought
to give thought to talking to” him. Defendant replied he did not know what Meese
was talking about. Meese told defendant the police had “enough physical evidence
to make the case” even without a statement from defendant, and that if defendant
55
decided he wanted to talk he could give Meese “a call.” Meese then departed for
the Pythian Road crime scene, leaving his pager number with a corrections officer.
After Meese‟s departure, defendant (according to the testimony of a corrections
officer at the jail) became very quiet, reserved, and “stone-faced,” looking at the
ground.
About 15 minutes after Sergeant Meese‟s departure, defendant told a
corrections officer he wanted to talk to Meese. A corrections officer notified
Meese, who decided not to speak to defendant on his cellular phone for fear that
the call would be intercepted by the news media. Two hours later, Meese called
the jail from a pay telephone and spoke to defendant, who said, “I fucked up big
time.” When Meese asked if Polly was still alive, defendant said she was not. In
response to Meese‟s question whether Polly‟s body was near the ditch off Pythian
Road, defendant said it was not. Defendant then asked for protective custody and
a pack of cigarettes. He also asked whether he could plead guilty in exchange for
a sentence of life without parole. That, Meese replied, was a matter for the district
attorney. Defendant said that when Meese returned to the jail, defendant would
show him the location of Polly‟s body. When Meese asked if he could bring FBI
Agent Taylor with him, defendant said he could.
That afternoon, Sergeant Meese and FBI Agent Taylor returned to the jail,
where defendant waived his Miranda rights and made videotaped statements for
the next two hours. In the evening, defendant led Meese and Taylor to Polly‟s
body, and their conversations during that trip were tape-recorded. Later that night,
defendant again waived his Miranda rights and made additional videotaped
statements.
The trial court denied defendant‟s motion to suppress the December 4,
1993, telephone conversation in which he told Sergeant Meese that Polly was
dead. On appeal, defendant argues that suppression was required under the United
56
States Supreme Court‟s decision in Edwards v. Arizona (1981) 451 U.S. 477
(Edwards). There, the high court said that if, at any point during custodial
interrogation, a suspect requests counsel, “ „the interrogation must cease until an
attorney is present.‟ ” (Edwards, supra, 451 U.S. at p. 482, quoting Miranda,
supra, 384 U.S. at p. 474.)
In a later case, the United States Supreme Court explained: “Once a
suspect asserts the right [to counsel], not only must the current interrogation cease,
but he may not be approached for further interrogation „until counsel has been
made available to him‟ . . . . If the police do subsequently initiate an encounter in
the absence of counsel (assuming there has been no break in custody), the
suspect‟s statements are presumed involuntary and therefore inadmissible as
substantive evidence at trial, even where the suspect executes a waiver and his
statements would be considered voluntary under traditional standards. This is
„designed to prevent police from badgering a defendant into waiving his previously
asserted Miranda rights,‟ [citation].” (McNeil v. Wisconsin (1991) 501 U.S. 171,
176-177; see also People v. Cunningham, supra, 25 Cal.4th at pp. 992-993; People
v. Crittenden (1994) 9 Cal.4th 83, 128.)
Here, four days after defendant had invoked his right to counsel, Sergeant
Meese reinitiated contact with defendant and, without providing him with counsel,
tried to persuade him to disclose where Polly was. Defendant characterizes that
conduct as illegal, thus requiring suppression of the December 4, 1993, telephone
conversation and the statements defendant made thereafter. But, as the trial court
ruled, the challenged telephone statements were admissible under the “rescue
doctrine.” (See People v. Coffman and Marlow (2004) 34 Cal.4th 1, 56 (Coffman
and Marlow).)
The origins of the rescue doctrine can be traced to our decision in People v.
Modesto (1965) 62 Cal.2d 436 (Modesto), which antedated by some 16 months the
57
high court‟s decision in Miranda, supra, 384 U.S. 436. In Modesto, the defendant
broke into a residence and bludgeoned a nine-year-old girl, killing her, and he
kidnapped the victim‟s 12-year-old sister, Connie. Hours later, the police
interrogated the defendant without advising him of his rights to remain silent and
the assistance of counsel, suggesting to him that Connie might still be alive and
could be saved. The defendant directed them to a storm drain where Connie‟s
body was found further downstream. She had drowned. We held that the
statements defendant made during the interrogation were admissible, explaining:
“They were freely and voluntarily made at a time when the officers were
concerned primarily with the possibility of saving Connie‟s life. The paramount
interest in saving her life, if possible, clearly justified the officers in not impeding
their rescue efforts by informing defendant of his rights to remain silent and to the
assistance of counsel.” (Modesto, supra, 62 Cal.2d at p. 446.)
Shortly thereafter, in People v. Jacobson (1965) 63 Cal.2d 319, we applied
the Modesto holding, and we did so again in People v. Miller (1969) 71 Cal.2d
459, 481-482, upholding statements obtained by investigating police officers
through routine on-the-scene questioning of noncustodial suspects as to facts
surrounding a report of a dead or missing child. Later, the Court of Appeal in
People v. Dean (1974) 39 Cal.App.3d 875 first coined the phrase “rescue doctrine”
to describe our holding in Modesto, supra, 62 Cal.2d 436; in rejecting the
defendant‟s argument in Dean that the doctrine was no longer viable in light of the
high court‟s decision in Miranda, supra, 384 U.S. 436, the Court of Appeal
pointed out that “[w]hile life hangs in the balance, there is no room to require
admonitions concerning the right to counsel and to remain silent.” (Dean, supra,
39 Cal.App.3d at p. 882.)
Four years later, the Court of Appeal in People v. Riddle (1978) 83
Cal.App.3d 563 (Riddle), a kidnapping case, articulated a three-part test to
58
determine applicability of the rescue doctrine: “1. Urgency of need in that no
other course of action promises relief; [¶] 2. The possibility of saving human life
by rescuing a person whose life is in danger; [and] [¶] 3. Rescue as the primary
purpose and motive of the interrogators.” (Riddle, supra, 83 Cal.App.3d at
p. 576.) Some two years later, the Court of Appeal in People v. Willis (1980) 104
Cal.App.3d 433, applying the Riddle test, held to be admissible the defendant‟s
statements obtained during an interrogation that, as in this case, occurred after the
defendant‟s invocation of his Miranda rights. (Willis at p. 449; but see People v.
Laliberte (Ill.App.Ct. 1993) 246 Ill.App.3d 159, 171-172 [refusing to apply the
rescue doctrine when a suspect invokes the right to counsel]; State v. Miller (Or.
1985) 709 P.2d 225, 241 [same].)
After the California courts had adopted the rescue doctrine, the high court
in New York v. Quarles (1984) 467 U.S. 649 (Quarles) carved out a “public
safety” exception to the requisite Miranda warnings. In Quarles, the victim
approached police officers on patrol, told them she had just been raped, described
the assailant, and said he was in a nearby store with a gun. An officer entered the
store, saw the defendant, and arrested him. Noticing the defendant‟s empty
shoulder holster, the officer asked the defendant where the gun was, and the
defendant told him its location. After retrieving the gun, the officers advised the
defendant of his constitutional rights under Miranda. The high court held that the
officer‟s initial question to the defendant did not violate Miranda because of “a
„public safety‟ exception to the requirement that Miranda warnings be given
before a suspect‟s answers may be admitted into evidence.” (Quarles, supra, 467
U.S. at p. 655.) Quarles held that “the availability of that exception does not
depend upon the motivation of the individual officers involved.” (Id. at p. 656.)
Quarles explained that the officers in that case were faced with a
“kaleidoscopic situation” (Quarles, supra, 467 U.S. at p. 656) in which
59
“spontaneity rather than adherence to a police manual [was] necessarily the order
of the day” (ibid.) and the defendant‟s gun “obviously posed more than one danger
to the public safety: an accomplice might make use of it, a customer or employee
might later come upon it” (id. at p. 657). An officer should not be placed in the
“untenable position,” the court reasoned, of having to decide, “often in a matter of
seconds,” whether to confront “the volatile situation” by either seeking an un-
Mirandized statement, thereby rendering the evidence inadmissible, or giving the
requisite Miranda warnings, which might render any answer admissible but also
might deter the suspect from making any statement in the first place. (Quarles,
supra, 467 U.S. at pp. 657-658.) “[T]he need for answers to questions in a
situation posing a threat to the public safety,” the court held, “outweighs the need
for the prophylactic rule protecting the Fifth Amendment‟s privilege against self-
incrimination.” (Id. at p. 657.)
Defendant here argues that the rescue doctrine is not a separate exception to
the Miranda/Edwards rules but is subsumed within the public safety exception
articulated by the high court in Quarles, supra, 467 U.S. 649. This court,
however, has described the rescue doctrine as “analogous” to, not subsumed
within, the public safety exception. (Coffman and Marlow, supra, 34 Cal.4th at p.
56.) In the handful of post-Quarles cases involving the rescue of missing persons,
California decisions have continued to apply the rescue doctrine independently of
the public safety exception articulated by the high court. (See People v. Panah
(2005) 35 Cal.4th 395, 471; Coffman and Marlow, supra, 34 Cal.4th at p. 56;
People v. Stevenson (1996) 51 Cal.App.4th 1234, 1239-1240.)
Here, in admitting defendant‟s statements, the trial court relied in part on its
conclusion that when Petaluma Police Sergeant Meese asked defendant to tell him
where Polly was, Meese was motivated by the desire to save Polly‟s life. Reliance
on Sergeant Meese‟s motivation was consistent with the test set forth in the Court
60
of Appeal‟s decision in Riddle, the third prong of which, as previously mentioned,
considers whether rescue is “the primary purpose and motive of the interrogators.”
(Riddle, supra, 83 Cal.App.3d at p. 576.) But this court has never adopted the
Riddle test in determining applicability of the rescue doctrine. And that test‟s
consideration of the motivation of the interrogating officer has been undermined
by the high court‟s statement in Quarles (decided after Riddle), that the
applicability of the public safety exception, which is analogous to the rescue
doctrine, “does not depend upon the motivation of the individual officers
involved.” (Quarles, supra, 467 U.S. at p. 656.) A subjective test, the high court
noted in Quarles, would be problematic because different police officers in similar
situations may act out of “a host of different . . . and largely unverifiable motives”
(ibid.), and the legality of their conduct “should not be made to depend on post
hoc findings at a suppression hearing concerning the subjective motivation of the
arresting officer” (ibid.). In determining the applicability of the Miranda rule, the
high court has generally frowned on the use of subjective tests. (See People v.
Peevy (1998) 17 Cal.4th 1184, 1199 [citing decisions of the United States Supreme
Court demonstrating that “applications of the Miranda rule generally do not turn
upon the individual officer‟s subjective state of mind . . . .”].)
For these reasons, applicability of the rescue doctrine must be grounded on
objective facts known to law enforcement. “ „[U]nder circumstances of extreme
emergency where the possibility of saving the life of a missing victim exists,
noncoercive questions may be asked of a material witness in custody even though
answers to the questions may incriminate the witness. Any other policy would
61
reflect indifference to human life.‟ ”4 (Coffman and Marlow, supra, 34 Cal.4th at
p. 56, quoting Riddle, supra, 83 Cal.App.3d at p. 578.)
Defendant insists that no such emergency existed here. He contends it was
unreasonable to believe that Polly was still alive when Sergeant Meese questioned
him because at that time Polly had been missing for 64 days, or just over nine
weeks. (See People v. Manning (Colo. 1983) 672 P.2d 499, 502, 511-512
[refusing to apply the rescue doctrine because the three-year-old victim, who had
been severely beaten before disappearing, had been missing for 14 weeks and the
lead investigator had begun to search for the child‟s dead body].) Defendant
points out that in all California cases that have applied the rescue doctrine the
victim had been missing for a far shorter time than here. (See Coffman and
Marlow, supra, 34 Cal.4th 1, 57 [victim missing for seven days]; People v. Willis,
supra, 104 Cal.App.3d 433 [victim missing for several days]; Riddle, supra, 83
Cal.App.3d 563 [the defendant was questioned over a two-day period shortly after
the victim disappeared]; People v. Dean, supra, 39 Cal.App.3d 875 [victim
missing for three days]; see also People v. Swoboda (N.Y.Crim.Ct. 2002) 737
N.Y.S.2d 821, 827 [190 Misc.2d 214] [victim missing for 11 days].)
But the length of time a kidnap victim has been missing is not, by itself,
dispositive of whether a rescue is still reasonably possible. Although “it is sadly
true” that not all kidnap victims are recovered alive, “this does not compel the
conclusion” that the possibility of rescue is unreasonable. (People v. Dean, supra,
4
We disapprove the Court of Appeal‟s decision in People v. Riddle, supra,
83 Cal.App.3d 563, 576-578, and cases following it (People v. Stevenson, supra,
51 Cal.App.4th 1234, 1238-1239; People v. McDermand (1984) 162 Cal.App.3d
770, 796-797; People v. Willis, supra, 104 Cal.App.3d 433, 449) to the extent that
those decisions apply Riddle’s three-part test in determining applicability of the
rescue doctrine.
62
39 Cal.App.3d at p. 883.) Several published decisions describe kidnappings in
which the victim was found alive after being held captive for periods longer than
64 days. (See, e.g., Parnell v. Superior Court (1981) 119 Cal.App.3d 392 [seven-
year-old boy kidnapped and held captive for over seven years]; In re Marriage of
Weintraub (1985) 167 Cal.App.3d 420 [adult female abducted and forced to marry
her captor, who held her captive for 67 days]; People v. Rios (1986) 177
Cal.App.3d 445 [one-year-old infant abducted and found living with surrogate
parents four years later]; United States v. Hearst (9th Cir.1977) 563 F.2d 1331
[19-year-old, kidnapped by guerilla group, joined her captors for 18 months].)
Here, even though Polly had been missing for 64 days, it was objectively
reasonable for Sergeant Meese to believe that defendant might have information
that could lead to her rescue. When defendant abducted Polly, he told the two
friends that were with Polly in her bedroom that he would not touch her and that
“he was only doing this for the money,” implying that he was kidnapping Polly for
ransom, not for murder. Moreover, none of the evidence recovered from the
Pythian Road site (where defendant‟s car had become stuck in a ditch on the night
Polly was kidnapped and which the police examined on Nov. 28, 1993), or from
defendant‟s car (which the police seized when they arrested defendant on Nov. 30,
1993), indicated that Polly was dead.
