People v. Grimes

Filed 8/22/16; on rehearing

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA

THE PEOPLE, )

)

Plaintiff and Respondent, )

) S076339

v. )

)

GARY LEE GRIMES, )

) Shasta County

Defendant and Appellant. ) Super. Ct. No. 95F7785

____________________________________)

A jury convicted defendant Gary Lee Grimes of one count of murder with

burglary and robbery special circumstances and one count each of robbery,

burglary, conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit burglary, and the

unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle. (Pen. Code, §§ 182, subd. (a), 187, subd.

(a), 190.2, subd. (a)(17), 211, 459; Veh. Code, § 10851, subd. (a).)1 In connection

with the murder, robbery, burglary, and conspiracy counts, the jury found true

allegations that defendant inflicted great bodily injury upon the victim, an elderly

person (§ 1203.09, subd. (a)), and that the offenses were committed while

defendant was on parole (§ 1203.085, subd. (b)). In a bifurcated proceeding, the

trial court found true allegations that defendant had served four prior prison terms

(§ 667.5, subd. (b)) and had been convicted of a serious or violent felony within

the meaning of the “Three Strikes” law (§ 1170.12). The jury returned a verdict of

1 All statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.

SEE CONCURRING AND DISSENTING OPINION

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death. The trial court sentenced defendant to death for the murder and imposed a

term of six years for the driving or taking of a motor vehicle and four one-year

terms for the four prior prison term allegations. Sentences on the remaining

counts were imposed and stayed.

Over defendant‟s objection, the trial court excluded certain statements

made by the actual killer of the murder victim in which the killer claimed that he

acted alone in committing the murder and that defendant was not involved. After

an initial opinion was filed in this case, we granted rehearing to clarify the

application of the hearsay exception for statements against the declarant‟s interest.

(Evid. Code, § 1230.) We now conclude that the trial court erred in excluding the

statements. Although the error does not require reversal of the murder conviction

and the special circumstance findings, it does require reversal of the judgment of

death.

I. FACTS

A. Guilt phase

1. The offenses

In October 1995, defendant, then 33 years old, was staying with a friend,

Sheila Abbott (Sheila), in her trailer. Also staying in the trailer were Sheila‟s son,

Shane Fernalld; her daughter, Misty Abbott (Misty); and Misty‟s boyfriend,

Patrick James Wilson, then 19 years old. On the morning of October 18, John

Morris, a 20-year-old friend of the family, arrived at Sheila‟s trailer. At

approximately noon, Morris, Wilson, and defendant obtained some medical gloves

and bandanas from the trailer. They tried on the bandanas, placing them over their

mouths, before putting them in their pockets. They then drove Morris‟s red sports

car to a house in Redding shared by 98-year-old Betty Bone and her daughter.

They ransacked the house and took property, including a .38-caliber handgun, a

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portable music player, some jewelry, a rifle, a telephone in a Styrofoam box, and a

brown truck.

Bone was killed. Her body showed evidence of blunt force trauma to the

head, ligature strangulation, and stab wounds. There was a telephone cord and a

bandana around her neck. There was bruising on her tongue and lip that was

likely caused by a gag. Her injuries were consistent with her having been knocked

unconscious, strangled, and then stabbed repeatedly. Bleeding due to the stabbing

was the primary cause of death, with strangulation as a contributory cause.

After the murder, defendant, Wilson, and Morris returned to Sheila‟s trailer,

with Morris and Wilson in Morris‟s car and defendant driving the brown truck that

had been taken from Bone‟s residence. They unloaded items from the truck.

Defendant showed a bag of jewelry to Sheila and asked whether it was real; she

told him it was costume jewelry. Defendant drove the truck to Shasta Lake, with

Morris and Misty following in Morris‟s car. Defendant drove the truck into the

lake, and the three returned to Sheila‟s trailer in Morris‟s car.

Later that afternoon, defendant, Morris, and Misty were in defendant‟s

brown Camaro when they approached a roadblock that had been set up by the

Shasta County Sheriff‟s Department. Before reaching the roadblock, defendant

and Morris threw their guns into the bushes. When they went through the

roadblock, defendant identified himself to an officer as “Gary Woods” and gave

the officer a false Social Security number. He was wearing a pair of white

fingerless gloves, similar to the type of gloves that Bone‟s daughter kept in the

brown truck.

They returned to Sheila‟s trailer and then left for Sacramento. Misty and

her baby rode in Morris‟s car and defendant drove in his car with Misty‟s brother,

Shane Fernalld. They spent the night in Sacramento with Morris‟s aunt. In her

apartment, they left a bag of jewelry and the box containing a telephone that had

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been taken from Bone‟s house. The next day, Fernalld left defendant at the

apartment complex in Sacramento.

2. Defendant’s arrest and statements to police

Morris was arrested on October 21, 1995, three days after the crime, and

killed himself in his jail cell the next afternoon. Wilson was arrested the following

day. On that same day, a deputy sheriff recovered a long kitchen knife and a

pocket knife that had been buried near Sheila Abbott‟s property. DNA from both

knives was consistent with a mixture of Bone‟s DNA and Wilson‟s DNA; none of

the DNA on the knives could have come from defendant.

Defendant was arrested the following day as he drove into the parking area

of the Sacramento apartment complex. As he got out of the car, a loaded .22-

caliber handgun fell out of the driver‟s side door. Defendant called Sheila from

jail, and she told him that Morris had killed himself.

In a tape-recorded interview played for the jury at trial, defendant admitted

to detectives that he was involved in the burglary and robbery. He denied any

involvement in the murder, however, claiming Morris had killed Bone while

defendant was in the back of the house. According to defendant, it had been

Morris‟s idea to break into a house because he needed money to pay for his

automobile insurance. Defendant said that he, Morris, and Wilson each had a

bandana that Sheila had given them, and they had latex gloves that were obtained

from her first-aid kit. Morris drove defendant and Wilson to Bone‟s

neighborhood, an area in which defendant had formerly lived. In the car,

defendant handed Morris a gun, which was wrapped in a bandana, and Morris put

it in his pants. They then watched a house in the neighborhood and saw a woman

outside. Morris said they could kill her and take their time going through the

house, but defendant replied that he was “not into killin‟ people.”

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Defendant told the detectives that when they arrived at the Bone house,

Morris and Wilson knocked on the door. Initially no one answered; Morris

commented that no one was there and defendant concluded they would just be

committing a burglary. Then Morris said that someone was in the house.

Defendant walked back to the car and saw Bone answer the door. Wilson asked

for a girl named Debbie and Bone replied, “no, my daughter‟s name is Barbara.”

Wilson pushed the door open, hitting Bone and knocking her to the ground.

Defendant walked through the open door. At some point he saw Bone lying on the

floor with Morris on top of her; Bone was pleading with him to let her go.

Defendant said to Morris, “Don‟t hurt no women, don‟t hurt nobody.” He said he

went into the back of the house because he “couldn‟t deal with it.” When he

returned he saw Morris strangling Bone, who was tied up with a phone cord.

Morris said, “I can‟t leave no witnesses,” and “that fucking bitch won‟t die.”

Defendant then saw Morris rummaging through the kitchen looking for a knife,

after which he saw or heard Morris stabbing Bone forcefully and repeatedly.

Morris gave Wilson a paper sack containing the knives that were later recovered,

and told him to get rid of them.

According to defendant, Morris ordered him to take Bone‟s truck. They

loaded the items from the house into the truck and took them back to Sheila‟s

trailer, where Wilson and Morris siphoned gas out of the truck. Defendant drove

the truck to Shasta Lake, following Morris and Misty. Morris instructed defendant

to break out the truck‟s windows and drive it into the lake.

Defendant told the detectives that the gun he had when he was arrested in

Sacramento did not come from the house and he had obtained it that same day. He

stated that Wilson had found a gun in Bone‟s house and Morris had found a rifle.

Defendant denied knowing the location of the guns taken from the house and

asserted that Morris was supposed to dispose of them.

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Law enforcement officers recovered the guns that defendant and Morris had

thrown into the bushes before going through the police roadblock. One of these

guns had been taken from Bone‟s home.