Defendant contends that it was objectively unreasonable for the police to
wait four days after defendant had invoked the right to counsel before asking him
where Polly was, and that this delay undercut the existence of any exigency. He
relies on a District of Columbia decision holding that a delay in questioning can be
unreasonable for purposes of the public safety exception that the high court
articulated in Quarles, supra, 467 U.S. 649. (Trice v. United States (D.C. 1995)
662 A.2d 891 (Trice); see also Reiner, The Public Safety Exception to Miranda:
Analyzing Subjective Motivation (Aug. 1995) 93 Mich. L.Rev. 2377, 2390 [“[A]n
63
appreciable delay before questioning about the alleged danger indicates that
investigatory considerations, rather than an immediate danger, motivated the
officer. . . . [C]ourts widely consider an officer‟s immediate questioning as an
objective factor that supports applying the Quarles exception”].) In Trice, the
federal appeals court applied the Quarles public safety exception in a situation
where the police officer asked the suspect about the location of a missing shotgun
well after his arrest and transport to the police station. Trice noted, however:
“[W]e do not suggest that the exception remains available indefinitely simply
because a missing weapon has not been located; if the police, after becoming
aware of a threat to public safety, delay questioning the suspect about that threat
for an unreasonable period of time, a court no longer may be able to conclude that
the question was prompted by a concern for public safety rather than for factual
investigation.” (Trice v. United States, supra, 662 A.2d at pp. 896-897.) Trice is
distinguishable from this case, because it involved a search for a missing weapon,
not (as in this case) a missing child.
Here, the police and the FBI continued to try to locate the kidnapped Polly
during the four days after defendant had invoked his right to counsel and made no
statements regarding Polly‟s whereabouts. But that search proved fruitless.
Defendant was law enforcement‟s best hope to gain vital information about Polly,
who had been missing for over two months after defendant had kidnapped her:
Where was she? Was she still alive? The questions posed to defendant on the
morning of December 4, 1993, were specifically aimed at getting answers to those
questions. So long as she remained missing, her safety was of paramount
importance. Under these extraordinary circumstances, Sergeant Meese‟s inquiry
did not violate the high court‟s decisions in Miranda, supra, 384 U.S. 436, and
Edwards, supra, 451 U.S. 477. Therefore, the trial court properly denied
defendant‟s motion to suppress his December 4, 1993, statements to Sergeant
64
Meese that same morning and thereafter over the telephone, when he said that
Polly was dead and that he would lead the police to her body.
As mentioned earlier, after defendant‟s telephone conversation with
Sergeant Meese, the latter and FBI Agent Taylor went back to the jail, where
defendant waived his Miranda rights and made statements for the next two hours.
In the evening, defendant led Meese and Taylor to Polly‟s body. Later that night,
defendant again waived his Miranda rights and made additional statements. For
purposes of our analysis, however, we need not determine the precise moment
when Polly‟s rescue was no longer a realistic possibility because, as we explain
below, the trial court correctly denied defendant‟s motion to suppress his
statements at issue.
After a suspect has invoked the right to counsel, police officers may
nonetheless resume their interrogation if “the suspect „(a) initiated further
discussions with the police, and (b) knowingly and intelligently waived the right
he had invoked.‟ ” (Connecticut v. Barrett (1987) 479 U.S. 523, 527; see also
Smith v. Illinois (1984) 469 U.S. 91, 95; Oregon v. Bradshaw (1983) 462 U.S.
1039, 1044 (Bradshaw).) The waiver must be “ „knowing and intelligent . . . under
the totality of the circumstances, including the necessary fact that the accused, not
the police, reopened the dialogue with the authorities.‟ ” (Bradshaw, supra, at
p. 1046, quoting Edwards, supra, 451 U.S. at p. 486, fn. 9.) The trial court must
“ „take into account the facts and circumstances surrounding the case, including
the [suspect‟s] background, experience, and conduct.‟ ” (Bradshaw, supra, at
p. 1046,quoting North Carolina v. Butler (1979) 441 U.S. 369, 374-375; see also
People v. San Nicolas (2004) 34 Cal.4th 614, 642-643; People v. Mickey (1991)
54 Cal.3d 612, 648-653; People v. Thompson, supra, 50 Cal.3d at pp. 163-164;
People v. Boyer (1989) 48 Cal.3d 247, 273-275.)
65
But a defendant‟s decision to talk with police cannot be a product of police
interrogation, “badgering,” or “overreaching,” whether “explicit or subtle,
deliberate or unintentional.” (Smith v. Illinois, supra, 469 U.S. at p. 98.) Without
this limitation, police “might otherwise wear down the accused and persuade him
to incriminate himself notwithstanding his earlier request for counsel‟s assistance.”
(Ibid.; see also Michigan v. Harvey (1990) 494 U.S. 344, 350; Arizona v.
Roberson (1988) 486 U.S. 675, 681.)
Here, it is unclear whether defendant independently decided to reopen the
discussion of Polly‟s kidnapping, or whether he did so because Sergeant Meese
told him after the fingerprinting at the jail that the police had enough evidence to
convict defendant without any statements from him and to call Meese if defendant
wanted to talk. (See People v. Boyer, supra, 48 Cal.3d at p. 275; U.S. v.
Szymaniak (2d Cir.1991) 934 F.2d 434; U.S. v. Gomez (11th Cir. 1991) 927 F.2d
1530; U.S. v. Walker (D. Md. 1985) 624 F.Supp. 103; Blake v. Maryland (2004)
381 Md. 218; Florida v. Brown (1991) 592 So.2d 308; Wainwright v. State (Del.
1986) 504 A.2d 1096.) But even if we were to assume that defendant‟s decision to
make a statement resulted from Sergeant Meese‟s comments to him after the
fingerprinting, this circumstance is not significant because, as we previously
explained (see ante, p. 64), Meese was entitled to make those comments (which
otherwise might well have been improper) in an effort to persuade defendant to
provide information that could lead to kidnapped Polly‟s rescue. Because
Sergeant Meese‟s comments to defendant at the jail were permissible under the
rescue doctrine, no overreaching occurred, and defendant was not “badgered by
police officers in the manner in which the defendant in Edwards was.”
(Bradshaw, supra, 462 U.S. at p. 1044.) Therefore, regardless of why defendant
decided to enter into further conversation with the police about Polly‟s kidnapping,
that decision was not the product of any improper police conduct.
66
Moreover, undisputed evidence shows that defendant knowingly and
intelligently waived his right to counsel before speaking with Sergeant Meese and
FBI Agent Taylor when they returned to the jail after defendant‟s December 4,
1993, telephone conversation with Sergeant Meese. Defendant‟s comments during
that telephone conversation with Sergeant Meese indicated a willingness to waive
his previously asserted right to counsel and to make a statement. Defendant knew
that Polly was dead: Admitting that fact to Meese over the telephone risked
turning a kidnapping case into one of murder. Defendant chose to take that risk.
In addition, defendant was free to place limits on the scope of his decision to
cooperate, including a refusal to waive his previously asserted right to counsel. He
did not. Instead, defendant himself changed the dynamics of the conversation
when he sought to make a plea bargain in exchange for helping the police locate
Polly.
Defendant had two hours, between his decision to contact Sergeant Meese
and the latter‟s return to the jail, to consider his options and how he wished to
proceed. Moreover, as the trial court observed, defendant had “had a lot of contact
with the justice system” and appeared to be “a very articulate person.” In his later
recorded interrogations, defendant indicated that he wanted to talk and that he had
realized that he could not “play it out too long.” He mocked the idea of a
hypothetical defense attorney chastising him for having confessed. And Sergeant
Meese, upon returning to the jail, immediately took the further precaution of
readmonishing defendant of his Miranda rights, which defendant waived without
hesitation. Under these circumstances, defendant‟s waiver of his Miranda rights,
after Sergeant Meese returned to the jail with FBI Agent Taylor, was knowing and
voluntary.
For the reasons stated above, the trial court properly denied defendant‟s
motion to suppress defendant‟s December 4, 1993, statements.
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4. Harmless error in the admission of defendant’s statements
Even assuming that the just-described statements violated the principles of
Miranda, supra, 384 U.S. 436, and Edwards, supra, 451 U.S. 477, the error was
harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. (Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18,
24; People v. Cunningham, supra, 25 Cal.4th 926, 994.)
If, after invoking the right to counsel, a suspect remains in custody, and the
police initiate further questioning in the absence of counsel, the suspect‟s
statements are presumed involuntary and are inadmissible as substantive evidence
at trial, even if the suspect later waives the right to counsel and the statements
would be considered voluntary under traditional standards. (McNeil v. Wisconsin,
supra, 501 U.S. 171, 176-177; People v. Cunningham, supra, 25 Cal.4th at
pp. 992-993; People v. Crittenden, supra, 9 Cal.4th 83, 128.) Therefore, if no
exception to the Miranda/Edwards principles applied to Sergeant Meese‟s
questioning of defendant on the morning of December 4, 1993, and their later
telephone conversation, the failure to honor defendant‟s request for counsel would
render all of his later confessions inadmissible in the prosecution‟s case-in-chief
despite his willingness to waive his Miranda rights at the outset of each
interrogation. (People v. Peevy, supra, 17 Cal.4th 1184, 1193 [statements
obtained in violation of Edwards are not admissible in the prosecution‟s case-in-
chief, but, if made voluntarily, may be used to impeach the defendant‟s credibility
as a witness]; see also Oregon v. Hass (1975) 420 U.S. 714, 722.)
Any such violation of defendant‟s rights under Miranda, supra, 384 U.S.
436, and Edwards, supra, 451 U.S. 477, would not, however, taint the
admissibility of any physical evidence derived from those confessions. The fruit
of the poisonous tree doctrine does not apply to physical evidence seized as a
result of a noncoercive Miranda violation (United States v. Patane (2004) 542
U.S. 630, 637-638, 645; People v. Davis (2005) 36 Cal.4th 510, 552; People v.
68
Whitfield (1996) 46 Cal.App.4th 947, 957), and a violation of the prophylactic
rules of Miranda/Edwards does not automatically mean that any ensuing
confession was coerced. (See People v. Bradford (1997) 14 Cal.4th 1005, 1039-
1040 [continued interrogation after a Miranda/Edwards violation does not
“inherently constitute coercion” without evidence of actual coercion or other
circumstances bearing on the suspect‟s free will].)
Under the totality of the circumstances here, defendant‟s December 4,
1993, confession to Petaluma Police Sergeant Meese over the telephone was not
the product of coercion. (See Withrow v. Williams (1993) 507 U.S. 680, 689 [“we
continue to employ the totality-of-circumstances approach when addressing a
claim that the introduction of an involuntary confession has violated due
process”].) As already discussed, defendant was no stranger to the criminal justice
system. He had freely confessed when arrested for previous crimes. (See ante, pt.
II. D. 1.) Sergeant Meese‟s questioning was neither harsh nor threatening.
Nothing indicated that defendant was confused or misled by Meese‟s questions
about Polly‟s whereabouts and whether she was still alive. (See People v.
DePriest (2007) 42 Cal.4th 1, 35-36 [rejecting a coerced confession claim where
the defendant was not Mirandized during his 45-minute interrogation and initially
said he was invoking his right to counsel, but the officer‟s questioning was not
harsh or threatening, the defendant had prior experience as a felony suspect, and
nothing indicated that the defendant was confused or intimidated].)
Without defendant‟s statements, the physical evidence still established
defendant‟s guilt as to all the crimes charged and the special circumstances
alleged. In addition to the eyewitness testimony identifying defendant as Polly‟s
kidnapper, there was ample physical evidence linking defendant directly to the
crimes. His palm print and matching DNA profile were found in Polly‟s bedroom,
from which defendant had taken her. Fibers consistent with the bindings used in
69
the crimes were located in defendant‟s car. Also, Polly‟s leggings and defendant‟s
sweatshirt were found near the ditch where defendant was stranded on the night of
the crimes.
The exclusion of defendant‟s various confessions would have reduced the
quantum of evidence supporting defendant‟s conviction for the crime of attempting
to commit a lewd act on Polly, as well as the special circumstance allegation that
he killed Polly in the attempted commission of such an act. Even without
defendant‟s statements, however, the physical evidence and defendant‟s prior
crimes were strong evidence of the attempt. (See post, pt. III. B.)
Under these circumstances, the admission of defendant‟s statements, even if
they had been obtained in violation of Miranda, supra, 384 U.S. 436, and
Edwards, supra, 451 U.S. 477, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
5. Voluntariness of defendant’s recorded confessions
Defendant claims that his later recorded confessions, made on the
afternoon, evening, and night of December 4 and December 6, 1993 were
involuntary. He argues these confessions were coerced in light of the asserted
violation of his rights under Miranda, supra, 384 U.S. 436, and Edwards, supra,
451 U.S. 477. This claim fails for the reasons given in part II. D. 3., ante, where
we rejected his claim that the trial court should have suppressed his statements on
December 4, 1993, on the ground that they were obtained in violation of Miranda
and Edwards.
Defendant also claims it was improper for Sergeant Meese to suggest to
defendant that a confession to a sexual assault would not change defendant‟s
predicament. During the first tape-recorded interrogation on December 4, 1993,
Meese encouraged defendant to “get it all out in the open” and “get it off [his]
chest,” and to admit any unlawful sexual conduct because “[i]t ain‟t going to make
70
a difference to anything that happens.” In the December 6 confession, Meese
again encouraged defendant to say whether he had sexually assaulted Polly, at one
point commenting, “[i]t ain‟t gonna make a hill of beans as far as what goes on if
you go to trial.”
A confession elicited by any promise of benefit or leniency, whether
express or implied, is involuntary and therefore inadmissible, but merely advising
a suspect that it would be better to tell the truth, when unaccompanied by either a
threat or a promise, does not render a confession involuntary. (People v. Holloway
(2004) 33 Cal.4th 96, 115.)
Here, Sergeant Meese‟s comments encouraging defendant to tell the truth
were not accompanied by an impermissible promise of benefit or leniency.
Sergeant Meese “said nothing beyond the obvious” (People v. Holloway, supra, 33
Cal.4th at p. 115) in that defendant‟s crimes, involving the kidnap and murder of a
child, made him eligible for the death penalty. Meese correctly implied that any
evidence of a sexual assault (or lack thereof) would not have altered that
circumstance. Defendant himself acknowledged that he knew he faced the death
penalty and even admitted he “deserved” it.
Defendant also contends that Sergeant Meese misled him during the
December 6, 1993, interrogation by claiming that semen was found on Polly‟s
body, assertedly to coax an admission of sexual assault and to prevent defendant
from invoking his right to counsel. The record, however, supports the trial court‟s
finding that Meese entertained a good faith belief that the stain on Polly‟s panties
could contain semen.5 At the time, Meese properly relied upon a fluorescence test
5
Even if Sergeant Meese was intentionally deceiving defendant about the
presence of semen on Polly‟s panties, it was not the kind of deception that would
(Footnote continued on next page.)
71
that indicated the possible presence of semen. “[G]ood faith confrontation is an
interrogation technique possessing no apparent constitutional vice.” (People v.
Andersen (1980) 101 Cal.App.3d 563, 576.)
III. GUILT PHASE ISSUES
A. Admission of Defendant’s Prior Acts
1. Background
Defendant argues the trial court erred in admitting evidence of his 1976
assaults on Frances M., Marjorie Mitchell, Hazel Frost, and Josephine Kreiger,
and his 1976 burglary of a garage on Linden Street in Napa, including statements
he made regarding these crimes to court-appointed psychiatrists in 1977 and 1978.
The court admitted this evidence at the guilt phase over defendant‟s objection that
these crimes were dissimilar to the crimes involving Polly, they were too remote in
time, and they were more prejudicial than probative of any relevant issue. Also
over defendant‟s objection, the court admitted expert testimony concerning
defendant‟s motive for the 1976 assaults and the crimes involving Polly.
The trial court admitted the evidence of the prior crimes against Frances M.
and Frost to prove defendant‟s intent to commit sexual assault and a lewd act, his
motive to commit a sexual offense, and the existence of a common scheme or plan
to commit sexual assault and to steal. Evidence of the prior crimes against
Mitchell was admitted for these same purposes (except to prove intent to commit
sexual assault), as well as to prove intent to commit burglary and a common
scheme or plan to commit burglary. Evidence of the prior burglary of the
(Footnote continued from previous page.)
“ „be reasonably likely to procure an untrue statement.‟ ” (People v. Jones (1998)
17 Cal.4th 279, 299, quoting People v. Thompson (1990) 50 Cal.3d 134, 167.)
72
Linden Street garage was admitted to prove intent to commit burglary, motive to
commit a sexual offense, and a common scheme or plan to commit burglary. The
crimes against Kreiger were admitted for these same purposes and to prove a
common scheme or plan to steal. The trial court instructed the jury that none of
this evidence could be considered in this case “to prove that the defendant is a
person of bad character or that he has a disposition to commit crimes.”
2. The prior crimes as evidence of intent and a common scheme or
plan
Generally, the prosecution may not use a defendant‟s prior criminal act as
evidence of a disposition to commit a charged criminal act. (Evid. Code, § 1101,
subd. (a).) But evidence is admissible “when relevant to prove some fact (such as
motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge . . .) other than his or her
disposition to commit such an act.” (Evid. Code, § 1101, subd. (b).)
“To be admissible to show intent, „the prior conduct and the charged
offense need only be sufficiently similar to support the inference that defendant
probably harbored the same intent in each instance.‟ ” (People v. Cole (2004) 33
Cal.4th 1158, 1194, quoting People v. Yeoman (2003) 31 Cal.4th 93, 121; accord,
People v. Ewoldt (1994) 7 Cal.4th 380, 402.) To be admissible to show a common
scheme or plan, a greater degree of similarity is required than to show intent, and
“the common features must indicate the existence of a plan rather than a series of
similar spontaneous acts, but the plan thus revealed need not be distinctive or
unusual.” (Ewoldt, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 403.)
Because evidence of other crimes may be highly inflammatory, the
admission of such evidence “ „ “must not contravene other policies limiting
admission, such as those contained in Evidence Code section 352.” ‟ ” (People v.
Lewis (2001) 25 Cal.4th 610, 637, quoting People v. Ewoldt, supra, 7 Cal.4th at
p. 404.) Under Evidence Code section 352, the probative value of a defendant‟s
73
prior acts must not be substantially outweighed by the probability that its
admission would create substantial danger of undue prejudice, of confusing the
issues, or of misleading the jury. (People v. Ewoldt, supra, at p. 404; Evid. Code,
§ 352.) “We review for abuse of discretion a trial court‟s rulings on relevance and
admission or exclusion of evidence under Evidence Code sections 1101 and 352.”
(People v. Cole, supra, 33 Cal.4th at p. 1195.)
Here, although the prior acts occurred 17 years before the crimes against
Polly, they were not so remote as to warrant their exclusion, as defendant had only
remained free from incarceration for a total of three years during the intervening
period. (See People v. Peete (1946) 28 Cal.2d 306, 308-309, 318-319 [24-year
lapse since prior conviction was “not significant” when the defendant had been
incarcerated for 18 of those years].)
The prior crimes against Frances M. and Frost were sufficiently similar to
this case to provide evidence of a common scheme or plan and intent to commit a
sexual assault or a lewd act.6 In those offenses, as in this case, defendant abducted
a stranger, a female; used a weapon; assured the victim that he would not harm
her; took her to a remote location; and carried bindings with him, indicating that
the behavior was planned. The sexual nature of the prior crimes against Frances
M. and Frost was obvious from his attempt to force Frances M. to sexually gratify
him and his statements to court-referred psychiatrists that he assumed he “would
6
These crimes would also be admissible under Evidence Code section 1108,
to show that defendant had a predisposition to commit a sexual offense or lewd act
in this case. (See People v. Fitch (1997) 55 Cal.App.4th 172, 185 [section 1108
applies to cases tried after its effective date of January 1, 1996, and no ex post
facto violation occurs when it is applied to a charged offense occurring before its
enactment].)
74
have some fun” with Frost, and that he masturbated twice daily thinking about
these victims and tying them up.
Defendant emphasizes the age difference between Polly and adult victims
Frances M. and Frost in arguing the dissimilarity of the present crime. But when
Sergeant Meese asked defendant if Polly looked like she was 12 years old,
defendant responded, “I never even think about her like that.” Defendant
repeatedly referred to Polly as a “broad,” a slang term generally used to describe
an adult woman, thus implying that he did not regard Polly‟s adolescence as
significant.
The prior crimes against Mitchell and Kreiger and the burglary of the
Linden Street garage were sufficiently similar to this case to provide evidence of a
common scheme or plan and intent to commit burglary. In each case, defendant
targeted the home of a stranger, was armed, focused on a female resident, and
entered the residence with an intent to tie up or assault the victim under
circumstances indicating that he lay in wait outside before executing his plan.
Defendant contends the trial court erred in allowing the jury to consider the
prior crimes against Frances M., Mitchell, Kreiger and Frost as evidence of a
common scheme or plan to steal, and that it erred in allowing the jury to consider
defendant‟s prior assault against Mitchell as evidence of a motive and a common
scheme or plan to commit a sexual assault or lewd act. Assuming for the sake of
argument that the court erred in allowing the jury to consider these offenses for the
described purposes, the error was harmless in view of the overwhelming evidence
of guilt and because the trial court properly admitted the evidence of these
offenses for the other purposes previously described in this section.
75
3. The prior crimes and expert testimony as evidence of motive
Defendant contends the trial court erred in admitting his prior 1976 crimes
as evidence of his motive to sexually assault Polly. We disagree.
Although motive is not an element of any of defendant‟s crimes, “the
absence of apparent motive may make proof of the essential elements less
persuasive.” (People v. Phillips (1981) 122 Cal.App.3d 69, 84.) Evidence of a
defendant‟s prior criminal acts is admissible “when relevant to prove some fact
(such as motive . . . ) other than his or her disposition to commit such an act.”
(Evid. Code, § 1101, subd. (b).) Here, defendant‟s kidnapping of Polly, his failure
to take items of significant value, the evidence of planning, and his use of the silky
bindings and the intricately knotted “hood device” raised but did not fully answer
questions about defendant‟s motive. Defendant‟s prior 1976 crimes were relevant
and admissible to prove his motive to sexually assault Polly, as defendant admitted
to having sexual fantasies about assaulting and binding his prior female victims.
Defendant contends that the trial court erred in permitting the prosecution
to introduce expert testimony concerning paraphilia as an explanation of his
motive in both this case and his prior crimes. He relies on People v. McFarland
(2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 489 (McFarland). At issue in McFarland was whether the
defendant, who twice previously had been convicted of lewd conduct with a child
under 14 years of age, had an unnatural or abnormal sexual interest in children, for
purposes of section 647.6 [annoying or molesting a minor], when he stroked a
four-year-old girl‟s arm and face. A psychiatrist called by the prosecution who
had not examined the defendant testified, based on court documents and
psychiatric reports from the defendant‟s prior convictions, that the defendant had
such an interest. (McFarland, supra, 78 Cal.App.4th at p. 492.)
The Court of Appeal in McFarland concluded that the psychiatrist‟s
testimony was inadmissible and reversed. A prosecutor, it held, may not present
76
an expert’s opinion about a defendant‟s predisposition to commit sexual offenses
unless the defendant places his character regarding such matters at issue, as such
evidence constitutes inadmissible character evidence. (See Evid. Code, §§ 1100,
1101, 1102.) The court noted that Evidence Code section sections 1101, which
allows the introduction of prior criminal acts in certain circumstances, and 1108,
which allows propensity evidence to be used in certain sexual offense cases, only
permit the prosecution to present evidence of specific acts, not expert testimony.
(McFarland, supra, 78 Cal.App.4th at p. 495.) The court also held that the
admission of the expert‟s opinion of the defendant‟s propensity to commit sexual
offenses also “violated Penal Code section 29, which prohibits an expert from
offering an opinion on the ultimate question of whether the defendant had or did
not have a particular mental state at the time he committed the offense.” (Id. at
p. 496.)
Here, the prosecution‟s expert, Dr. Park Elliott Dietz, defined the sexual
disorder known as paraphilia, and he described the characteristics typical of
persons who have those disorders. (See p. 18, ante.) Although he did not give a
medical opinion or diagnosis that defendant was a paraphiliac, he testified that
certain of defendant‟s prior crimes, in which he used weapons and prepared
bindings for use on lone female victims, were “consistent” with the stages of a
sexual assault by a paraphiliac, and that defendant‟s statement that he fantasized
about tied-up crime victims while masturbating indicated that he was a paraphiliac.
He also testified that defendant‟s behavior in the kidnapping and murder of Polly
was “consistent” with paraphilia. Defendant argues that under the reasoning of
McFarland, supra, 78 Cal.App.4th 489, the trial court should have excluded this
testimony.
The trial court properly allowed Dr. Dietz to give a general description of
paraphilia and the behavior typical of persons who have this disorder. Expert
77
testimony of this nature “is admissible on any subject „sufficiently beyond
common experience that the opinion of an expert would assist the trier of fact.‟ ”
(People v. Brown (2004) 33 Cal.4th 892, 905 [prosecution may present expert
testimony regarding battered women‟s syndrome]; see also Evid. Code, § 805.)
It is a closer question whether the trial court erred when it permitted
Dr. Dietz to testify that when defendant committed his prior assaults and when he
kidnapped and murdered Polly, his behavior was “consistent” with paraphilia. But
even if the court should have excluded this testimony, the error was harmless
under any standard. As we have explained, the court properly admitted the
evidence that defendant had repeatedly stalked, bound, and assaulted other
women, as well as defendant‟s admission that he found his attacks sexually
stimulating. Dr. Dietz‟s brief testimony that defendant‟s conduct was consistent
with paraphilia drew a conclusion that the jury could easily have drawn by itself,
without Dr. Dietz‟s help. Furthermore, the trial court instructed the jury not to
consider Dr. Dietz‟s testimony as evidence that “the defendant is a person of bad
character or that he had the requisite intent or mental state at the time of the
commission of the crimes or that he has a disposition to commit crimes,” and that
his testimony could be used “only for the limited purpose of determining if it tends
to show motive.” Under these circumstances, any error could not have prejudiced
defendant.
B. Sufficiency of Evidence for Attempted Lewd or Lascivious Act on a
Child
Defendant contends the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction
for attempting to commit a lewd or lascivious act upon Polly and the jury‟s special
circumstance finding that he killed Polly while attempting to commit such an act.
To determine the sufficiency of evidence to support a conviction or a
special circumstance, “an appellate court reviews the entire record in the light most
78
favorable to the prosecution to determine whether it contains evidence that is
reasonable, credible, and of solid value, from which a rational trier of fact could
find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” (People v. Kipp (2001) 26
Cal.4th 1100, 1128; see also People v. Tafoya (2007) 42 Cal.4th 147, 170.)
“Where, as here, the jury‟s findings rest to some degree upon circumstantial
evidence, we must decide whether the circumstances reasonably justify those
findings, „but our opinion that the circumstances also might reasonably be
reconciled with a contrary finding‟ does not render the evidence insubstantial.”
(People v. Earp (1999) 20 Cal.4th 826, 887-888, quoting People v. Proctor (1992)
4 Cal.4th 499, 528-529.)
The crime of a lewd or lascivious act upon a child requires a touching of a
child under the age of 14 with the specific intent “of arousing, appealing to, or
gratifying the lust, passions, or sexual desires” (§ 288, subd. (a)) of the defendant or
the child. “An attempt to commit a crime has two elements: the intent to commit
the crime and a direct ineffectual act done towards its commission.” (People v.
Carpenter (1997) 15 Cal.4th 312, 387.) For purposes of an attempt, “[s]pecific
intent may be, and usually must be, inferred from circumstantial evidence.” (People
v. Cole (1985) 165 Cal.App.3d 41, 48.) Evidence of prior crimes is probative of a
person‟s intent on a later occasion. (People v. Carpenter, supra, 15 Cal.4th at
p. 379.) When a defendant‟s intent is “ „clearly shown, slight acts done in
furtherance of that design will constitute an attempt, and the courts should not
destroy the practical and common-sense administration of the law with subtleties as
to what constitutes preparation and what constitutes an act done toward the
commission of a crime.‟ ” (People v. Memro (1985) 38 Cal.3d 658, 698.)
Here, evidence of defendant‟s preparation before kidnapping Polly, coupled
with his prior history of sexual assaults on women, strongly indicates his intent to
commit a lewd and lascivious act against Polly. Moreover, the absence of any
79
prior relationship with Polly or any financial motive for abducting her points to a
single conclusion: that defendant‟s crimes were sexually motivated.
Witnesses saw defendant in Polly‟s neighborhood in the weeks before the
crime; and just hours before her abduction, a witness saw defendant in Polly‟s
neighborhood driving past the park on Polly‟s street corner about the time when
Polly and her friend Gillian walked to the local market and played outside Polly‟s
home. Thus, the jury reasonably could infer that defendant had been stalking
Polly well in advance of his crimes.