3. Testimony regarding out-of-court statements

At trial, Misty Abbott testified that during the ride to Shasta Lake, Morris

told her he had tried to strangle a woman, and when she did not die he took a knife

from the kitchen and fatally stabbed her. She testified that during the ride back to

her mother‟s trailer, after they had dumped Bone‟s truck in the lake, defendant and

Morris fired their guns out of the windows of the car. When she was interviewed

by Wilson‟s private investigator, she said that Morris and defendant laughed about

the murder and called each other “down white boys.” Misty‟s brother, Shane

Fernalld, testified that while he and defendant were driving to Sacramento,

defendant told Fernalld either that “she deserved it” or “she didn‟t deserve it”;

Fernalld was not sure which. Before trial, however, Fernalld told several law

enforcement officers that defendant‟s statement was “she deserved it” or “the old

bitch deserved it.” Morris‟s grandfather testified that, an hour or two before

committing suicide, Morris called him from jail, sounding very upset, and said that

Morris‟s friends had turned against him and were going to testify that he had killed

Bone, but that he had not done it.2

Jonathan Howe, a prisoner who had been housed with defendant in the

Shasta County Jail, testified that defendant told him about the murder. According

to Howe, defendant said he had ordered Wilson and Morris to tie up and kill Bone,

2 The trial court admonished the jury that it could not consider for its truth

Morris‟s statement to his grandfather that he did not kill Bone; the court explained

that the statement was relevant only in evaluating Misty‟s testimony regarding

Morris‟s confession to her.

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and that he could not be linked to the murder with DNA evidence because he had

never touched the body. Howe also reported that defendant said either that he had

enjoyed watching Bone killed or that he enjoyed the fact that she died. Howe

testified under an agreement that permitted him to plead guilty to pending charges

for a sentence of a maximum of 24 months, consecutive to a term he was already

serving. Before coming forward, he had been offered a plea bargain with a 24-

month consecutive sentence. Under the new plea agreement, he could receive a

sentence of less than 24 months; his sentencing was postponed until after trial in

the present case, at which time the judge presiding over defendant‟s trial would

decide his sentence.

4. Defense evidence

The defense conceded that defendant was guilty of burglary, robbery, and

murder, but contested the special circumstance allegations on the grounds that

defendant was not the actual killer and lacked an intent to kill or a reckless

indifference to life.

The defense introduced admissions made by Wilson to law enforcement

officers that were consistent with defendant‟s statements to the police regarding

Wilson‟s role: Wilson said he had participated in the burglary and had pushed

Bone inside the house; when she fell back she was knocked out and he watched

her for several minutes; he found a .38-caliber revolver in a toolbox in a closet in

Bone‟s house; he cleaned the knives used to kill Bone by spitting on them and

wiping them off with a cloth; he siphoned gas out of the truck before defendant

drove it to the lake.

Defendant also presented evidence that Morris called Sheila Abbott‟s trailer

the day after his arrest and asked her daughter, Ginger Abbott, to provide him with

an alibi. Ginger refused.

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The jury convicted defendant on all counts.

B. Penalty phase

1. Aggravation

The prosecution introduced evidence that after driving the truck into the

lake, defendant, Morris, and Misty bought and injected methamphetamine.

The prosecution also presented proof of defendant‟s 10 prior felony

convictions, as well as evidence regarding four incidents in which he engaged in

violent criminal conduct. Specifically, in 1985, defendant and accomplice Anna

Cline tied up James Leonard and stole $300 from him. Defendant brandished a

pipe that was wrapped in a towel to simulate a gun. Afterward, he and Cline used

the money to buy drugs. A day after that robbery, a police officer saw defendant

shooting a sawed-off shotgun in an orchard. In 1991, a police officer encountered

defendant in a restaurant with a loaded .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun in his

waistband. In 1993, during a fight with his girlfriend, defendant held her down in

his car by her throat, threatening to choke her if she left him. When he stopped the

car in a parking lot, she escaped. He ran after her and they struggled until police

arrived.

2. Mitigation

The defense case in mitigation focused on two themes: defendant‟s

cognitive impairment and his positive contributions to his friends and family

members. Neuropsychologist John Wicks testified that he tested defendant‟s

mental functioning in 12 areas, and that he scored in the mentally retarded range in

seven areas, low dull-normal in two areas, and normal in three areas. Defendant‟s

overall IQ score was 73, which is borderline retarded, and he generally tested in

the range of third to fourth grade in reading, spelling, and arithmetic. Wicks

concluded that defendant had organic brain damage and that his low intellect could

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impair his judgment and decisionmaking ability, cause impulsivity, and make it

difficult for him to learn academic subjects and acceptable social behaviors.

Psychiatrist Albert Globus, who interviewed defendant and reviewed the

test results, agreed with Dr. Wicks‟s findings. Dr. Globus thought defendant

suffered from organic brain damage at birth (possibly due to beatings his mother

suffered while pregnant), based on the test results and on his low birth weight,

trouble breastfeeding, loss of weight during his first week of life, incontinence up

to the age of eight, and a speech impediment. At age 12, he suffered a serious

head injury which may have exacerbated his brain disorder. Although defendant

could determine right from wrong, Dr. Globus concluded that he would have

difficulty applying that knowledge to his decisionmaking and would likely rely on

others to make decisions for him. People like defendant, he said, often function

better in a structured setting like prison because most decisions are made for them.

At age nine, defendant was referred to a psychiatrist, who prescribed Ritalin

and Librium. At age 11, he was placed in special education classes for

emotionally disturbed children. Defendant‟s special education teacher, a teacher‟s

aide, and a resource specialist for the special education program described

defendant, at that time, as nonaggressive, well behaved, a follower, and someone

in need of love and attention. At age 15, he began running away from home and

was placed in foster care and then juvenile hall. He was committed to Napa State

Hospital at age 17 for nine months. His records from the hospital indicate he was

mildly mentally retarded and had latent schizophrenia.

Defendant‟s sister, Darlene, testified that when defendant was a young boy

he was incontinent and their mother made him wear a dress and stand out in the

yard as punishment. Defendant, she said, lacked self-esteem and confidence, and

was a follower who did what others told him to do.

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Defendant‟s mother, Patricia Grimes, testified that she loved her son. She

testified that defendant‟s father beat her while she was pregnant and left her before

defendant was born. After the birth, she was in the hospital for more than three

months with postpartum depression and defendant lived with her parents. She

recalled that at a young age, he told her he heard voices and he would wake in the

night screaming. Defendant‟s mother also testified that the day before he was

arrested, he was crying and remorseful, and said he was very sorry that the victim

had died.

Defendant‟s ex-wife, Cindy Grimes, who was briefly married to defendant

in 1990, testified that she loved him and he had treated her and her teenage son

well. Defendant also helped take care of her disabled father. Her son, Michael,

testified that defendant treated both of them very well, and had influenced him to

get his General Educational Development certificate and stay out of trouble with

the law. Cindy‟s mother and the manager of their apartment complex confirmed

that defendant was helpful and kind to Cindy‟s family and to others who lived in

their apartment complex. A fellow prison inmate, Michael Huntsman, testified

that defendant came to his aid when he was assaulted by a group of inmates.

In 1995, defendant attempted to assist the mother of his fiancée, Shannon

Yarnell, in a domestic violence incident involving Shannon‟s stepfather. The

incident ended in tragedy, however, when Shannon‟s stepfather rammed his truck

into the car in which Shannon was riding, killing Shannon.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Exclusion of Morris’s alleged statements against interest

As previously explained, witness Misty Abbott testified for the prosecution

that while she was driving with John Morris to Shasta Lake shortly after Bone was

murdered, Morris told her he killed Bone, first attempting to strangle her and then,

10

because she did not die, taking a knife from the kitchen and stabbing her. The trial

court admitted this statement as a declaration against Morris‟s penal interest.

(Evid. Code, § 1230.)

The defense also sought to admit an additional statement made in the

course of the same conversation: According to defendant‟s offer of proof, Misty

would testify that when asked whether defendant took part in the killing, Morris

responded that he had not; Morris told Misty that after he “did the lady,”

defendant and Wilson “looked at [Morris] as if they were saying, what in the hell

are you doing, dude.” The defense also proffered evidence that while Morris was

incarcerated in the county jail following his arrest for murdering Bone, he told

inmate Albert Lawson that he stabbed Bone and “grabbed her by the throat,” and

that defendant and Wilson “were in the house but took no part in the actual

killing.” Lawson did not testify at trial.

The trial court ruled that Morris‟s statement to Misty was inadmissible

hearsay that did not qualify as a declaration against interest. The court ruled that

Morris‟s statement to Lawson that he stabbed Bone and grabbed her by the throat

was admissible, but that his statement that defendant and Wilson took no part in

the actual killing was not.

Defendant asserts the statements were admissible as declarations against

interest and that the trial court‟s rulings violated his right to due process, a fair

trial, to present a defense, and to reliable procedures in death penalty cases. (U.S.