Defendant broke into Polly‟s home carrying prepared bindings and
restraints. The bindings he used to tie up Polly and her friends and the cloth he
used to strangle Polly had been previously cut in his car from the same piece of
silky cloth, which might have originally been an article of women‟s lingerie or a
nightgown. The peculiar “cloth hood” restraint, found near the Pythian Road site
where defendant‟s car had become stuck in a ditch, not only was cut from the
same silky material as the pre-cut bindings, but it was so intricately shaped and
knotted that the jury reasonably could infer that defendant prepared it in advance.
Defendant‟s prior assaults against Frost and Hays, and Dr. Dietz‟s testimony
concerning paraphilia and cordophilia, further illuminated the purpose of these
bindings and permitted the jury to conclude that defendant had planned the
burglary and kidnapping and acted with a sexual motivation.
In addition, the state of Polly‟s clothing evidenced a sexual purpose.
Although she was still wearing her bra and panties, her pink shirt top had been
untied, and her skirt was inverted around her with the nightgown pulled up,
revealing her legs and lower torso. Defendant argues that the pulled-up clothing was
caused by animal activity, as her skeleton was missing bones from the torso area.
This theory is inconsistent, however, with the pictures of Polly‟s body at the
Dutcher Creek location showing that the skirt was pulled up and inverted under her
80
arms, which were folded across her lap. And defendant‟s theory is also inconsistent
with eyewitness testimony that the nightgown was similarly pulled up. The position
of Polly‟s arms makes it unlikely that animal activity was able to evenly invert her
clothing and suggests that defendant pulled up and inverted the clothing when he
placed her there. In addition, pathologist Dr. Chapman suggested that Polly‟s legs
had been purposefully spread apart; he would not have expected both legs to be in
that position if the body had been haphazardly thrown there.
Aside from the physical evidence, there were statements by defendant
indicative of an effort to hide sexual conduct with Polly at the Pythian Road site
near Dana Jaffe‟s home. He first said he left none of his clothes on Jaffe‟s
hillside, claiming he discarded his sweatshirt and the bindings while driving back
to San Mateo. When Sergeant Meese told him the police had found his sweatshirt
on Jaffe‟s property, defendant expressed surprise, hesitated, and then began to
repeat that he “didn‟t do nothin‟ to her” on the hill. Defendant also initially
denied going back up the hill after his roadside encounter with Shannon Lynch,
but when Meese confronted him with Dana Jaffe‟s claim that she did not see
defendant on the roadside when she drove down her private road about 20 minutes
after defendant‟s encounter with Lynch, defendant admitted going back up the hill
and blurted out, “I didn‟t do it to her, man.” Finally, despite having recalled the
details of his encounter with the sheriff‟s deputies who pulled him out of the ditch,
defendant suddenly claimed lapses of memory and gave equivocal answers when
asked if he had sexually assaulted Polly. Defendant said that, if he did, he
“blocked” it out of his mind, and that “If I did anything to her, I don‟t want to
know.” Given that defendant also said that a sexual assault on Polly “would be a
hard one to admit to” and had repeatedly expressed concern about being labeled
as a child molester in prison, it was reasonable to assume that defendant, while
81
confessing to Polly‟s murder, was determined to avoid admitting the sexual
offense against her.
Accordingly, the evidence amply supported the offense and special
circumstance of an attempted lewd or lascivious act upon Polly.
C. Sufficiency of Evidence for Robbery and Robbery-murder Special
Circumstance
In addition to kidnapping Polly, defendant removed two items from her
home: red leggings, taken from a dresser drawer, and a nightgown belonging to
her friend, Gillian P., taken from a plastic bag Gillian had brought to Polly‟s house
for their slumber party. Defendant contends that his intent to steal the leggings
and nightgown did not arise until after he bound the girls; thus, he argues, there is
insufficient evidence to support his convictions for robbing Polly and Gillian and
the related special circumstance finding. We disagree.
“Robbery is the taking of „personal property in the possession of another
against the will and from the person or immediate presence of that person
accomplished by means of force or fear and with the specific intent permanently to
deprive such person of such property.‟ ” (People v. Lewis, supra, 43 Cal.4th 415,
464, quoting CALJIC No. 9.40.)
Even if in this case defendant‟s intent to steal arose only after he bound the
girls, sufficient evidence supports the robbery convictions. Gillian and Polly
remained blindfolded and bound when defendant carried away the leggings and the
nightgown, and they had every reason to believe that they were still being held
hostage at knifepoint, given defendant‟s earlier threat to slit their throats. Because
“a robbery can be accomplished even if the property was peacefully or
duplicitously acquired, if force or fear was used to carry it away,” the evidence
supports the jury‟s determination that defendant used force and fear to take the
property. (People v. Gomez (2008) 43 Cal.4th 249, 256.) Although Polly and her
82
friend, Gillian, may not have been aware of the thefts because they were
blindfolded, that circumstance is irrelevant, for as long as force or fear is used, it
makes no difference that the victim was unaware of the robbery. (People v.
Jackson (2005) 128 Cal.App.4th 1326, 1331.) Consequently, sufficient evidence
supported both robbery convictions.
Defendant argues the evidence shows that he committed the robberies only
to facilitate his murder of Polly, and thus they cannot serve as the foundation for a
robbery-murder special circumstance. We disagree.
For a felony-murder special circumstance to apply, the felony cannot be
merely “incidental or ancillary to the murder”; it must demonstrate “an
independent felonious purpose,” not an intent to “simply to kill.” (People v.
Abilez (2007) 41 Cal.4th 472, 511; see also People v. Marshall (1997) 15 Cal.4th
1, 41 [a letter taken by the defendant from the victim as a token of her rape and
murder was insufficient to sustain the defendant‟s robbery-murder special
circumstance, because the taking of the letter was merely incidental to the
murder].) But even if a defendant harbored the intent to kill at the outset, a
concurrent intent to commit an eligible felony will support the special
circumstance allegation. (People v. Raley (1992) 2 Cal.4th 870, 903; see also
People v. Abilez, supra, 41 Cal.4th 472, 511 [sufficient evidence supported special
circumstance allegations of robbery, burglary, and sodomy murder, as the
defendant demonstrated independent felonious purposes consisting of an intent to
take money and a desire to injure and humiliate the victim through the forced sex
act].)
Here, the evidence shows that defendant‟s primary motive in entering
Polly‟s home was to kidnap and sexually abuse her, not to kill her. Defendant
appears to have taken the leggings to use as a gag, thereby facilitating his
kidnapping and sexual assault of Polly. It is less clear why defendant took the
83
nightgown; perhaps (as the prosecutor theorized) he took it to cover Polly‟s body
while he was moving her from her home to his car, or perhaps he wanted Polly to
wear it while he was sexually assaulting her. But there is no evidence that
defendant took the leggings or the nightgown to facilitate his later murder of Polly,
or that he had decided to kill her when he took those items. Defendant told the
police that he only decided to kill Polly after he had kidnapped her in order to
“cover [his] tracks.” Thus, by his own admission, defendant killed Polly to
conceal the felonies he had already committed. As a result, the robberies of Polly
and Gillian may have been incidental to the kidnapping and the attempted sexual
assault, but they were not incidental to Polly‟s murder. Therefore, the jury
properly could find true the robbery-murder special-circumstance allegation.
D. Jury Viewings of the Crime Scenes
Defendant contends the trial court erred prejudicially by granting, over his
objection, the prosecution‟s motion to allow the jury to view the various crime
scenes in Sonoma County. In supplemental briefing, defendant argues that the
court erred by failing to obtain his personal waiver of his presence during certain
portions of the jury‟s view of the crime scenes.
The trial court may allow the jury “to view the place in which the offense is
charged to have been committed, or in which any other material fact occurred.”
(§ 1119.) We review for abuse of discretion a trial court‟s ruling on a party‟s
motion for a jury view. (People v. Lawley (2002) 27 Cal.4th 102, 158.)
Here, the jury toured the exterior of Polly‟s home in Petaluma and the
surrounding neighborhood and had a nighttime and daytime viewing of the Pythian
Road site where defendant‟s car had become stuck in a ditch on the night of
Polly‟s kidnapping. Because of the potential prejudice posed by an unofficial
memorial erected at the site where Polly‟s body had been recovered in Cloverdale,
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the trial court did not allow the jury to visit the site; instead, the jurors observed
the location from a spot roughly one-half mile away.
In light of the notoriety of the case and security concerns, defendant
attended the viewing while secured in a police van with tinted, closed windows.
As a result, although defendant accompanied the jury for each viewing, he could
not fully hear any comments and could not see some portions of the viewings.
Consequently, the trial court obtained from defendant‟s counsel waivers of
defendant‟s “audible appearance” for the jury‟s viewing of the exterior of Polly‟s
home in Petaluma and its nighttime viewing of the Pythian Road site. Defendant‟s
counsel also waived defendant‟s personal appearance during the jury‟s daytime
viewing of the latter site, as the police van containing defendant was parked in a
place where defendant could not see the site.
We find no error in the trial court‟s decision to permit the jury viewings of
the crime scenes under the described conditions. The court reasoned that the
probative value of seeing the locations in person could not be duplicated by
photographs or witness testimony, and that the viewings would allow the jury to
better gauge the distances involved between the locations at issue. Defendant fails
to demonstrate any prejudice outweighing the trial court‟s sound reasons for
permitting the jury viewings of the crime scenes.
As to the trial court‟s failure to obtain a personal waiver from defendant
pertaining to his inability to see or hear some aspects of the jury viewings, it is true
that a trial court must obtain a personal waiver of a defendant‟s appearance at a
jury‟s viewing of a crime scene (§ 977; People v. Moon (2005) 37 Cal.4th 1, 20-
21; see also People v. Garcia (2005) 36 Cal.4th 777); but the court‟s failure to
obtain such a waiver is statutory error, reversible only if there is a reasonable
probability that the result would have been more favorable to defendant without
the error (People v. Moon, supra, 37 Cal.4th at pp. 20-21). Here, because
85
defendant provides no basis for concluding that the result of his trial would have
been different if he had been able to see all aspects of the jury viewings, any error
under section 977 was harmless. (Moon, at p. 21.)
E. In-court Display of Defendant’s Tattoos
Defendant claims the trial court erred when it allowed eyewitness Daryl
Stone to identify defendant based on his observation of defendant‟s tattooed arms,
which the trial court directed defendant to display in open court by rolling up his
sleeves. Before trial, the prosecution and the defense had agreed to use an
identification procedure where the prosecutor would show Stone a photographic
line-up of various tattooed arms, without displaying anyone‟s faces; but when the
state called Stone as a witness during the trial, the prosecutor presented no
photographic line-up and decided to rely upon an in-court display instead. The
trial court overruled defendant‟s objection to this new identification procedure.
Defendant claims the in-court display was unduly suggestive and violated his
several of his federal and state constitutional rights, including his right to due
process.
There was no error. For purposes of an in-court identification, “[f]orced
exhibition of „real or physical‟ evidence, such as of a physical characteristic, does
not constitute a fundamental unfairness which is a violation of due process.”
(People v. Sims (1976) 64 Cal.App.3d 544, 552 [an in-court identification
procedure, by which defendant was compelled to read seven statements made by
the assailant, was not “ „impermissibly suggestive‟ ”]; see also People v Holt
(1972) 28 Cal.App.3d 343, 350-352.) Defendant here suggests no reason why a
different standard should apply to the identification of a tattoo than to other
physical characteristics that a witness may rely on to make an in-court
identification.
86
F. Prosecutorial Misconduct
Defendant contends the prosecutor engaged in various acts of misconduct
during the trial. As to each act, we either conclude no misconduct occurred or that
any misconduct was not prejudicial to defendant.
“[O]n claims of prosecutorial misconduct our state law standards differ
from those under the federal Constitution.” (People v. Wallace (2008) 44 Cal.4th
1032, 1070.) Under the federal Constitution, a prosecutor commits reversible
misconduct only if the conduct infects the trial with such “ „unfairness as to make
the resulting conviction a denial of due process.‟ ” (Darden v. Wainwright (1986)
477 U.S. 168, 181.) By contrast, our state law requires reversal when a prosecutor
uses “deceptive or reprehensible methods to persuade either the court or the jury”
(People v. Price (1991) 1 Cal.4th 324, 447) and “ „it is reasonably probable that a
result more favorable to the defendant would have been reached without the
misconduct‟ ” (People v. Wallace, supra, 44 Cal.4th at p. 1071). To preserve a
misconduct claim for review on appeal, a defendant must make a timely objection
and ask the trial court to admonish the jury to disregard the prosecutor‟s improper
remarks or conduct, unless an admonition would not have cured the harm. (People
v. Tafoya, supra, 42 Cal.4th 147, 176.)
Defendant here claims the prosecution violated an earlier agreement
between the parties by referring to the fluorescence test for semen performed on a
stain found on Polly‟s panties during its opening arguments and by eliciting
testimony regarding the test from two of the state‟s expert witnesses.
The fluorescence of the stain on the panties was the source of considerable
discussion during in limine proceedings. While the parties recognized the
potential prejudice inherent in any testimony concerning the stain, they also
recognized that the existence of the stain could not be concealed from the jury,
because defendant‟s December 6, 1993, confession centered on Petaluma Police
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Sergeant Meese‟s good faith belief that the fluorescence test indicated the presence
of semen. Before the final round of jury selection, the parties stipulated that, if
called as a witness, FBI Special Agent Valerie Ladner would testify that she had
tested the panties for the presence of bodily fluids and “[t]hat the tests performed
did not detect the presence of semen on the panties.” This stipulation, however,
was never used, as Agent Ladner testified that the stain did fluoresce, but that her
further testing indicated that either no semen was ever present or that it had
degraded to an undetectable level. Defendant made no objection to this testimony,
and he revisited it during cross-examination.
Thus, not only did defendant fail to object to the prosecution‟s opening
statements about the stain, but those statements were consistent with FBI Agent
Ladner‟s testimony, and they were not misleading. The same is true of the
prosecution‟s examination of the pathologist, Dr. Chapman, as defendant posed no
objection and the testimony was consistent with that of FBI Agent Ladner. Earlier
in the proceedings, defendant did successfully object to the prosecution‟s
questioning of Petaluma Police Officer Charles Illsley about his experience with
the decomposition of a body and semen, but defendant failed to object when other
witnesses addressed the subject of the stain, thereby forfeiting any claim of error.
(People v. Ghent (1987) 43 Cal.3d 739, 766 [claims regarding the prejudicial
effect of testimony were forfeited where similar testimony was elicited from
another witness without objection].) In any event, none of the testimony
concerning the stain was inconsistent with the proposed stipulation or Agent
Ladner‟s testimony. Consequently, the record does not support defendant‟s claim
that the prosecutor elicited false or misleading testimony concerning the stain.