Const., 5th, 6th, 8th, & 14th Amends.; Chambers v. Mississippi (1973) 410 U.S.

284, 302.) As explained below, the trial court erred in excluding the testimony

under Evidence Code section 1230, and the error, while harmless at the guilt phase

of trial, requires reversal of the judgment of death.

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1. Declarations against interest

Although hearsay statements are generally inadmissible under California

law (Evid. Code, § 1200, subd. (b)), the rule has a number of exceptions. One

such exception permits the admission of any statement that “when made, was so

far contrary to the declarant‟s pecuniary or proprietary interest, or so far subjected

him to the risk of civil or criminal liability, or so far tended to render invalid a

claim by him against another, or created such a risk of making him an object of

hatred, ridicule, or social disgrace in the community, that a reasonable man in his

position would not have made the statement unless he believed it to be true.”

(Evid. Code, § 1230.) As applied to statements against the declarant‟s penal

interest, in particular, the rationale underlying the exception is that “a person‟s

interest against being criminally implicated gives reasonable assurance of the

veracity of his statement against that interest,” thereby mitigating the dangers

usually associated with the admission of out-of-court statements. (People v.

Spriggs (1964) 60 Cal.2d 868, 874.)3

3 In its traditional form, the against-interest exception permitted the

admission of out-of-court statements against the declarant‟s pecuniary or

proprietary interest, but not statements against penal interest. (See Donnelly v.

United States (1913) 228 U.S. 243; People v. Spriggs, supra, 60 Cal.2d at p. 870.)

This limitation — often recited, rarely explained — came under vigorous

criticism. (See ibid.) Dean Wigmore, citing Justice Holmes‟s dissent in Donnelly,

forcefully advocated “discard[ing] this barbarous doctrine, which would refuse to

let an innocent accused vindicate himself” by producing the confession of an

unavailable declarant. (5 Wigmore, Evidence (Chadbourn ed. 1974) § 1477,

p. 360; see Donnelly, at pp. 277-278 (dis. opn. of Holmes, J.) [observing that the

confession of the unavailable declarant in that case “would have a very strong

tendency to make anyone outside of a court of justice believe that Donnelly did

not commit the crime,” since “no other statement is so much against interest as a

confession of murder”].) Siding with the critics, this court in Spriggs extended the

against-interest exception to encompass statements against penal interest.

(Spriggs, supra, 60 Cal.2d at p. 870.) When the Legislature later enacted

(Footnote continued on next page.)

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To demonstrate that an out-of-court declaration is admissible as a

declaration against interest, “[t]he proponent of such evidence must show that the

declarant is unavailable, that the declaration was against the declarant‟s penal

interest when made and that the declaration was sufficiently reliable to warrant

admission despite its hearsay character.” (People v. Duarte (2000) 24 Cal.4th 603,

610-611 (Duarte).) “In determining whether a statement is truly against interest

within the meaning of Evidence Code section 1230, and hence is sufficiently

trustworthy to be admissible, the court may take into account not just the words

but the circumstances under which they were uttered, the possible motivation of

the declarant, and the declarant‟s relationship to the defendant.” (People v.

Frierson (1991) 53 Cal.3d 730, 745.)

We review a trial court‟s decision whether a statement is admissible under

Evidence Code section 1230 for abuse of discretion. (People v. Lawley (2002) 27

Cal.4th 102, 153, citing People v. Gordon (1990) 50 Cal.3d 1223, 1250-1253

(Gordon).) Whether a trial court has correctly construed Evidence Code section

1230 is, however, a question of law that we review de novo. (See Gordon at

p. 1251 [while the application of the against-interest exception “to the peculiar

facts of the individual case” is reviewed for abuse of discretion, “we review the

specific determinations underlying the court‟s ruling under the standards

(Footnote continued from previous page.)

Evidence Code section 1230, it codified this understanding of the against-interest

exception. (See Assem. Com. on Judiciary, com. on Assem. Bill No. 3212 (1965

Reg. Sess.) reprinted at 29B pt. 4 West‟s Ann. Evid. Code foll. § 1230, p. 289

[Evidence Code section 1230 “codifies the hearsay exception for declarations

against interest as that exception has been developed by the California courts”].)

13

appropriate thereto”]; People v. Louis (1986) 42 Cal.3d 969, 985 [conclusions of

law are subject to de novo review].)

As the trial court in this case correctly held, the portions of Morris‟s

statements admitting to stabbing Bone were admissible under Evidence Code

section 1230 because a reasonable person in Morris‟s position would have

believed that these admissions would subject him to criminal liability.

Defendant‟s challenge concerns the portions of Morris‟s statements indicating that

(1) defendant did not participate in the killing, and (2) defendant reacted with

surprise when Morris killed Bone. In excluding these portions of the statements,

the trial court reasoned that “if somebody is confessing to a murder and to

personally being the one who stabbed someone, . . . it does not in any way

significantly enhance the personal detriment to the confessor if he says nobody

else had any part in it. . . . [T]he fact that the others did or did not assist him isn‟t

going to diminish his exposure, his public ridicule, et cetera.” The court found

People v. Gatlin (1989) 209 Cal.App.3d 31 (Gatlin) to be controlling.

The trial court‟s ruling reflects a misunderstanding of the law governing the

admission of statements against interest.4 As an initial matter, to the extent the

4 The concurring and dissenting opinion (conc. & dis. opn. of Cantil-

Sakauye, C.J., post, at p. 4) asserts that our holding fails to pay the proper

deference to the trial court‟s ruling under the abuse of discretion standard of

review. But the abuse of discretion standard is designed to pay deference to trial

courts‟ application of the governing law to the “peculiar facts of the individual

case.” (Gordon, supra, 50 Cal.3d at p. 1251.) It is not designed to insulate legal

errors from appellate review. (Ibid.)

The justices now concurring and dissenting appeared to recognize as much

at an earlier stage of the case. This court‟s original opinion affirming the

judgment, which they signed, was not based on any deference to the trial court‟s

ruling. Rather, the opinion concluded with respect to one of the statements that

even though the trial court‟s stated basis for excluding the evidence was faulty, the

trial court reached the right result for the wrong reasons; with respect to the

(Footnote continued on next page.)

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trial court relied on Gatlin, supra, 209 Cal.App.3d 31, its reliance was misplaced.

In Gatlin, a defendant charged with burglary sought to introduce recordings of

statements by three codefendants. The codefendants claimed the defendant “had

nothing to do with [it],” but they made these statements while disclaiming their

own involvement. (Id. at p. 44.) The Court of Appeal thus held that their

exculpation of the defendant was “not specifically disserving” (ibid.) because it

was made in the context of the declarants‟ “self-serving” denials of culpability (id.

at p. 43). Here, by contrast, the portions of Morris‟s statements at issue were

made during conversations in which Morris admitted personally murdering the

victim by choking and stabbing her — admissions that unquestionably were

against Morris‟s interest.

The Attorney General argues that the trial court nevertheless properly

excluded the relevant portions of Morris‟s statements because they were collateral

assertions that tended to exculpate defendant, not to “further incriminate” Morris.

The Attorney General contends that the trial court‟s parsing of Morris‟s statements

was necessary because Evidence Code section 1230 does not permit the admission

of “any statement or portion of a statement not itself specifically disserving to the

interests of the declarant.” (People v. Leach (1975) 15 Cal.3d 419, 441 (Leach).)

As the Attorney General‟s argument demonstrates, the proper application of the

Leach rule appears to have generated some confusion. We therefore discuss the

origins and purpose of the rule in some depth.

(Footnote continued from previous page.)

remaining statements, the opinion simply concluded that any error in excluding the

statements was harmless.

15

The question in Leach concerned the admissibility of coconspirators‟

extrajudicial confessions implicating other defendants in a murder plot, which the

prosecution introduced as, inter alia, declarations against penal interest. (Leach,

supra, 15 Cal.3d at pp. 428, 438.) This court concluded that to the extent the

confessions contained collateral assertions that inculpated the defendant, rather

than the confessor, the statements were inadmissible. (Id. at pp. 441-442.) We

explained that those portions of a confession inculpating others are not as

inherently trustworthy as those portions that are actually disserving to the

declarant‟s interests. (Id. at pp. 439-441.) The resulting rule, we noted, is

consistent with the constitutional right of a defendant to confront his or her

accusers: “[I]t is precisely the purpose of the Constitution — and, we might add,

the hearsay rule — to „protect defendants from statements of unreasonable men if

there is to be no opportunity for cross-examination.‟ ” (Id. at p. 441.) We further

explained that “[t]his limitation on the against-interest exception was at least

implicit” in decisions of this court and of the United States Supreme Court that

generally forbid the prosecution in a joint trial of two defendants from introducing

those portions of one defendant‟s confession that implicate the other defendant.

(Id. at p. 441, fn. 17, citing People v. Aranda (1965) 63 Cal.2d 518, and Bruton v.

United States (1968) 391 U.S. 123.)

The United States Supreme Court, interpreting an analogous exception to

the federal hearsay rule, reached much the same conclusion when it later

addressed the issue in Williamson v. United States (1994) 512 U.S. 594

(Williamson). The court held that the against-interest exception did not authorize

the admission of those portions of a third party‟s out-of-court confession that

tended to shift blame to the defendant. The court explained that the exception “is

founded on the commonsense notion that reasonable people, even reasonable

people who are not especially honest, tend not to make self-inculpatory statements

16

unless they believe them to be true.” (Id. at p. 599.) That notion, the court

explained, does not extend to the entirety of the broader statement in which the

self-inculpatory statement appears. Where, as in the Williamson case, “part of the

confession is actually self-exculpatory, the generalization on which [the hearsay

exception] is founded becomes even less applicable. Self-exculpatory statements

are exactly the ones which people are most likely to make even when they are

false; and mere proximity to other, self-inculpatory, statements does not increase

the plausibility of the self-exculpatory statements.” (Id. at p. 600.)

Concurring in the judgment, Justice Kennedy noted that this approach

raises questions as applied to collateral statements that exculpate, rather than

inculpate, the defendant. Justice Kennedy gave as an example a statement in

which a declarant said, “ „I robbed the store alone,‟ ” but a criminal defendant on

trial for robbery was permitted to introduce “only the portion of the statement in

which the declarant said „I robbed the store.‟ ” (Williamson, supra, 512 U.S. at

p. 617 (conc. opn. of Kennedy, J.).) Such a result, Justice Kennedy opined,

“seems extraordinary.” (Ibid.) The Williamson majority did not directly respond

to Justice Kennedy on this point, since no such issue was raised in the case. But

the majority did make clear that the proper application of the rule depends on

context. The majority explained that “[t]he question under [the against-interest

exception] is always whether . . . „. . . a reasonable person in the declarant‟s

position would not have made the statement unless believing it to be true,‟ and this

question can only be answered in light of all the surrounding circumstances.” (Id.

at pp. 603-604.)

In the wake of Williamson, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth

Circuit has considered how the rule applies to a statement in which the declarant

both inculpates himself and exculpates another, much as in Justice Kennedy‟s

hypothetical. (U.S. v. Paguio (9th Cir. 1997) 114 F.3d 928 (Paguio).) In Paguio,

17

the court reversed the defendant‟s conviction on the ground that the trial court

abused its discretion by admitting his father‟s confession that he had falsified

certain tax forms, but excluding the portion of the statement that represented that

the son “ „had nothing to do with it.‟ ” (Id. at pp. 934-935.) Writing for the court,

Judge Kleinfeld explained that, in context, the latter statement both disserved the

father‟s interests, insofar as “leading others into wrongdoing has always been seen

as especially bad,” and was “not practically separable” from the remainder of the

confession. (Id. at p. 934.) The court rejected the government‟s argument that the

rule announced in Williamson “mean[s] that the trial judge must always parse the

statement and let in only the inculpatory part.” (Ibid.) Rather, “[i]t means that the

statement must be examined in context, to see whether as a matter of common

sense the portion at issue was against interest and would not have been made by a

reasonable person unless he believed it to be true.” (Ibid.) “As a matter of

common sense,” the court explained, this is less likely to be true when the

statement takes the form “ „I did it, but X is guiltier than I am,‟ ” than when the

statement is “ „I did it alone, not with X.‟ That is because the part of the statement

touching on X‟s participation is an attempt to avoid responsibility or curry favor in

the former, but to accept undiluted responsibility in the latter.” (Ibid.; see also

U.S. v. Lopez (10th Cir. 1985) 777 F.2d 543, 554 [trial court erred in excluding

hearsay statements of a passenger in a vehicle that he alone had placed cocaine

into the vehicle and that the defendant was not aware of the drugs prior to

transporting them].)

Our cases, too, have taken a contextual approach to the application of the

Leach rule. We have applied Leach to bar admission of those portions of a third

party‟s confession that are self-serving or otherwise appear to shift responsibility

to others. (Duarte, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 612 [excluding portions of confession

that, “far from „specifically disserving‟ [the declarant‟s] penal interests, positively

18

served those interests”]; cf. In re Sakarias (2005) 35 Cal.4th 140, 155 [under the

Leach rule, portions of declarant‟s confession that tended to inculpate an

accomplice “could well have been held inadmissible as attempts to deflect

culpability away from the declarant”].) But we have permitted the admission of

those portions of a confession that, though not independently disserving of the

declarant‟s penal interests, also are not merely “self-serving,” but “inextricably

tied to and part of a specific statement against penal interest.” (People v. Samuels

(2005) 36 Cal.4th 96, 120-121 (Samuels) [upholding the trial court‟s admission of

declarant‟s assertion that the defendant had paid him to kill the victim, and

rejecting the argument that the reference to the defendant “should have been

purged,” where the statement in question was “in no way exculpatory, self-

serving, or collateral”].) In Samuels, we applied the Leach rule to admit evidence

that inculpated the defendant. By the same token, the Leach rule permits courts to

consider whether the portion of a confession that tends to exculpate another, rather

than to shift blame or curry favor, should be admitted in view of surrounding

circumstances, even though the exculpatory portion of the statement is not

independently disserving of the declarant‟s interests.

In advocating a contrary rule, the Attorney General relies heavily on People

v. Lawley, supra, 27 Cal.4th 102, in which we applied the Leach rule in upholding

a trial court‟s exclusion of those portions of an out-of-court confession that were

neither self-exculpatory nor inculpatory of the defendant. That reliance is

misplaced. The defendant in Lawley was charged with murder, conspiracy to

commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder. At his trial, he sought to

present evidence that an alleged coconspirator had confessed to killing the victim

pursuant to a contract issued by the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. The trial

court admitted the portion of the statement confessing to accepting payment for

killing the victim, but excluded the portion identifying the Aryan Brotherhood as

19

having issued the contract, as well as the declarant‟s statement that “an innocent

man was in jail,” charged with the crime. (Id. at p. 152.) In upholding the trial

court‟s ruling, we noted that the excluded statements did not make the declarant

“more culpable than did the other portions of his statement” (id. at p. 154) or

“further incriminate” the defendant (id. at p. 155, fn. 21). But as our later decision

in Samuels makes clear, Lawley did not announce a rigid or hypertechnical

application of the Leach rule that would in all cases require exclusion of even

those portions of a confession that are inextricably intertwined with the declarant‟s

admission of criminal liability. (See Samuels, supra, 36 Cal.4th at pp. 120-121

[distinguishing Lawley].) Lawley itself affirmed that “[w]hether a statement is

self-inculpatory or not can only be determined by viewing the statement in

context.” (Lawley, at p. 153.) Further, as we also explained, the proffered

evidence in that case lacked “sufficient reliability to demand its admission.” (Id.

at p. 155; see id. at pp. 174-175 (conc. opn. of Brown, J.); cf. Samuels, at p. 121

[“[T]he differences between the trustworthiness of the statements involved in this

case and those excluded in [Lawley] are palpable.”].)

In short, the nature and purpose of the against-interest exception does not

require courts to sever and excise any and all portions of an otherwise inculpatory

statement that do not “further incriminate” the declarant. Ultimately, courts must

consider each statement in context in order to answer the ultimate question under

Evidence Code section 1230: Whether the statement, even if not independently

inculpatory of the declarant, is nevertheless against the declarant‟s interest, such

that “a reasonable man in [the declarant‟s] position would not have made the

statement unless he believed it to be true.” As the court recognized in Paguio,

such a statement is more likely to satisfy the against-interest exception when the

declarant accepts responsibility and denies or diminishes others‟ responsibility, as

in the example “ „I robbed the store alone,‟ ” as opposed to attempting to assign

20

greater blame to others, as in the example, “ „I did it, but X is guiltier than I am.‟ ”

(Paguio, supra, 114 F.3d at p. 934.) Of course, not all such statements are

admissible; sometimes a declarant who makes an inculpatory statement may have

a substantial incentive to exculpate others. A member of a criminal street gang,

for example, may choose to take the fall for fellow gang members by making a

confession that exculpates them. A trial court in that situation may reasonably

conclude that the declarant‟s incentive to protect his friends renders the

exculpatory portions of the statement inadmissible. (See Duarte, supra, 24

Cal.4th at p. 611 [to be admissible under Evid. Code § 1230, a declaration must be

shown to be “sufficiently reliable to warrant admission despite its hearsay

character”].) But such a statement is not, as the Attorney General argues,

automatically inadmissible merely because it does not render the declarant more

culpable than the other portions of his confession — or because, as the trial court

put it in this case, the statement does not “significantly enhance the personal

detriment” to a person who has already confessed responsibility for the crime.