Also lacking merit are defendant‟s remaining claims of prosecutorial
misconduct.
88
Although the trial court‟s pretrial ruling excluded evidence that defendant
had burglarized a Napa animal shelter and stolen some weapons in 1976, during a
Napa police officer‟s testimony concerning the prior assault against Marjorie
Mitchell the prosecution elicited a reference to the investigation of a theft of
firearms from an animal shelter break-in and asked the officer if he had questioned
defendant about it. Out of the jury‟s presence, defendant objected to this
evidence, the prosecutor apologized, and the trial court warned the prosecutor not
to elicit further evidence on this subject. Defendant now argues that the
prosecutor committed misconduct by eliciting this testimony. Defendant,
however, did not request an admonition or request that the officer‟s testimony be
stricken, and he did not later object to witnesses who not only spontaneously
mentioned the incident but also directly inculpated defendant in the animal shelter
break-in. Defendant also did not object when evidence of his conviction in the
animal shelter break-in was admitted into evidence. Thus, defendant forfeited any
objection based on the prejudicial effect of the testimony at issue. (People v.
Montiel (1993) 5 Cal.4th 877, 914.) Moreover, even assuming that defendant did
not forfeit this claim, the first reference to the animal shelter break-in did not
inculpate defendant and, at worst, only vaguely connected the incident to
defendant. This was not a deceptive or misleading tactic and did not constitute
prosecutorial misconduct.
Defendant also argues that the prosecution‟s last-minute decision to switch
the tattoo identification procedure for witness Daryl Stone amounted to
misconduct. As explained previously in part III. E., ante, even though there was a
previous agreement to use a tattoo photographic lineup, the prosecutor did not act
improperly in electing instead to use an in-court display of defendant‟s tattoos.
During closing argument at the penalty phase, the prosecution made
reference to the testimony of Drs. Dietz and O‟Meara concerning sexual sadism,
89
arguing that this condition had caused “terrible problems in society for many
victims” and suggesting that defendant had had this condition for over 20 years.
Defendant objected to this testimony as improperly arguing the lack of mitigation
as a factor in aggravation and as using his character as an aggravating factor. The
trial court, without sustaining the objection, acknowledged that the absence of a
mitigating factor does not constitute an aggravating factor; it then allowed the
prosecutor to resume his argument. Contrary to defendant‟s claim that this
argument by the prosecutor was improper, we see no reasonable likelihood that the
jury understood the prosecutor to have argued that a lack of mitigating evidence
constituted a factor in aggravation. Instead, the prosecutor pointed out to the jury
that the evidence of defendant‟s prior violent crimes, properly admitted under
section 190.3, factor (b), revealed a character consistent with a form of sexual
deviance. (People v. Lewis, supra, 25 Cal.4th 610, 672 [“At the penalty phase of a
capital trial, a prosecutor is permitted to argue any reasonable inferences from
properly admitted evidence of a defendant‟s prior violent crime, even if such
inferences relate to the defendant's character as revealed in the prior violent crime
itself or in its surrounding circumstances”].)
Later, the prosecutor here argued that the highly publicized nature of the
case was a factor in aggravation, but defendant objected immediately and the trial
court promptly admonished the jury not to consider the case‟s effect on the public
at large as an aggravating factor. Assuming this argument was improper, as
defendant contends, it did not prejudice defendant, as the trial court properly
countered the prosecution‟s rhetoric with a correct statement of law. (People v.
Osband (1996) 13 Cal.4th 622, 717 [“When argument runs counter to instructions
given a jury, we will ordinarily conclude that the jury followed the latter and
disregarded the former”].)
90
G. Admission of Photographic Evidence
Over a defense objection, the trial court admitted several photographs
showing the condition of Polly‟s body as it was recovered at the Dutcher Creek
site, and 1993 school photographs of murder victim Polly and her two friends,
Kate and Gillian, who were with Polly at her home on the night in question.
Defendant argues that the photographs were inflammatory and cumulative to
witness testimony and that their probative value was outweighed by the resulting
prejudice.
When conditions depicted in photographic evidence are relevant to the
prosecution‟s case, it is “not obliged to prove these details solely from the
testimony of live witnesses, and the jury was entitled to see how the physical
details of the scene and body supported the prosecution theory” of the crimes.
(People v. Turner (1990) 50 Cal.3d 668, 706; see also People v. Scheid (1997) 16
Cal.4th 1, 13-18.) “[T]he decision to admit victim photographs is a discretionary
matter we will not disturb on appeal unless the prejudicial effect of the
photographs clearly outweighs their probative value.” (People v. Taylor (2001) 26
Cal.4th 1155, 1168.)
As discussed previously, the photographs were relevant to show that the
victim was found in a “sexually suggestive position” and to refute defendant‟s
claim that Polly‟s legs had been spread apart and her skirt lifted upward by animal
activity. (People v. Bradford, supra, 14 Cal.4th 1005, 1050; People v. Pride,
supra, 3 Cal.4th 195, 243.) Moreover, we have reviewed the photographs in
question and agree with the trial court that they are not gruesome. They do not
depict blood or show Polly‟s face. As Polly‟s skull had separated from the rest of
the body, it was not clearly visible in the photos, with one exception, and the trial
court specifically ordered the excision of the skull from that photo.
91
As to the school photographs, since the trial took place two and a half years
after the crimes, they were relevant to show how the two surviving victims looked
as preteens in 1993 and to support the prosecution‟s claim that defendant selected
Polly because she was the most mature-looking of the three girls. Defendant fails
to persuade us that these photographs were unduly inflammatory given their
relevance. (People v. Zapien (1993) 4 Cal.4th 929, 983 [photo of victim taken
before murder was admissible to show motive related to her attractiveness].)
Consequently, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting any of
the challenged photographs.
H. Claims of Instructional Error
Defendant contends that seven standard CALJIC instructions (CALJIC Nos.
2.01, 2.02, 2.09, 2.50, 2.50.1, 2.50.2, and 2.51) undermined the presumption of
innocence and lowered the burden of proof to less than that of beyond a
reasonable doubt. Defendant acknowledges, however, that we have previously
upheld the use of these instructions (People v. Whisenhunt (2008) 44 Cal.4th 174,
221; People v. Reliford (2003) 29 Cal.4th 1007, 1012-1016; People v. Catlin
(2001) 26 Cal.4th 81, 146-147; People v. Carpenter, supra, 15 Cal.4th 312, 382-
383), and we reject his request to reconsider our previous rulings.
Defendant claims error in the trial court‟s refusal to give three of his
requested pinpoint instructions. He is wrong, as explained below.
Defendant asked that the jury be instructed that, by presenting defendant‟s
statement to police denying he committed a lewd act upon Polly, the prosecution
was bound by his denial in the absence of substantial evidence to the contrary.
(See People v. Collins (1961) 189 Cal.App.2d 575.) We need not determine
whether the refusal to so instruct was error because, assuming the trial court had
instructed the jury as requested, defendant would not have benefitted. As the court
92
noted, there was ample evidence contradicting his statements to the police. (See
People v. Lines (1975) 13 Cal.3d 501, 505-506.)
The trial court rejected as duplicative defendant‟s two requested pinpoint
instructions requiring “the prosecution to prove that the defendant had a purpose
for the [attempted lewd act, robbery, burglary and kidnapping] wholly independent
of murder,” and instructing the jury that it “may not convict the defendant of first
degree murder based upon the commission or attempted commission of burglary if
the defendant entered the premises with the intent to [murder].” Instead, the court
gave CALJIC No. 8.81.17, which instructed that “the special circumstance referred
to in these instructions is not established if the robbery, kidnapping, or lewd act on
a child was merely incidental to the commission of the murder.” (Italics added.)
After a day and a half of deliberations, however, the jury asked: “What is
the definition of „merely incidental‟? ” The parties agreed to give the jury a
definition of “incidental” from Black‟s Law Dictionary: “[D]epending upon or
appertaining to something else as primary; something necessary, appertaining to,
or depending upon another which is termed the principal, something incidental to
the main purpose.” Defendant contends that this definition was vague and
ambiguous, and that it should have been supplemented by a nonlegal dictionary
definition or replaced by his requested pinpoint instructions.
Defendant faults the trial court for not consulting an ordinary dictionary.
But defense counsel said that a common dictionary meaning would not be helpful,
assented to the use of the definition in Black‟s Law Dictionary, and did not renew
his request for the pinpoint instructions. Thus, defendant has forfeited the claim of
error. (People v. Rodrigues (1994) 8 Cal.4th 1060, 1193.)
Forfeiture aside, the definition given by the trial court was superior to
defendant‟s proposed pinpoint instructions because it was better targeted to the
specific issue that caused the jurors‟ concern. Defendant fails to explain why that
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definition was deficient. Defendant relies on a posttrial article (brought to the trial
court‟s attention in defendant‟s unsuccessful motion for a new trial) that was written
by the jury‟s foreperson and published in the August 11, 1996 edition of the San Jose
Mercury News. The article said the jury “spent almost two days” on the single issue
of whether the robbery was “merely incidental.” But the foreperson‟s comment is
inadmissible evidence of the jurors‟ mental thought processes. (Evid. Code, § 1150,
subd. (a).) In any event, the jury‟s difficulty with this issue does not necessarily mean
that it was improperly instructed; rather, the jury may simply have grappled with the
evidence pertaining to the robbery. (See People v. Brown (1985) 40 Cal.3d 512, 535
[rejecting the argument that the jury‟s lengthy deliberations showed prejudice and
noting that “the jury may simply have sifted the evidence with special care”], revd. on
other grounds sub nom. California v. Brown (1987) 479 U.S. 538.)
IV. PENALTY PHASE
A. Admission of Victim Impact Evidence
Defendant faults the trial court for admitting, over his objection, the
testimony by victims of his prior crimes about how his crimes affected their lives.
Defendant argues this evidence was not admissible as an aggravating circumstance
under section 190.3, and that its admission violated his rights under the Eighth
Amendment to the federal Constitution. We disagree.
Defendant is right that the impact of his past crimes on the victims of those
crimes was not admissible under section 190.3, factor (a), because that factor bears
only on “[t]he circumstances of the crime of which the defendant was convicted in
the present proceeding.” (Italics added.) But that evidence was admissible under
section 190.3, factor (b), as relevant to his prior violent crimes. (People v. Price,
supra, 1 Cal.4th at p. 479 [during the penalty phase, “the prosecution may
introduce evidence of the emotional effect of defendant‟s prior violent criminal
94
acts on the victims of those acts”].) Unavailing is defendant‟s reliance on Payne v.
Tennessee (1991) 501 U.S. 808. There, the high court considered only the
admissibility of victim impact evidence concerning the capital offense itself,
concluding that the Eighth Amendment does not automatically bar such evidence.
(Payne, at p. 827.)
Defendant cites decisions from other jurisdictions holding that victim
impact evidence pertaining to a defendant‟s prior crimes is inadmissible. (People
v. Dunlap (Colo. 1999) 975 P.2d 723, 744-745; People v. Hope (Ill. 1998) 702
N.E.2d 1282; Sherman v. State (Nev. 1998) 965 P.2d 903, 914; State v. Nesbit
(Tenn. 1998) 978 S.W.2d 872, 891, fn. 11; Cantu v. State (Tex.Crim.App. 1997)
939 S.W.2d 627, 637.) Those cases, although not free from ambiguity, do not
appear to state that the federal Constitution prohibits admission of such evidence;
rather, each holds that such evidence is irrelevant or inadmissible by applying the
laws of the state in which the case was decided. Thus, they do not appear to
support defendant‟s claim that the admission of such evidence violated the Eighth
Amendment. At any rate, they are not binding on this court, which has repeatedly
held that the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit the admission of testimony by a
defendant‟s prior victims concerning the impact of his violent crimes against them.
(People v. Mendoza (2000) 24 Cal.4th 130, 186; People v. Garceau (1993) 6
Cal.4th 140, 167-168, 201-202; People v. Benson (1990) 52 Cal.3d 754; see also
Belcher v. State (Fla. 2007) 961 So.2d 239 [victim impact evidence concerning the
defendant‟s prior violent felony is admissible under state statute].) Moreover,
there was no reasonable possibility that any error in admitting the evidence
affected the jury‟s decision to impose a penalty of death. Even without the victim
impact testimony, the evidence of the prior crimes themselves left little doubt
about the impact of those crimes on defendant‟s victims.
95
Defendant also renews here his objections in the trial court to the admission
of Petaluma Police Sergeant Meese‟s testimony regarding his observations of Eve
Nichol (Polly‟s mother) and her six-year-old daughter (Annie) and a photograph
taken of them shortly after Polly‟s kidnapping as speculative and cumulative
victim impact evidence. We see no error.
Over defendant‟s objection, Sergeant Meese testified that on the night of
the kidnapping, Eve Nichol appeared to be “in a state of shock and anguish,” and
he identified a photograph, taken that same night by Officer Pelton, of a visibly
upset Eve Nichol sitting in a living room chair, with young Annie curled up in
Eve‟s lap. “The purpose of victim impact evidence is to demonstrate the
immediate harm caused by the defendant‟s criminal conduct.” (People v. Pollock
(2004) 32 Cal.4th 1153, 1183.) The photograph and Meese‟s testimony
concerning the appearance of Polly‟s mother and young sister in the hours after
Polly‟s kidnapping captured the immediate harm of defendant‟s crimes. In People
v. Stitely (2005) 35 Cal.4th 514, 565, we held that a photograph of the murder
victim taken with her husband before the crime properly “implied that Carol‟s
loved ones suffered grief and pain over her loss.” Here, the photograph and
testimony at issue do not merely imply such anguish, they demonstrate it.
B. Exclusion of Evidence in Mitigation and Admission of Evidence in
Aggravation
Defendant challenges several trial court rulings concerning the exclusion
and admission of certain evidence. We see no error.
Defendant complains the trial court erred in refusing to admit a photograph
of two of his older half siblings whom defendant‟s mother gave up for adoption
before he was born. The court properly ruled that the photograph was irrelevant,
as there was no indication that defendant was ever aware of these siblings during
his childhood.
96
Defendant claims the trial court erred by refusing to issue a body
attachment for his brother, Don Davis. As the court pointed out, however, it had
no jurisdiction to do so, as Don had fled the state before the defense could serve
him with a subpoena. (See Code Civ. Proc., § 1993, subd. (a)(1) [a bench warrant
may issue only “upon proof of the service of the subpoena”].)