The concurring and dissenting opinion faults us for “watering down the

standard for admission under the against-interest exception.” (Conc. & dis. opn.

of Cantil-Sakauye, C.J., post, at p. 9.) But in rejecting the Attorney General‟s

argument, we have broken no new ground. A rule that permitted admission of no

more of a declarant‟s statement than was necessary to expose him to criminal

liability, requiring courts to mechanically sever and excise the rest, certainly might

be easier to apply. But as the concurring and dissenting opinion itself appears to

recognize, this is not the rule we have: Under the law as it has developed in

California, as in the federal system, context matters in determining whether a

statement or portion thereof is admissible under the against-interest exception.

This contextual approach accords with the rationales underlying the modern

21

expansion of the rule governing the admission of statements against interest. (See

Paguio, supra, 114 F.3d at p. 934; see also fn. 1, ante.)

Applying that approach in this case, we conclude that defendant‟s proffered

statements to Lawson and Misty were declarations against interest. Considered in

context, the disputed portions of those two statements form part of Morris‟s

admission of responsibility for killing Bone and thus, for purposes of Evidence

Code section 1230, are not practically separable from the remainder of the

statements. In each instance, the disputed portion of the statement elaborated on

Morris‟s responsibility for the murder; rather than attempting to minimize his

responsibility or shift blame to others, Morris instead assumed sole responsibility.

A reasonable person in Morris‟s position, moreover, would have understood that

Morris‟s explanatory comment in his statement to Misty — when he confessed to

undiluted responsibility for carrying out the brutal murder of Bone and elaborated

on that confession by acknowledging that his confederates looked on in surprise as

it occurred — was against his penal interest. Of course, his elaboration did not

specify the reason for his confederates‟ surprise, whether the fact of the killing, the

brutal manner in which it was carried out, or both. But under any conceivable

interpretation of the statement, it tended to underscore Morris‟s responsibility for

the crime, rather than diminish it.5

5 The concurring and dissenting opinion speculates that this portion of

Morris‟s statement to Misty may have reflected Morris‟s impression that

defendant and Wilson (1) “were surprised” that he had difficulty killing Bone;

(2) were “annoyed or frustrated” that the killing took as long as it did; or (3) were

“amused by the circumstances of the killing.” (Conc. & dis. opn. of Cantil-

Sakauye, C.J., post, at p. 6.) But in context, this portion of the statement was

simply an elaboration on Morris‟s acknowledgment that defendant and Wilson did

not participate in the murder. The trial court viewed it in that light, explaining in

its tentative ruling that it provided “details regarding” Morris‟s observation that

defendant and Wilson “did not take part in the killing.” The prosecutor did not

(Footnote continued on next page.)

22

Certainly under California law, while Morris‟s role as an actual killer in a

felony murder made him eligible for the death penalty regardless of the role

played by his confederates, his admission of sole responsibility for the brutal

murder of Bone would have qualified as an aggravating circumstance tending to

justify imposition of the death penalty. (See § 190.3, factor (a); People v.

Carpenter (1997) 15 Cal.4th 312, 414-415 [that defendant acted alone could be

considered by jury as a circumstance of the crime in determining penalty],

disapproved on other grounds in People v. Diaz (2015) 60 Cal.4th 1176, 1190;

(Footnote continued from previous page.)

challenge this characterization. When a “third person talks to a friend or

acquaintance in a purely private setting and implicates himself in the charged

crime, while saying expressly that defendant was not involved,” the entire

statement is admissible “when there is a close logical and narrative connection

between the part of the statement implicating the speaker and the part referring to

the defendant.” (5 Mueller & Kirkpatrick, Federal Evidence (4th ed. 2013)

§ 8:131, p. 198.) That was the case here.

Even if we were to accept the concurring and dissenting opinion‟s

speculations as to the statement‟s further meaning, the bottom line is that any

reasonable interpretation of the statement reflects Morris‟s acceptance of sole

responsibility for a brutal killing, and thus forms part of a specific statement

against Morris‟s penal interest. The statement is therefore unlike the one at issue

in Andrews v. United States (D.C. 2009) 981 A.2d 571, 576-577, cited by the

concurring and dissenting opinion, where the trial court found, and the appellate

court agreed, that the entire statement at issue was reasonably construed in a

manner that did not expose the declarant to criminal liability.

Ultimately, the concurring and dissenting opinion‟s argument relates not to

whether Morris‟s statements were against his penal interest — they clearly were

— but to whether Morris‟s statements were sufficiently powerful evidence of

defendant‟s noninvolvement in the killing that they would have made a difference

in defendant‟s trial. For the reasons explained below, we do not believe they

would have made a difference at the guilt phase. But we cannot say that the jury‟s

verdict at the penalty phase was “ „surely unattributable‟ ” to the trial court‟s error

in excluding the statements from evidence. (People v. Neal (2003) 31 Cal.4th 63,

86, quoting Sullivan v. Louisiana (1993) 508 U.S. 275, 279.)

23

People v. Howard (1992) 1 Cal.4th 1132, 1195 [defendant‟s role as the actual

killer and motivating force behind the crime was a factor aggravating his

culpability].) And while Morris may not have been familiar with the intricacies of

California‟s death penalty law, it is reasonable to infer that he understood the

commonsense notion that killers who act on their own are likely to be punished

more severely than those who were encouraged or assisted by a confederate, or

who played some lesser role in the act.

Finally, neither the circumstances in which the statements were made nor

Morris‟s relationship to defendant provide reason to believe that Morris made the

statements to protect defendant. (See People v. Frierson, supra, 53 Cal.3d at

p. 745.) There was no evidence that defendant and Morris were close friends,

which might have given Morris a motive to protect defendant by minimizing his

participation in the murder. Defendant and Morris do not appear to have known

each other well; indeed, defendant told the police that he did not even know

Morris‟s last name. And while some offenders may attempt to enhance their

reputations by bragging about crimes they did not commit or exaggerating the

extent of their responsibility for a criminal act (see, e.g., People v. Nunez (2013)

57 Cal.4th 1, 13 [expert testimony that gang members may “brag about crimes

they did not commit to gain a reputation”]; People v. Gonzales (2011) 52 Cal.4th

254, 292 [same]), Morris had no apparent incentive to attempt to enhance his

reputation in such a manner in his conversation with Misty. Moreover, Morris

committed suicide not long after making his statement to Lawson, and it is

unlikely that a person contemplating suicide following his arrest for murder would

have any interest in enhancing his reputation in jail.

In short, we can think of no plausible reason (and none has been offered by

the trial court, by the Attorney General, or in the concurring and dissenting

opinion) why Morris‟s assertion to Lawson that defendant and Wilson took no part

24

in the killing of Bone, and his assertion to Misty that both of them were shocked

when Morris killed her, would be any less trustworthy than the remainder of

Morris‟s confession. This is hardly surprising: In the absence of any special

relationship with defendant and Wilson, why should he lie not only about having

committed a brutal murder, but also about their lack of involvement and their

surprise at his conduct?

We therefore conclude that Morris‟s statements to Misty and Lawson that

he acted alone and that defendant and Wilson appeared startled when he killed

Bone were so disserving to his interests that a reasonable person in his position

would not have made them unless they were true. The statements were thus

admissible under Evidence Code section 1230.

2. Prejudice

Before turning to the question of whether the trial court‟s error was

prejudicial, we briefly pause to consider the appropriate standard of review. In

this case, the Attorney General did not argue, in the answer brief she filed when

this matter was first before this court, that any error in the trial court‟s exclusion of

Morris‟s hearsay statements was harmless. This court invited the parties to submit

supplemental briefs addressing the significance, if any, of that omission, and

whether exclusion of the statements prejudiced defendant at the guilt and penalty

phases of trial.6 In his supplemental brief, defendant acknowledged that when trial

6 Our order asked the parties to brief these questions: “1. Does the Attorney

General‟s failure to argue in the answer brief that an alleged error is harmless

constitute forfeiture of any harmless error argument regarding either state law

errors or federal constitutional errors? 2. Assuming the trial court erred in

excluding the hearsay statements of John Morris to Misty Abbott and Albert

Lawson that were proffered by defendant as statements against interest, does the

error require reversal of the special circumstances or death sentence?