Defendant contends the trial court erred by sustaining the prosecution‟s
objection when defense counsel tried to ask defendant‟s sister, Darlene Schwarm,
how she would be affected if defendant were sentenced to death. Later
recognizing that a defense attorney may elicit opinions from a capital defendant‟s
family members about the appropriate punishment (People v. Lancaster (2007) 41
Cal.4th 50, 98; People v. Mickle (1991) 54 Cal.3d 140, 194), the trial court invited
the defense to re-call Schwarm as a witness. Defendant‟s failure to re-call her
forfeited the issue for purposes of appeal (People v. Rodrigues, supra, 8 Cal.4th
1060, 1119), and, in any event, even without such testimony the jury would have
inferred that Schwarm wanted her brother‟s life spared because she had testified
that defendant was “the only family I have left.”
Defendant argues the trial court prejudicially erred by admitting certain
evidence in aggravation. As we will explain, much of the evidence was
admissible, and any error pertinent to the remainder was harmless under either the
state “reasonable possibility” standard for penalty phase error (People v. Brown
(1988) 46 Cal.3d 432, 446-448), or the “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt”
standard for federal constitutional error (Chapman v. California, supra, 386 U.S.
18, 24).
Defendant contends the trial court erred by allowing the prosecution to
introduce hearsay statements describing his involvement in three robberies
committed in Kennewick, Washington, in 1985. Two police officers testified and
recited hearsay statements taken from defendant‟s victims at the robbery scenes.
97
The trial court overruled defendant‟s confrontation clause objection to these
hearsay statements and admitted the statements as spontaneous utterances (Evid.
Code, § 1240), because the victims were still under the stress of the robberies
when the officers questioned them. Even assuming that the admission of these
statements was error under the recent holdings of the high court in Crawford v.
Washington (2004) 541 U.S. 36 and in Davis v. Washington (2006) 547 U.S. 813,
the error was harmless under both the federal and state standards, as the
prosecution also introduced defendant‟s confessions to each of these three
robberies. (People v. Brown, supra, 46 Cal.3d at pp. 446-448; Chapman v.
California, supra, 386 U.S. at p. 24.)
Defendant also faults the trial court for allowing the prosecution, over his
objection, to cross-examine defense expert Dr. George Woods about defendant‟s
lack of remorse and later to call Dr. Kathleen O‟Meara in rebuttal to discuss
remorse. Although a prosecutor cannot argue a lack of remorse as a factor in
aggravation, the presence or absence of remorse may be considered as relevant to
the evaluation of mitigating evidence and to the penalty determination, and the
evidence in question was admissible for this purpose. (People v. Jurado (2006) 38
Cal.4th 72, 141; People v. Cook (2006) 39 Cal.4th 566, 611.) In addition, as
Dr. Woods had diagnosed defendant as suffering from antisocial personality
disorder, which includes the lack of remorse as one of its diagnostic criteria, the
prosecution was entitled to explore the basis of Dr. Woods‟s diagnosis. (People v.
Ledesma (2006) 39 Cal.4th 641, 695; People v. Clark (1993) 5 Cal.4th 950, 1016.)
Defendant contends the trial court erred in allowing prosecution expert
Dr. O‟Meara, over objection, to use the assertedly inflammatory term “sexual
sadism” in her diagnosis of defendant. As the trial court noted, however, no legal
authority requires the exclusion of this evidence, and defendant‟s presentation of
Dr. Woods‟s diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder opened the door to
98
rebuttal testimony questioning that diagnosis or suggesting an alternative
diagnosis. (People v. Smith (2005) 35 Cal.4th 334, 359.)
C. Rejection of Defendant’s Requested Penalty Phase Instructions
Although the trial court gave the jury the standard CALJIC penalty phase
instructions, including CALJIC No. 8.85, defendant argues the court erred by
rejecting his proposed 10 nonstandard penalty phase instructions. We disagree.
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No. 1 read: “In deciding whether death or
life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is the appropriate sentence, you
may not consider for any reason whatsoever the deterrent or non-deterrent effect
of the death penalty or the monetary cost to the State of execution or maintaining a
prisoner for life.” The court properly rejected the instruction as unnecessary in
light of other instructions setting forth proper factors for consideration. Neither
cost nor deterrence was raised as an issue at the penalty phase, thus making the
instruction unnecessary. (People v. San Nicolas, supra, 34 Cal.4th at p. 672.)
Defendant argues that the instruction was necessary, and that failure to give
it was prejudicial, because Juror No. 6‟s responses to the jury questionnaire
describe her concerns over the death penalty in terms of cost and deterrent effect.
But Juror No. 6‟s response to the questionnaire expressed both a belief that a life
sentence was preferable because it was “less costly” than a death sentence and
doubt as to the death penalty‟s deterrent effect. This response shows that, in Juror
No. 6‟s view, the factors of cost and deterrence weighed against imposing the
death penalty. Thus, if the trial court had given defendant‟s proposed instruction
telling the jury not to consider those factors, Juror No. 6 would have been less
likely to vote for a life sentence.
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No. 2 read: “The mitigating
circumstances that I have read for your consideration are given merely as examples
99
of some of the factors that a juror may take into account as reasons for deciding
not to impose a death sentence in this case. Any one of the factors may be
sufficient, standing alone, to support a decision that death is not the appropriate
punishment in this case. But a juror should not limit his or her consideration of
mitigating circumstances to these specific factors. [¶] A juror may also consider
any other circumstances relating to the case or to the defendant as shown by the
evidence as reasons for not imposing the death penalty. [¶] A mitigating
circumstance does not have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. A juror may
find that a mitigating circumstance exists if there is any evidence to support it. [¶]
Any mitigating circumstance may outweigh all the aggravating factors. [¶] A
juror is permitted to use mercy, sympathy and/or sentiment in deciding what
weight to give each mitigating factor.” The court properly rejected this instruction
as duplicative, as the jury already had been instructed to consider sympathy for the
defendant, to consider “any fact” as a mitigating circumstance, and to weigh
mitigating circumstances against aggravating circumstances. (People v. Mickey,
supra, 54 Cal.3d at p. 695; People v. Brasure (2008) 42 Cal.4th 1037, 1070
[proposed instruction to consider “mercy, sympathy and/or sentiment” was
duplicative of standard instruction given].) As to the other portions of the refused
instruction, we have previously rejected similar claims. (People v. Brasure, supra,
42 Cal.4th at pp. 1068-1070 [the trial court has no duty to instruct the jury that it
may find the existence of a mitigating circumstance if there is “any evidence to
support it” and that it need not be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt”]; People v.
Clark (1992) 3 Cal.4th 41, 163-164 [the trial court has no duty to instruct the jury
that it may consider sympathy and mercy for the defendant]; People v. Mickey,
supra, 54 Cal.3d at p. 697 [rejecting as argumentative an instruction that a single
mitigating circumstance can be dispositive].)
100
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No. 3 duplicated parts of his proposed
instruction No. 2, and in addition stated: “If the mitigating evidence gives rise to
compassion or sympathy for the defendant, the jury may, based upon such
sympathy or compassion alone, reject death as a penalty.” The trial court correctly
concluded the instruction was duplicative of the CALJIC No. 8.85 instruction
given here. (People v. Hinton (2006) 37 Cal.4th 839, 911.)
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No. 4 read: “The People and the
Defendant are entitled to the individual opinion of each juror. You must
individually decide each question involved in the penalty decision.” Defendant,
however, later withdrew this proposed instruction, presumably because it was
already included in the standard instructions. Defendant, therefore, cannot show
error.
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No. 5 read: “Only those factors which
are applicable on the evidence adduced at trial are to be taken into account in the
penalty determination. All factors may not be relevant and a factor which is not
relevant to the evidence in a particular case would be disregarded. The absence of
a statutory mitigating factor does not constitute an aggravating factor.” The trial
court correctly refused the portion discussing the relevant factors as duplicative in
light of the standard instruction given, and the portion discussing the absence of a
mitigating factor was not required because none of the parties improperly
suggested that the absence of a mitigating factor itself can be an aggravating
factor. (People v. Livaditis (1992) 2 Cal.4th 759, 784.)
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No. 6 stated: “The factors in the above
list which you determine to be aggravating circumstances are the only one [sic]
which the law permits you to consider. You are not allowed to consider any other
facts or circumstances as the basis for deciding that the death penalty would be an
appropriate punishment in this case.” The trial court correctly rejected this
101
instruction as duplicative of the standard instruction given. (People v. Gordon
(1990) 50 Cal.3d 1223, 1275.)
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No. 7 read: “Evidence has been
introduced for the purpose of showing the specific harm caused by the defendant‟s
crime. Such evidence, if believed, was not received and may not be considered by
you to divert your attention from your proper role of deciding the appropriate
penalty. You must face this obligation soberly and rationally, as you may
not impose the ultimate sanction as a result of an irrational, purely subjective
response to emotional evidence and argument. On the other hand, evidence and
argument on emotional though relevant subject [sic] may provide legitimate
reasons to sway you to show mercy.” The trial court refused the instruction as
unnecessary. We have repeatedly rejected this proposed instruction as both
confusing and duplicative of CALJIC No. 8.84.1, which was given in this case.
(People v. Zamudio (2008) 43 Cal.4th 327, 368-369; People v. Harris (2005) 37
Cal.4th 310, 358-359; People v. Ochoa (2001) 26 Cal.4th 398, 455.)
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No. 8 stated: “A sentence of life without
parole means that under the law the defendant is not eligible for parole.” The trial
court properly refused to give this instruction. (See People v. Arias (1996) 13
Cal.4th 92, 172; People v. Gordon, supra, 50 Cal.3d 1223, 1277.)
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No. 9 stated: “You were previously
instructed not to consider penalty in the guilt or innocence phase of the trial, and
of course, that is your consideration in this phase. That instruction would be
totally inapplicable. You will also be instructed at this time that you can consider
sympathy for the defendant in deciding this continuing issue, and that was, of
course, precluded from the guilt or innocence phase of the trial.” This proposed
instruction was duplicative of the standard instructions given. Therefore, the trial
court‟s refusal to give this instruction was proper. (People v. Frye (1998) 18
102
Cal.4th 894, 1025; People v. Miranda (1987) 44 Cal.3d 57, 102; People v. Gates
(1987) 43 Cal.3d 1168, 1209.)
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No. 10 was a lingering doubt instruction
as to his guilt of attempting to commit a lewd act on Polly. The trial court was
under no duty to give this instruction as it is not required under state or federal law
and “the lingering doubt concept is sufficiently encompassed in other instructions
ordinarily given in capital cases.” (People v. Harris, supra, 37 Cal.4th at p. 359;
see also People v. Slaughter (2002) 27 Cal.4th 1187, 1219; People v. Hines (1997)
15 Cal.4th 997, 1068.)
Defendant‟s proposed instruction No.11 was a modified version of CALJIC
No. 8.85, deleting section 190.3 factors, (e), (f), (g), and (j), which he deemed
inapplicable. The trial court properly refused this instruction, recognizing that the
full list of factors may be put before the jury as a framework for the penalty
determination. (People v. Perry (2006) 38 Cal.4th 302, 319; People v. Smith,
supra, 35 Cal.4th 334, 369; People v. Raley, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 919.)
D. Claims of Juror Misconduct
Defendant contends that during the penalty phase deliberations the jury
foreperson engaged in prejudicial misconduct when he read to the jury a note sent
to him by a friend. Six days after the return of the penalty verdict and six weeks
before defendant‟s sentencing, the jury foreman described the contents of that note
in an article he authored, entitled Condemned: How 12 men and women decided
Richard Allen Davis should die, which was published in the August 11, 1996,
edition of the San Jose Mercury News. In that article, the foreperson explained:
“I read a note to the jury in deliberations that had been mailed to me by a friend
before we reached a verdict. It read: „I wanted to send you this note of thanks
before the jury reaches a verdict so that you know whatever decision is reached
103
doesn‟t matter. You know how I feel about jury duty and the importance of it in
our society. You and the other members have accepted a long and difficult
assignment and done it well. As a body you have done much to restore faith,
confidence, and integrity in the jury system. I‟m sure I‟m not alone in that
thought.‟ ” Before his sentencing, defendant moved for a new trial, arguing that
this article constituted evidence of prejudicial juror misconduct. The trial court
denied the motion without a hearing. We conclude the motion was properly
denied under either state or federal law.
“It is, of course, misconduct for a juror to introduce any extrinsic material
into the jury room.” (People v. Mincey (1992) 2 Cal.4th 408, 483, citing § 1137.)
Juror misconduct or a nonjuror‟s contact or communication with a sitting juror
ordinarily raises a rebuttable presumption of prejudice. (In re Hamilton, supra, 20
Cal.4th at p. 295.)
“The trial court has the discretion to conduct an evidentiary hearing to
determine the truth or falsity of allegations of jury misconduct, and to permit the
parties to call jurors to testify at such a hearing,” but such a hearing is not “a
matter of right.” (People v. Avila (2006) 38 Cal.4th 491, 604.) Rather, it should
be held only when the defense presents evidence indicating “a strong possibility
that prejudicial misconduct has occurred” and the court concludes a hearing is
“ „necessary to resolve material, disputed issues of fact.‟ ” (Ibid., quoting People
v. Hedgecock (1990) 51 Cal.3d 395, 415.) On appeal, “ „[a]ny presumption of
prejudice is rebutted, and the verdict will not be disturbed, if the entire record in
the particular case, including the nature of the misconduct or other event, and the
surrounding circumstances, indicates there is no reasonable probability of
prejudice, i.e., no substantial likelihood that one or more jurors were actually
biased against the defendant.‟ ” (People v. Mendoza, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 196.)
104
We perceive no reasonable probability of prejudice in this case. Although
the foreman should not have read to the jury a note sent to him by a nonjuror, we
agree with the trial court that the note was not prejudicial “by any stretch of
imagination.” The note did not refer to any extraneous evidence and did not
contain any inflammatory rhetoric. As the trial court succinctly noted, the note
was “simply a pat on the back” for the jury‟s service on this case, and it could not
have biased any juror against defendant in any way.
Because the parties did not demonstrate the existence of any factual dispute
regarding the note, the trial court‟s decision to deny the motion without holding a
hearing was well within its discretion. (See People v. Page (2008) 44 Cal.4th 1,
58-59; People v. Schmeck (2005) 37 Cal.4th 240, 294; People v. Brown (2003) 31
Cal.4th 518, 582.)