3. Assuming that the trial court did not err in excluding Morris‟s statement to

(Footnote continued on next page.)

25

court error violates state law, no forfeiture occurs. He argued, however, that the

error violated the federal Constitution, the Attorney General‟s failure to brief the

question of prejudice acts as a forfeiture, and that a reviewing court can find the

error in question harmless only in three limited circumstances: “(1) the record is

short and straightforward and the court can easily determine prejudice on its own,

(2) the harmless error question is in no doubt, and (3) a remand would be futile.”

The Attorney General, in turn, argued that any forfeiture does not affect this

court‟s independent duty to determine whether any error was harmless.

We ultimately conclude that it is unnecessary to resolve this debate over the

significance, if any, of the Attorney General‟s failure to brief the question of

prejudice, because the answer to that question does not alter the outcome of the

case. Under either California‟s traditional harmless error test or under the more

rigorous standard advocated by defendant, the trial court‟s erroneous exclusion of

Morris‟s statements to Misty and Lawson was harmless at the guilt phase of trial.

And again, regardless of which test we apply, the error requires reversal of the

judgment of death.

With respect to the effect of the error at the guilt phase, defendant

acknowledges that the trial court‟s erroneous exclusion of the proffered evidence

had no effect on his conviction for first degree murder; under the felony-murder

rule, he was guilty of this crime regardless of whether he had anything to do with

(Footnote continued from previous page.)

Abbott that after Morris killed the victim, defendant looked at him as if he were

surprised, but that the trial court did err in excluding Morris‟s statements to Abbott

and Lawson that defendant was not involved in the actual killing, does the error

require reversal of the special circumstance findings or death sentence?”

26

the killing. He contends, however, that the error may well have affected the jury‟s

finding with respect to the felony-murder special circumstances.

To find the special circumstances true, the jury had to find either that

defendant acted with the intent to kill or that he assisted in the criminal enterprise

as a “major participant” and acted with “reckless indifference to human life.”

(§ 190.2, subds. (c) & (d).) The excluded evidence that defendant expressed

surprise after Morris killed Bone might well have affected the jury‟s determination

with respect to whether defendant had the intent to kill. But the prosecution relied

primarily not on that theory but on the evidence that defendant was a major

participant who acted with reckless indifference to human life. That evidence was

overwhelming.

In defendant‟s statement to the police, he admitted that he participated in

the planning of the burglary/robbery that resulted in Bone‟s death and that he

handed Morris a gun. He also admitted that he entered Bone‟s house along with

Morris and Patrick Wilson, that he participated in the ransacking of the house, and

that he drove away from the house in Bone‟s truck. These uncontroverted

admissions overwhelmingly demonstrate that defendant was a major participant in

the offense.

The evidence that defendant acted with reckless indifference to life is

equally overwhelming. He knew Morris was armed: He told the police that

before they entered Bone‟s home, Morris was looking for his gun and defendant

gave it to him. Defendant also admitted that before they entered, Morris had

observed a woman taking out her trash and said, “ „Fuck it, we‟ll just fuckin‟ kill

her an‟ look at the house, we got all day long.‟ ” Thus, even if, as defendant

claimed, he responded to Morris‟s comment by telling Morris that he was “not into

killin‟ people,” he nonetheless handed Morris a gun and thereafter entered Bone‟s

house with Morris while fully aware of Morris‟s desire to kill, thereby clearly

27

demonstrating reckless indifference to the possibility that a killing would indeed

occur.

Based on this undisputed evidence, no reasonable jury could have found

that defendant was not a major participant in the crime or that he did not act with

reckless indifference to life. Thus, the trial court‟s exclusion of the evidence that

defendant did not participate in the killing and was surprised that it occurred was

harmless with respect to jury‟s finding as to the truth of the special circumstance,

regardless of whether we apply the standard test for errors violating California law

(see People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836), the test for errors violating the

federal Constitution (see Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18), or (because

this court may easily determine prejudice on its own) the test urged by defendant

for cases in which the Attorney General did not brief the question of prejudice.

The error, however, was not harmless at the penalty phase. Under

California law, the effect of a trial court‟s erroneous ruling on the admissibility of

evidence is ordinarily measured by the standard first described in People v. Brown

(1988) 46 Cal.3d 432, 448: “[W]e will affirm the judgment unless we conclude

there is a reasonable (i.e., realistic) possibility that the jury would have rendered a

different verdict had the error or errors not occurred.” This reasonable possibility

test “ „is the same, in substance and effect‟ ” as the test for errors that violate the

federal Constitution, which requires reversal unless the reviewing court can say

beyond a reasonable doubt that the error was harmless. (People v. Pearson (2013)

56 Cal.4th 393, 472.)

The prosecutor‟s case in aggravation relied primarily on the circumstances

of the offense. In his closing argument, the prosecutor told the jury: “The

important thing to remember in your deliberations is to focus on the defendant and

his conduct on [the day of the murder]. Not the defendant as a child, not the

defendant at some other time in his life, but the defendant and his behavior on [the

28

day of the murder] . . . . This is the thing to focus on.” Although the prosecutor

never argued that defendant personally killed Bone, at the guilt phase the

prosecution had presented the testimony of Jonathan Howe, who told the jury that

defendant had ordered Morris to kill Bone and that he had enjoyed the victim‟s

death. Howe‟s credibility was not a significant issue at the guilt phase; the central

issue was, as noted, whether defendant was recklessly indifferent to the possibility

that the robbery would result in a murder. But the issue took on particular

significance at the penalty phase, when the jury was asked to fix a penalty for

defendant‟s crime based on the precise nature of defendant‟s involvement in the

death of Betty Bone — whether, as defendant argued, he was merely a follower of

Morris‟s, or, as the prosecution argued, defendant was directly responsible for the

planning of the murder. Howe‟s testimony that defendant had played a leadership

role in the murder provided strong support for the prosecution‟s view that

defendant should be held directly responsible for Bone‟s death. In response to

defense counsel‟s argument that Howe was “not believable,” the prosecutor

argued that Howe‟s testimony was, in fact, worthy of belief: “[T]he defense has

never been able to give you a reason that Mr. Howe would lie. They‟ve never

been able to give you any reason that he would simply make this up about the

defendant. . . . They‟ve never given you a reason to doubt his testimony.” The

prosecutor also emphasized the violent nature of the killing, arguing that defendant

“stood by” while Bone was brutally strangled and stabbed to death.

The excluded statements would have given the defense a substantial basis

for countering the prosecutor‟s argument. Misty would have testified that Morris

told her that defendant did not take part in the killing and, after it happened,

looked at Morris as if “saying, what in the hell are you doing, dude?” Lawson

would have testified that while he was incarcerated in the county jail, shortly

before Morris committed suicide, Morris told Lawson that defendant and Wilson

29

were “in the house but took no part in the actual killing.” Based on these

statements, the jury might well have concluded that, contrary to Howe‟s testimony

that defendant had ordered the killing, the murder was, as the defense claimed,

entirely Morris‟s idea and that defendant was shocked when it happened.

Although defendant later told police that he had observed Morris strangling Bone

and then saw or heard him stabbing Bone, neither statement is inconsistent with

this conclusion; the jury might have inferred that defendant was surprised by

Morris‟s actions while they occurred and remained surprised thereafter. And even

had the jury interpreted Morris‟s description of defendant‟s surprise as a reaction

not to the fact of killing, but, for example, the brutality with which it was carried

out, the testimony still would have countered Howe‟s testimony that defendant had

enjoyed the victim‟s death, as well as the prosecutor‟s argument that defendant

deserved the death penalty because he “stood by” watching as Morris brutally

strangled and stabbed the victim.

We cannot say with certainty whether the proffered evidence would

ultimately have caused the jury to render a different verdict. But given the

centrality of the issue of defendant‟s role in the murder — a murder that, as all

acknowledge, defendant did not personally commit — we also cannot say that the

jury‟s verdict was “ „surely unattributable‟ ” to the trial court‟s error in preventing

the jury from hearing evidence that tended to show that defendant not only did not

participate in, but was surprised by, the brutal killing of Betty Bone. (People v.

Neal, supra, 31 Cal.4th at p. 86, quoting Sullivan v. Louisiana, supra, 508 U.S. at

p. 279.) In sum, had the jury heard the excluded evidence, we find a “reasonable

(i.e., realistic) possibility” that it would have rendered a different verdict.

30

(People v. Brown, supra, 46 Cal.3d at p. 448.)7 We must therefore set aside the

judgment of death.

B. Instructions on circumstantial evidence

The trial court delivered the standard instruction regarding circumstantial

evidence (CALJIC No. 8.83), which told the jury that (1) each fact that is essential

to complete a set of circumstances necessary to establish the truth of a special

circumstance must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, and (2) if there are two

reasonable interpretations of the circumstantial evidence, the jury must accept the

one that favors defendant. Defendant argues that instructing the jury regarding

these principles only in connection with circumstantial evidence could cause the

jury to believe that the principles did not apply when direct evidence is used. (See

People v. Vann (1974) 12 Cal.3d 220, 226-227 [instruction on circumstantial

evidence, in the absence of a general instruction requiring proof of guilt beyond a

reasonable doubt, might have been interpreted by jurors as requiring a lesser

degree of proof if the evidence is direct].) He contends the instruction undermined

the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt as applied to direct evidence,

and that this instructional error requires reversal of the special circumstance

finding because it could have affected the jury‟s consideration of Howe‟s

testimony, which was direct evidence that defendant intended to kill.

The Attorney General contends defendant forfeited this claim by failing to

ask the trial court to modify the standard instruction. We agree. “A party may not

complain on appeal that an instruction correct in law and responsive to the

7 We would, of course, reach the same conclusion if we applied a more

rigorous standard as a result of the Attorney General‟s failure to brief the question

of prejudice.

31

evidence was too general or incomplete unless the party has requested appropriate

clarifying or amplifying language.” (People v. Lang (1989) 49 Cal.3d 991, 1024,

disapproved on other grounds in People v. Diaz (2015) 60 Cal.4th 1176, 1190; see

People v. Livingston (2012) 53 Cal.4th 1145, 1165 [defendant forfeited claim that

instruction discussing proof by direct evidence should have included additional

principles related to the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that were

contained in the instruction on circumstantial evidence]; People v. Bolin (1998) 18

Cal.4th 297, 328 [defendant forfeited claim that instruction directing jury to find

special circumstance not true if it had a reasonable doubt as to its truth was

incomplete because it did not define reasonable doubt or direct the jury to find the

special circumstance “beyond a reasonable doubt”].) The instructions regarding

circumstantial evidence were not incorrect or inapplicable and defendant did not

request any modification of the instructions to address the concerns he now

presents.

Were we to address the merits, we would reject the claim. An instruction

“[d]ifferentiating between direct and circumstantial evidence does not undermine

the reasonable doubt standard or presumption of innocence.” (People v.

Livingston, supra, 53 Cal.4th at p. 1166.) We addressed and rejected claims

nearly identical to defendant‟s in Livingston and in People v. Solomon (2010) 49

Cal.4th 792, 825-827. In Solomon, the defendant argued that because the

instruction on circumstantial evidence did not refer to direct evidence, “jurors

would have believed that a fact essential to guilt that was based on direct, rather

than circumstantial, evidence need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” (Id.

at p. 826.) We noted that the trial court had instructed the jury “that both direct

and circumstantial evidence were acceptable means of proof,” that the defendant

was to be presumed innocent, and that “ „in case of a reasonable doubt whether his

guilt is satisfactorily shown, he is entitled to a verdict of not guilty.‟ ” (Ibid.,

32

quoting CALJIC No. 2.90.) “These instructions, coupled with the directive to

„consider the instructions as a whole and each in light of the others,‟ fully apprised

the jury that the reasonable doubt standard applied to both forms of proof.”

(Solomon, at p. 826.)

As in Solomon, here the trial court instructed the jury on the presumption of

innocence and the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and it told the

jury to consider the instructions as a whole. We see no reasonable likelihood that

because the jury was given some additional, more detailed, direction about how to

apply the reasonable doubt standard to circumstantial evidence, but was not given

such direction regarding direct evidence, the jury would have concluded that the

reasonable doubt standard did not fully apply to proof by direct evidence.

Furthermore, the jury received additional relevant instructions applicable to

the direct evidence with which defendant is here concerned — Howe‟s testimony

that defendant told him he ordered the killing, which was evidence of defendant‟s

intent. The jury was instructed that “if the evidence as to any specific intent or

mental state is susceptible of two reasonable interpretations, one of which points

to the existence of the specific intent or mental state and the other to the absence

of the specific intent or mental state, you must adopt that interpretation which

points to the absence of the specific intent or mental state.”

C. Failure to instruct that the jury must unanimously agree on any

overt acts required for conspiracy to commit robbery

Defendant was convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery. Conspiracy to

commit a crime requires proof of an overt act committed in pursuance of the

conspiracy. (§ 184.) The information alleged five different overt acts in

furtherance of the conspiracy. Defendant contends the trial court erred in failing

to instruct the jury that it could not convict him of conspiracy unless the jurors

unanimously agreed regarding the required overt act. Defendant concedes that this

33

court has previously rejected the argument that jury unanimity regarding the overt

act is required under state law. (People v. Russo (2001) 25 Cal.4th 1124, 1135

(Russo).) He contends, however, that Russo did not consider whether the federal

Constitution requires the agreement of at least a majority of jurors on an overt act.

Defendant cites cases holding that the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to

the federal Constitution require a jury trial and proof beyond a reasonable doubt

on all elements of the offense (Sandstrom v. Montana (1979) 442 U.S. 510, 512-

514; Mullaney v. Wilbur (1975) 421 U.S. 684, 697-698; In re Winship (1970) 397

U.S. 358, 363-364; Morissette v. United States (1952) 342 U.S. 246, 274-275) and

the agreement of some minimum number of jurors (Burch v. Louisiana (1979) 441

U.S. 130 [conviction by a nonunanimous six-person jury violated defendant‟s right

to a jury trial]; Johnson v. Louisiana (1972) 406 U.S. 356 [agreement of nine out

of 12 jurors is sufficient]).

None of the cases cited by defendant calls into question our prior

conclusion that the jurors need not agree unanimously on which overt act of a

conspiracy was proved. Russo reasoned that the jury must agree on what crime

was committed, not how that crime was committed. “Although the jury had to

find at least one overt act, whether it was one or another of several possible acts

only concerns the way in which the crime was committed, i.e., the theory of the

case, not whether discrete crimes were committed. Thus, if the jurors disagreed as

to what overt act was committed, and agreed only that an overt act was committed,

they would still have unanimously found defendant guilty of a particular

conspiracy.” (Russo, supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 1135.) Consistent with our reasoning

in Russo, the United States Supreme Court has recognized that when a defendant‟s

alleged conduct constitutes a single offense that may be committed in different

ways, the federal Constitution does not require unanimity regarding how the crime

was committed. (Schad v. Arizona (1991) 501 U.S. 624, 629-645 [due process

34

clause does not require a jury to agree unanimously whether a charge of first

degree murder was committed by an intentional, premeditated killing or by felony

murder]; id. at p. 649 (conc. opn. of Scalia, J.) [“it has long been the general rule

that when a single crime can be committed in various ways, jurors need not agree

upon the mode of commission”]; see also U.S. v. Kozeny (2d Cir. 2011) 667 F.3d

122, 132 [jury need not agree on a single overt act to sustain a conspiracy

conviction]; U.S. v. Griggs (7th Cir. 2009) 569 F.3d 341, 343 [same]; U.S. v.

Sutherland (5th Cir. 1981) 656 F.2d 1181, 1202 [same].)

D. Discovery order

Defendant contends that the discovery that the trial court ordered the

defense to provide to the prosecution under section 1054.5 violated provisions of

the federal and state Constitutions protecting his self-incrimination privilege, his

right to due process, and his right to the effective assistance of counsel. Defendant

recognizes that we rejected these arguments in Izazaga v. Superior Court (1991)

54 Cal.3d 356, but, to preserve the issue for federal review, he contends that case

was wrongly decided and should be reconsidered. We decline to do so.

E. Refusal of request to instruct that the jury must unanimously agree

on the theory supporting the special circumstance verdict

The robbery and burglary special-circumstance allegations required the jury

to find either that defendant intended to kill or that he was a major participant in

the crime who exhibited reckless indifference to life. (§ 190.2, subds. (c) & (d).)

The trial court refused to instruct the jury that it must agree unanimously on the

theory that supported the special-circumstance allegation. Defendant

acknowledges that when a charge is prosecuted under different legal theories, the

jury need not agree unanimously on which theory applies. (See, e.g., People v.