E. Motion for Separate Guilt and Penalty Phase Juries
During pretrial proceedings in both Sonoma and Santa Clara Counties,
defendant repeatedly moved for separate guilt and penalty phase juries. He relied
upon studies concluding that “death qualified” juries (juries selected by excluding
prospective jurors whose views about the death penalty makes them subject to
challenge for cause) are more likely to convict defendants than juries that have not
been death qualified. To prevent this from occurring, defendant argued, the trial
court should use separate juries for the guilt and penalty phases, thereby
eliminating the need to death qualify the guilt phase jury. Defendant argued that
the great amount of publicity associated with this case increased the likelihood that
if a single jury was used for the guilt and penalty phases, that jury would be more
likely to find him guilty than would be the case if the court used separate guilt and
penalty juries. Defendant now contends the trial court erred in denying these
motions. Not so.
105
Section 190.4, subdivision (c), expresses the Legislature‟s long-standing
preference for a single jury to decide both guilt and penalty, and this preference
does not violate a capital defendant‟s federal or state rights to due process, to an
impartial jury, or to a reliable death judgment. (People v. Bemore (2000) 22
Cal.4th 809, 858.) This court and the United States Supreme Court have
repeatedly rejected the claim that separate juries are required because jurors who
survive the jury selection process in death penalty cases are more likely to convict
a defendant. (Lockhart v. McCree (1986) 476 U.S. 162; People v. Kraft (2000) 23
Cal.4th 978, 1070; People v. Johnson (1992) 3 Cal.4th 1183, 1212-1213; Hovey v.
Superior Court (1980) 28 Cal.3d 1, 68-69.) Defendant here has provided no
compelling reason for us to deviate from these holdings.
Defendant contends that the combined effect of pretrial publicity and
publicity during the guilt phase of his capital trial required empanelment of a new
jury for the penalty phase. But defendant has forfeited this issue on appeal, as he
failed to renew his motion for a separate penalty phase jury at any time after the
end of the guilt phase. Moreover, we have already concluded that the publicity
associated with this case did not prejudice defendant‟s right to a fair and impartial
jury.
F. Cumulative Error
Defendant argues that reversal of his murder conviction and death sentence
is necessary because of the cumulative effect of errors in his trial. At the guilt
phase, we assumed for the sake of argument that the trial court erred in failing to
obtain a personal waiver of defendant‟s appearance during the jury‟s viewings of
the crime scenes (see ante, p. 86); that the court erred by admitting the prior
crimes against Frances M., Mitchell, Kreiger and Frost as evidence of a common
scheme or plan to steal and by admitting the prior crimes against Mitchell as
106
evidence of a motive and a common scheme or plan to commit a sexual assault or
a lewd act (see ante, p. 76); and that the court erred in allowing Dr. Dietz to testify
that defendant‟s crimes against Polly were consistent with those of a paraphiliac
(see ante, p. 78). With respect to the penalty phase, we assumed for the sake of
argument that the prosecution erred in arguing to the jury that the notoriety of this
case was a factor in aggravation (see ante, p. 90), and that the admission of certain
statements concerning three prior robberies committed by defendant violated his
right to confront adverse witnesses (see ante, p. 98). Considered cumulatively, the
assumed errors described above could not have prejudiced defendant.
G. Miscellaneous Constitutional Issues Concerning California’s Death
Penalty Law
Defendant contends California‟s death penalty law is unconstitutional on
several grounds. He recognizes that we have previously rejected similar claims,
but he requests that we reconsider our prior decisions on these issues. As
defendant presents no compelling reason for us to do so, we decline his request.
Below, we discuss our previous decisions bearing on the claims raised here by
defendant.
Defendant argues that the death penalty law in California violates the
Eighth Amendment because it fails to “distinguish death-eligible and non-death-
eligible first-degree murders in a meaningful and non-arbitrary way.” This is
simply a variant of the claim, which we have repeatedly rejected, that the statute
does not sufficiently narrow the class of death-eligible defendants to only the most
serious offenders. (People v. Carey (2007) 41 Cal.4th 109, 135; People v.
Demetrulias (2006) 39 Cal.4th 1, 43-44; People v. Perry, supra, 38 Cal.4th at
p. 322.)
Factor (a) of section 190.3, which permits the jury to consider both the
circumstances of the crime and the existence of special circumstances as
107
aggravating circumstances, does not impermissibly result in “double-counting” or
automatically create a bias in favor of a death verdict. (People v. Tafoya, supra,
42 Cal.4th 147, 188; People v. Kennedy (2005) 36 Cal.4th 595, 641; People v.
Cain (1995) 10 Cal.4th 1, 68-69.)
The use of the word “extreme” in section 190.3, factor (d), to qualify the
mitigating factor of a defendant‟s “mental and emotional disturbance” does not
impermissibly limit consideration of the factor in violation of the federal
Constitution. (People v. Kennedy, supra, 36 Cal.4th at p. 641; People v. Jenkins
(2000) 22 Cal.4th 900, 1054-1055; People v. Morales (1989) 48 Cal.3d 527, 567-
568.)
Notwithstanding various social science studies cited by defendant, there
was no reasonable likelihood that potential jurors would find the statutory
definition of mitigation misleading or not easily understandable. (People v. Griffin
(2004) 33 Cal.4th 536, 594.)
As previously discussed on page 103, ante, a trial court is not required to
delete any inapplicable factors from the list of statutory factors presented to the
jury. (People v. Kennedy, supra, 36 Cal.4th at p. 641.)
The trial court need not instruct the jury that a life sentence is mandatory if
circumstances in aggravation do not outweigh those in mitigation. (People v.
Carey, supra, 41 Cal.4th 109, 137; People v. Medina (1995) 11 Cal.4th 694, 781-
782; People v. Duncan (1991) 53 Cal.3d 955, 978.)
A death penalty determination, because it is inherently moral and
normative, is “not susceptible to a burden-of-proof quantification,” and thus there
is no requirement that the penalty phase jury find beyond a reasonable doubt that
individual aggravating factors exist, that the aggravating factors substantially
outweigh the mitigating ones, or that death is the appropriate penalty. (People v.
Hawthorne (1992) 4 Cal.4th 43, 79; see also People v. Demetrulias, supra, 39
108
Cal.4th 1, 40; People v. Snow (2003) 30 Cal.4th 43, 126.) There is also no
requirement that the jury must reach unanimity on which aggravating factors
apply. (People v. Smith, supra, 35 Cal.4th 334, 374; People v. Carey, supra, 41
Cal.4th 109, 136; People v. Kennedy, supra, 36 Cal.4th at p. 641.)
Prosecutorial discretion in deciding whether to seek the death penalty is
constitutional. (People v. Demetrulias, supra, 39 Cal.4th 1, 43; People v. Snow,
supra, 30 Cal.4th 43, 126; People v. Keenan (1988) 46 Cal.3d 478, 505.)
H. Delay in the Capital Postconviction Process and Execution of
Sentence
Defendant argues that the delay in California‟s death penalty postconviction
process has resulted in an extended incarceration on death row, thus constituting
cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the federal Constitution‟s Eighth
Amendment. We have rejected similar claims, and we see no compelling reason to
reconsider those decisions here. (People v. Demetrulias, supra, 39 Cal.4th 1, 45;
People v. Dunkle (2005) 36 Cal.4th 861, 942; People v. Snow, supra, 30 Cal.4th
43, 127.)
I. Unconstitutionality of Lethal Injection
Defendant contends that lethal injection, as a method of execution, is
unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment to the federal Constitution. A claim
of alleged deficiencies in the method of a future execution is not cognizable on
appeal because it does not affect the validity of the judgment. (People v.
Demetrulias, supra, 39 Cal.4th 1, 45.) In any event, anecdotal evidence of
“botched” lethal injections in other states is insufficient here to compel further
scrutiny under the Eighth Amendment. (People v. Snow, supra, 30 Cal.4th at
pp. 127-128; People v. Holt (1997) 15 Cal.4th 619, 702.)
109
DISPOSITION
We affirm the judgment in its entirety.
KENNARD, J.
WE CONCUR:
GEORGE, C. J.
BAXTER, J.
WERDEGAR, J.
CHIN, J.
MORENO, J.
CORRIGAN, J.
110
See next page for addresses and telephone numbers for counsel who argued in Supreme Court.
Name of Opinion People v. Davis
__________________________________________________________________________________
Unpublished Opinion
Original Appeal XXX
Original Proceeding
Review Granted
Rehearing Granted
__________________________________________________________________________________
Opinion No. S056425
Date Filed: June 1, 2009
__________________________________________________________________________________
Court: Superior
County: Santa Clara
Judge: Thomas Charles Hastings
__________________________________________________________________________________
Attorneys for Appellant:
Phillip H. Cherney, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Attorneys for Respondent:
Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson and Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant
Attorneys General, Gerald A. Engler and Ronald S. Matthias, Assistant Attorneys General, and Bruce
Ortega, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Counsel who argued in Supreme Court (not intended for publication with opinion):
Phillip H. Cherney
214 South Johnson Street
Visalia, CA 93291
(559) 732-6852
Ronald Matthias
Assistant Attorney General
455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite 11000
San Francisco, CA 94102-7004
(415) 703-5858
Automatic appeal from a judgment of death.
Opinion Information
| Date: | Citation: | Docket Number: | Category: | Status: | Cross Referenced Cases: |
| Mon, 06/01/2009 | 46 Cal. 4th 539, 208 P.3d 78, 94 Cal. Rptr. 3d 322 | S056425 | Automatic Appeal | closed; remittitur issued | DAVIS (RICHARD ALLEN) ON H.C. (S157917) |
Parties
| 1 | The People (Respondent) Represented by Ronald S. Matthias Office of the Attorney General 455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite 11000 San Francisco, CA |
| 2 | The People (Respondent) Represented by Bruce Ortega Office of the Attorney General 455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite 11000 San Francisco, CA |
| 3 | Davis, Richard Allen (Appellant) San Quentin State Prison Represented by Phillip H. Cherney Attorney At Law 214 S. Johnson Street Visalia, CA |
| Disposition | |
| Jun 1 2009 | Opinion: Affirmed |
| Dockets | |
| Sep 26 1996 | Judgment of death |
| Oct 1 1996 | Filed certified copy of Judgment of Death Rendered September 26, 1996. (note: change of venue from Sonoma County) |
| Oct 28 1996 | Application for Extension of Time filed By Court Reporter Linda Cytron to Complete R.T. |
| Oct 28 1996 | Application for Extension of Time filed By Court Reporter Cindy Mohr to Complete R.T. |
| Oct 30 1996 | Extension of Time application Granted To Court Reporters To 12-16-96 To Complete R.T. |
| Nov 18 1996 | Application for Extension of Time filed By Sonoma County Court Reporters to Complete R.T. |
| Nov 21 1996 | Extension of Time application Granted To Sonoma County Court Reporters To 12-16-96 To Complete R.T. |
| Dec 19 1996 | Application for Extension of Time filed By Sonoma County Court Reporters to Complete R.T. |
| Dec 23 1996 | Extension of Time application Granted To Sonoma County Court Reporters To January 15, 1997 To Complete R.T. |
| Jan 17 1997 | Application for Extension of Time filed By Sonoma Co. Court Reporters to Complete R.T. |
| Jan 21 1997 | Extension of Time application Granted To Sonoma Co. Court Reporters To 2-18-97 To Complete R.T. |
| Oct 20 1999 | Filed: Petition to Review all Documents filed by Applt Counsel (Pro Se Petition) |
| Dec 2 1999 | Filed letter from: Applt; dated 11/29/99 Re Pro Se Petn. filed 10/20/99. |
| Dec 15 1999 | Order filed: Appellant's motion, received October 19, 1999, entitled: "Petition to Bar State Level Death Penalty Appellate Attorneys From Filing Motions, Briefs, and/or Other Legal Documents, Upon the Petitioner/Appellant's Behalf, Without Petitioner/Appellant's Prior Review Within a Time Limit; For Petitioner/Appellant to Review and/or to Add Input and/or to Question Said Documents" is denied. Appellant's request, received December 2, 1999, requesting that this court rule on his earlier motion, which was received on October 19, 1999, is dismissed as moot. |
| May 10 2001 | Filed: Applt.'s request that Phillip H. Cherney be appointed as counsel in the direct appeal and habeas corpus/clemency proceedings. |
| May 18 2001 | Filed: Request of atty. Phillip H. Cherney for appointment in the direct appeal and habeas corpus/clemency proceedings. |
| Jun 13 2001 | Counsel appointment order filed appointing Phillip H. Cherney to represent applt for both the direct appeal and related state habeas corpus/executive clemency proceedings. |
| Jun 13 2001 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Jun 28 2001 | Received: notice from superior court that record on appeal was mailed to applt's counsel on 6-27-2001. |
| Aug 14 2001 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Sep 28 2001 | Application for Extension of Time filed By applt. to request corr. of the record. (1st request) |
| Oct 3 2001 | Extension of Time application Granted To 11/30/2001 to applt. to request corr. of the record. |
| Oct 15 2001 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Nov 30 2001 | Request for extension of time filed By applt. to request correction of the record. (2nd request) |
| Nov 30 2001 | Extension of time granted To 1/29/2002 to applt. to request correction of the record. |
| Dec 21 2001 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Dec 21 2001 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) (supplemental) |
| Jan 28 2002 | Request for extension of time filed By applt. to request correction of the record. (3rd request) |
| Jan 31 2002 | Extension of time granted To 4/2/2002 to applt. to request correction of the record. The court anticipates only three further extensions totaling 180 will be granted. |
| Feb 21 2002 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Apr 3 2002 | Request for extension of time filed By applt. to request correction of the record. (4th request) |
| Apr 11 2002 | Extension of time granted To 5/3/2002 to applt. to request correction of the record. The court anticipates that only two further extensions totaling 120 additonal days will be granted. |
| Apr 17 2002 | Filed: The order filed on 4/11/2002 is amended to read as follows: Good cause appearing, counsel's request for an extension of time in which to request correction of the record in the superior court is granted to June 3, 2002. The court anticipates that after that date, only two further extensions totaling 120 additional days will be granted. Counsel is ordered to inform the Santa Clara County Superior Court and his or her assisting attorney or entity, if any, of this schedule, and take all steps necessary to meet this schedule. |
| Apr 23 2002 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Jun 3 2002 | Request for extension of time filed To applt. to request correction of the record. (5th request) |
| Jun 10 2002 | Extension of time granted To 8/2/2002 to applt. to request correction of the record. The court anticipates that after that date, only one further extension totaling 60 additional days will be granted. Counsel is ordered to inform the Santa Clara County Superior Court and his assisting attorney of this schedule, and to take all steps necessary to meet it. |
| Jul 31 2002 | Request for extension of time filed By applt.to request correction of the record. (6th request) |
| Aug 1 2002 | Extension of time granted To 10/1/2002 to applt. to request correction of the record. The court anticipates that after that date, no further extension will be granted. Counsel is ordered to inform the Santa Clara County Superior Court and his or her assisting attorney or entity, if any, and any assisting attorney or entity of any separate counsel of record of this schedule, and take all steps necessary to meet this schedule. |
| Sep 13 2002 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Sep 30 2002 | Request for extension of time filed By appellant to request correction of the record. (7th request) |
| Oct 2 2002 | Extension of time granted To 10/31/2002 to appellant to request correction of the record. Extension is granted based upon counsel Phillip H. Cherney's representation that he anticipates filing the request in the superior court by 10/31/2002. After that date, no further extension will be granted. Counsel for appellant is ordered to serve a copy of the record correction motion on this court upon its filing in the superior court. |
| Nov 1 2002 | Received copy of appellant's record correction motion Application to correct, augment and settle the record. (17 pp.) |
| Nov 13 2002 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cheney |
| Nov 18 2002 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Jan 15 2003 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Mar 18 2003 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| May 28 2003 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Jun 11 2003 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Jun 24 2003 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Jul 30 2003 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Sep 29 2003 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Dec 3 2003 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Feb 3 2004 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Apr 2 2004 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Apr 16 2004 | Note: Certain portions of the record returned to trial court to correct defeciencies in CT re juror redaction and to prepare reporter's transcript index pursuant to Calif. Rules of Court, rule 9(2)(3). Record to be returned on or before 5/14/2004. |
| Apr 21 2004 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| May 18 2004 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| May 24 2004 | Record on appeal filed Clerk's transcript 56 volumes (15966 pp.) and reporter's transcript 142 volumes (19264 pp.), including material under seal; ASCII disks. Clerk's trancript includes 8211 pp. of juror questionnaires. |
| May 24 2004 | Appellant's opening brief letter sent, due: July 6, 2004. |
| Jun 1 2004 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Jun 9 2004 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Jul 6 2004 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's opening brief. (1st request) |
| Jul 12 2004 | Filed: Supplemental declaration in support of application for extension of time to file appellant's opening brief. |
| Jul 12 2004 | Extension of time granted to 9/7/2004 to file appellant's opening brief. |
| Aug 30 2004 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's opening brief. (2nd request) |
| Aug 30 2004 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Aug 31 2004 | Extension of time granted to 11-8-2004 to file AOB. |
| Nov 4 2004 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Nov 4 2004 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's opening brief. (3rd request) |
| Nov 5 2004 | Extension of time granted to 1/7/2005 to file appellant's opening brief. |
| Jan 6 2005 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Jan 6 2005 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's opening brief. (4th request) |
| Jan 6 2005 | Extension of time granted to 3/8/2005 to file appellant's opening brief. |
| Jan 31 2005 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) (supplemental) |
| Feb 28 2005 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Feb 28 2005 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's opening brief. (5th request) |
| Mar 3 2005 | Extension of time granted to 5/9/2005 to file appellant's opening brief. After that date, only one further extension totaling about 30 additional days will be granted. Extension is granted based upon counsel Phillip H. Cherney's representation that he anticipates filing that brief by the end of 5/2005. |
| May 4 2005 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's opening brief. (6th request) |
| May 4 2005 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| May 11 2005 | Extension of time granted to 7/8/2005 to file appellant's opening brief. Extension is granted counsel Phillip H. Cherney's representation that he anticipates filing that brief by 7/8/2005. After that date, no further extension will be granted. |
| May 11 2005 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Jul 7 2005 | Filed: appellant's application for permission to file oversized AOB. (brief submitted under separate cover) |
| Jul 11 2005 | Order filed Appellant's application for permission to file oversized appellant's opening brief is granted. |
| Jul 11 2005 | Appellant's opening brief filed (128,508 words; 482 pp.) |
| Jul 13 2005 | Filed: Declaration of attorney Phillip H. Cherney pursuant to P.C. Sect. 1241 (confidential). |
| Jul 13 2005 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Jul 20 2005 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Aug 1 2005 | Request for extension of time filed to file respondent's brief. (1st request) |
| Aug 2 2005 | Extension of time granted to 10/11/2005 to file respondent's brief. |
| Sep 12 2005 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Oct 7 2005 | Request for extension of time filed to file respondent's brief. (2nd request) |
| Oct 14 2005 | Extension of time granted to 12/8/2005 to file respondent's brief. After that date, only three further extensions totaling about 160 additional days are contemplated. Extension is granted based upon Supervising Deputy Attorney General Ronald S. Matthias's representation that he anticipates filing that brief by 5/15/2006. |
| Nov 14 2005 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Nov 22 2005 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Dec 5 2005 | Request for extension of time filed to file respondent's brief. (3rd request) |
| Dec 9 2005 | Extension of time granted to 2/6/2006 to file the respondent's brief. After that date, only two further extensions totaling about 100 additional days are contemplated. Extension is granted based upon Supervising Deputy Attorney General Ronald Matthias's representation that he anticipates filing that brief by 5/15/2006. |
| Jan 18 2006 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Feb 3 2006 | Request for extension of time filed to file respondent's brief. (4th request) |
| Feb 7 2006 | Extension of time granted to 4/3/2006 to file the respondent's brief. After that date, only one further extension totaling about 70 additional days will be granted. Extension is granted based upon Supervising Deputy Attorney General Ronald S. Matthias's representation that he anticipates filing that brief by 6/14/2006. |
| Mar 21 2006 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Apr 3 2006 | Request for extension of time filed to file respondent's brief. (5th request) |
| Apr 10 2006 | Extension of time granted to June 14, 2006 to file the respondent's brief. After that date, no further extension is contemplated. Extension is granted based upon Supervising Deputy Attorney General Ronald S. Matthias's representation that he anticipates filing that brief by June 14, 2006. |
| Apr 26 2006 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| May 23 2006 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Jun 14 2006 | Respondent's brief filed (92,244 words; 290 pp.) |
| Jun 30 2006 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's reply brief. (1st request) |
| Jul 6 2006 | Extension of time granted to September 5, 2006 to file appellant's reply brief. |
| Jul 25 2006 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Aug 30 2006 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's reply brief. (2nd request) |
| Sep 6 2006 | Extension of time granted to November 6, 2006 to file appellant's reply brief. |
| Nov 3 2006 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's reply brief. (3rd request) |
| Nov 9 2006 | Extension of time granted to January 5, 2007 to file the appellant's reply brief. After that date, only two further extensions totaling about 100 additional days are contemplated. Extension is granted based upon counsel Phillip H. Cherney's representation the he anticipates filing that brief by late winter or early spring 2007. |
| Nov 27 2006 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Dec 20 2006 | Filed: Declaration of Phillip H. Cherney (confidential) |
| Jan 3 2007 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's reply brief (4th request) and request to file supplemental opening brief. |
| Jan 8 2007 | Extension of time granted to March 6, 2007 to file the appellant's reply brief. After that date, only one further extension totaling about 40 additional days is contemplated. Extension is granted based upon counsel Phillip H. Cherney's representation that he anticipates filing that brief by early spring, 2007. Counsel's request for permission to incorporate supplemental argument VIII.A into appellant's reply brief is denied without prejudice to counsel's filing a separate supplemental appellant's opening brief raising that argument. |
| Jan 22 2007 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) from atty Cherney. |
| Jan 24 2007 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Feb 26 2007 | Request for extension of time filed to file appellant's reply brief. (5th request) |
| Mar 5 2007 | Extension of time granted Good cause appearing, and based upon counsel Phillip H. Cherney's representation that he anticipates filing the appellant's reply brief and supplemental appellant's opening brief by May 7, 2007, counsel's request for an extension of time in which to file those briefs is granted to May 7, 2007. After that date, no further extension is contemplated. |
| Mar 26 2007 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) |
| Apr 26 2007 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| May 7 2007 | Filed: Application for Permission to File Appellant's Oversized Reply Brief and Supplemental Opening Brief. |
| May 7 2007 | Received: Appellant's Reply Brief "under seperate cover; (48,000 words; 180 pp.) |
| May 7 2007 | Received: Appellant's Supplemental Opening Brief "under seperate cover" (1,520 words; 6 pp.) |
| May 10 2007 | Order filed Appellant's "Application for Permission to File Appellant's Oversized Reply Brief and Supplemental Opening Brief" is granted. Any supplemental respondent's brief is to be served and filed on or before June 11, 2007. |
| May 10 2007 | Supplemental brief filed Appellant's supplemental opening brief. (1,520 words; 6 pp.) |
| May 10 2007 | Appellant's reply brief filed (48,000 words; 180 pp.) |
| May 21 2007 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) from atty Cherney. |
| May 21 2007 | Supplemental brief filed by respondent. (1,111 words; 5 pp.) |
| May 23 2007 | Filed: declaration of counsel Cherney. (confidential) |
| May 31 2007 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Aug 3 2007 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) from atty Cherney. |
| Oct 2 2007 | Counsel's status report received (confidential) from atty Cherney. |
| Oct 9 2007 | Received: copy of appellant's motion to preserve evidence, exhibits, files and other items related to automatic appeal (filed in Superior Court of Santa Clara County) |
| Oct 9 2007 | Received: copy of appellant's motion for post-conviction discovery and for examination of physical evidence pursuant to Penal Code, section 1054.9. (filed in Superior Court of Santa Clara County) |
| Oct 9 2007 | Habeas funds request filed (confidential) |
| Nov 5 2007 | Related habeas corpus petition filed (concurrent) case no. S157917. |
| Nov 28 2007 | Order filed re habeas funds request (confidential) |
| Mar 24 2008 | Exhibit(s) lodged People's exhibits C, D, G, H, I, J, 53, 55, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 94, 113, 114, 115, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140, 148A, 148, 155A, 155, 161A, 161B, 161C, 161D, 161E, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 174, 175, 176, 177, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 193, 196A, 196B, 196C, 196D, 196F, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308 and 328 . Defense exhibits 90, 134, 136, 1008, 1009, 1010, 1011, 1012, 1013, 1014, 1015, 1016, 1017, 1018, 1007 and 1006. |
| Apr 16 2008 | Exhibit(s) returned to Superior Court. People's exhibits no. 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, and 94. Court exhibits C, G, H, I, and J. Defense exhibit no. 90. |
| Apr 17 2008 | Filed: additional record: 107 vols. of Supplemental Clerk's Transcript on Appeal (28,390 pp.), containing juror hardship forms and juror questionnaires from the Superior Court of Sonoma County. |
| Apr 17 2008 | Note: sent letter to counsel advising that additional record was filed this date. |
| Apr 25 2008 | Exhibit(s) lodged People's exhibits - 11, 12, 85, 85a, 86, 87, 87a, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93 and 94. Court's exhibits - C, C-1, D, G, H, I and J. |
| May 29 2008 | Exhibit(s) lodged People's exhibits - 14a, 14b and 15a. |
| May 30 2008 | Received: acknowlegment of receipt of exhibits from Santa Clara County Superior Court. |
| Jul 30 2008 | Exhibit(s) lodged People's exhibits, nos. 341, 342, 343 and 344. (from penalty phase) |
| Sep 17 2008 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Nov 26 2008 | Oral argument letter sent advising counsel that the court could schedule this case for argument as early as the January calendar, to be held the week of January 5, 2009, in San Francisco. The advisement of "focus issues," notification that two counsel are required, and any request for oral argument time in excess of 30 minutes must be submitted to the court within 10 days of the order setting the case for argument. |
| Dec 2 2008 | Note: corrected oral argument letter sent to counsel this date. |
| Dec 15 2008 | Received: letter from Attorney Phillip H. Cherney, dated December 12, 2008, regarding the scheduling of oral argument. |
| Jan 8 2009 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Feb 3 2009 | Case ordered on calendar to be argued on Tuesday, March 3, 2009, at 1:30 p.m., in San Francisco |
| Feb 6 2009 | Exhibit(s) lodged Sonoma County People's exhibit no. 10 (jail telephone log) |
| Feb 18 2009 | Filed: respondent's focus issues letter, dated February 17, 2009. |
| Feb 19 2009 | Filed: appellant's focus issues letter, dated February 19, 2009. |
| Mar 2 2009 | Request for Extended Media coverage Filed KTVU, Channel 2 by Carma Hassan , planner. |
| Mar 2 2009 | Request for Extended Media coverage Granted The request for extended media coverage, filed by KTVU, Channel 2 on March 2, 2009, is granted subject to the conditions set forth in rule 1.150, California Rules of Court. |
| Mar 3 2009 | Cause argued and submitted |
| Mar 12 2009 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Apr 17 2009 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| May 29 2009 | Notice of forthcoming opinion posted |
| Jun 1 2009 | Opinion filed: Judgment affirmed in full opinion by Kennard, J. -----joined by George, C.J., Baxter, Werdegar, Chin, Moreno, and Corrigan, JJ. |
| Jun 4 2009 | Request for extension of time filed by appellant to file petition for rehearing. |
| Jun 15 2009 | Rehearing petition filed by appellant. (3,180 words; 14 pp.) |
| Jun 19 2009 | Time extended to consider modification or rehearing The time for granting or denying rehearing in the above-entitled case is hereby extended to and including August 28, 2009, the date upon which rehearing is either granted or denied, whichever comes first. |
| Jun 19 2009 | Order filed Appellant's "Application for Extension of Time to File Petition for Rehearing" is denied as moot. |
| Jul 31 2009 | Habeas funds request filed (confidential) |
| Aug 13 2009 | Compensation awarded counsel Atty Cherney |
| Aug 26 2009 | Rehearing denied; opinion modified The opinion is modified on the court's own motion. The petition for rehearing is denied. |
| Aug 26 2009 | Opinion modified - no change in judgment The opinion herein, filed on June 1, 2009, and appearing at 46 Cal.4th 539, is modified as follows: Immediately after the sentence on the bottom of page 595 that states, "Under these extraordinary circumstances, Sergeant Meese's inquiry did not violate the high court's decisions in Miranda, supra, 384 U.S. 436, and Edwards, supra, 451 U.S. 477, " the following sentence is added: "And, contrary to defendant's contention in his petition for rehearing, nothing in the United States Supreme Court's recent decision in Montejo v. Louisiana (2009) 544 U.S. ___ [129 S. Ct. 2079] compels a different conclusion." This modification does not affect the judgment. |
| Aug 26 2009 | Remittitur issued |
| Briefs | |
| Jul 11 2005 | Appellant's opening brief filed (128,508 words; 482 pp.) |
| Jun 14 2006 | Respondent's brief filed (92,244 words; 290 pp.) |
| May 10 2007 | Appellant's reply brief filed (48,000 words; 180 pp.) |