Jenkins (2000) 22 Cal.4th 900, 1024-1025 [jury need not agree whether the

defendant is guilty of murder based on a theory of direct culpability or a theory of

35

accomplice liability]; People v. Edwards (1991) 54 Cal.3d 787, 824 [jury need not

agree unanimously which acts constitute lying in wait]; People v. Failla (1966) 64

Cal.2d 560, 567 [in burglary case, jurors need not agree unanimously regarding

which felony the defendant intended at the time of entry].) Defendant contends he

was prosecuted under a single legal theory with alternative factual theories: That

(1) he ordered Morris to kill the victim, in which case he acted with intent to kill,

or (2) he did not order the killing but was a major participant in the crime whose

conduct evidenced a conscious disregard for life. Under these circumstances,

defendant contends, the jury had to agree unanimously on the acts constituting the

offense. He contends that the omission of the unanimity instruction violated his

Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial and his Eighth Amendment right to

heightened reliability in a capital case.

A unanimity instruction is required if there is evidence that more than one

crime occurred, each of which could provide the basis for conviction under a

single count. (People v. Diedrich (1982) 31 Cal.3d 263, 281 [when evidence

suggested more than one act of bribery, jury must agree unanimously which act

was the basis for conviction]; see People v. Beardslee (1991) 53 Cal.3d 68, 92 [“A

requirement of jury unanimity typically applies to acts that could have been

charged as separate offenses”].) But the unanimity instruction is not required

“ „where multiple theories or acts may form the basis of a guilty verdict on one

discrete criminal event.‟ ” (Russo, supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 1135, italics added.)

“[W]here the evidence shows only a single discrete crime but leaves room for

disagreement as to exactly how that crime was committed or what the defendant‟s

precise role was, the jury need not unanimously agree on the basis or, as the cases

often put it, the „theory‟ whereby the defendant is guilty.” (Id. at p. 1132.) This is

true even if the theories are based on different facts. (People v. Jenkins, supra, 22

36

Cal.4th at p. 1025 [unanimity instruction not required even where “different facts

would support aiding and abetting liability and liability as a direct perpetrator”].)

Here, there was no evidence that more than one crime of murder was

committed. Rather, the evidence left “room for disagreement as to exactly how

that crime was committed or what the defendant‟s precise role was.” (Russo,

supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 1132.) When a defendant‟s alleged conduct constitutes a

single offense that may be committed in different ways, the federal Constitution

does not require unanimity on how the crime was committed. (Schad v. Arizona,

supra, 501 U.S. 624 [due process clause of U.S. Const. does not require jury to

agree unanimously whether charge of first degree murder was committed by an

intentional, premeditated killing or by felony murder].)

Defendant analogizes this case to People v. Dellinger (1985) 163

Cal.App.3d 284, 300-302, in which the Court of Appeal held that the defendant

was entitled to a unanimity instruction because evidence suggested that he could

have killed the victim either by blunt force trauma or by cocaine poisoning.

Dellinger recognized that in most cases that have addressed the need for a

unanimity instruction, there were not only multiple criminal acts that could have

constituted the charged offense but also potentially multiple offenses. (Id. at

p. 301.) In contrast, in Dellinger “there was only one offense and one victim but

there were several hypotheses as to which act or acts caused [the victim‟s] death.”

(Ibid.) Nevertheless, the appellate court concluded that a unanimity instruction

was required, explaining: “As long as there are multiple acts presented to the jury

which could constitute the charged offense, a defendant is entitled to an instruction

on unanimity.” (Ibid.)

Even assuming that Dellinger was correctly decided, it is factually

distinguishable from this case. Here, there was no dispute as to what acts caused

the victim‟s death. We have previously concluded that Dellinger‟s holding does

37

not extend to the situation in which the defendant, based on a single course of

conduct, could have been convicted either as an aider and abettor to a murder or as

the actual killer. (People v. Beardslee, supra, 53 Cal.3d at p. 93.) Much less

should it apply here, where there was no dispute that defendant was guilty of

murder even though he was not the actual killer, and the only issue was whether he

acted with the intent to kill or as a major participant with a reckless disregard for

life. No unanimity instruction was required.

F. Misreading of the instruction on the mental state element of the

felony-murder special circumstance

The felony-murder special circumstance requires proof either that the

defendant aided the murder “with the intent to kill,” or that the defendant was a

“major participant” in the crime and exhibited a “reckless indifference” to human

life. (§ 190.2, subds. (c) & (d).) The written instructions provided to the jury

correctly explained that “[a] defendant acts with reckless indifference to life when

that defendant knows or is aware that his acts involve a grave risk of death to an

innocent human being.” (Italics added.) But when reading the instruction, the

trial court told the jury that “[a] defendant acts with reckless indifference to life

whether [he] knows or is aware that his acts involve a grave risk of death to an

innocent human being.” (Italics added.) Defendant contends this instruction was

erroneous because the court apparently substituted the word “whether” for

“when,” thereby indicating that reckless indifference could exist whether or not

defendant knew or was aware that his acts caused a grave risk of death. He

contends this instruction misstated the law and violated his rights under the Fifth

and Sixth Amendments of the federal Constitution.

“The risk of a discrepancy between the orally delivered and the written

instructions exists in every trial, and verdicts are not undermined by the mere fact

the trial court misspoke.” (People v. Mills (2010) 48 Cal.4th 158, 200.) “[W]e

38

often have held that when erroneous oral instructions are supplemented by correct

written ones, we assume the jury followed the written instructions, particularly

when, as here, the jury is instructed that the written version is controlling.”

(People v. Mungia (2008) 44 Cal.4th 1101, 1132; see People v. Osband (1996) 13

Cal.4th 622, 687 [noting that the jury was instructed to be “ „governed only by

[each] instruction in its final wording, whether printed, typed or handwritten‟ ”].)

Here, the jury was instructed just before the beginning of deliberations that it

would be given written instructions and that “the instructions may be typed,

printed or handwritten. Portions may have been added or deleted. . . . Every part

of the text of an instruction, whether typed, printed, or handwritten is of equal

importance. You are to be governed only by the instruction in its final wording.”

Even if we did not assume that the jury understood that the written

instructions were controlling, we would find no reasonable likelihood that the jury

misunderstood the requirements for proof of the felony-murder special

circumstance. “When an appellate court addresses a claim of jury misinstruction,

it must assess the instructions as a whole, viewing the challenged instruction in

context with other instructions, in order to determine if there was a reasonable

likelihood the jury applied the challenged instruction in an impermissible

manner.” (People v. Wilson (2008) 44 Cal.4th 758, 803.) Here, the instruction as

read to the jury was, at most, ambiguous. Both the prosecution and the defense

focused on the “reckless indifference” element of the special circumstance in their

arguments, and correctly stated that it required that defendant knew his act created

a grave risk of death. The prosecutor stated, “The definition of a reckless

indifference to human life as taken from the jury instruction itself is that the

defendant knows or is aware that his acts involve a grave risk of death to an

innocent human being.” “Mr. Grimes knew there was a grave risk by going into

this house with these people that Betty Bone was gonna be killed . . . . So when

39

we talk about reckless indifference, knowing or being aware that your acts involve

a grave risk . . . it‟s his knowledge and his awareness at the time that he goes into

this residence as to what could potentially happen to this woman.” Defense

counsel correctly read the instruction to the jury: “I know I have read it, but I‟ll

read it to you again. . . . A defendant acts with reckless indifference to human life

when that defendant knows or is aware that his acts involve a grave risk of death

to an innocent human being.” “The law on the special circumstance above and

beyond the first degree murder, is that Mr. Grimes must know or be aware that his

acts, his conduct, what he does, involves a grave risk of death to an innocent

human being.” “That‟s how reckless indifference is defined, when that defendant

knows or is aware that his acts involve a grave risk of death to an innocent human

being.” In light of counsel‟s repeated statements and the correct written

instructions, there is no reasonable likelihood that the jury was misled by the trial

court‟s misstatement.

G. Instructions on the robbery element of the felony-murder special

circumstance

The jury was instructed that the felony-murder special circumstance could

not be found true unless, among other things, the prosecution proved “the murder

was committed in order to carry out or advance the commission of the crime of

robbery or to facilitate the escape therefrom or to avoid detection.” The jury was

correctly instructed on the elements of robbery. Defendant nevertheless contends

the robbery special-circumstance finding must be reversed because the trial court

erred in instructing the jury with CALJIC No. 2.15, which told the jury that if it

found defendant had been in possession of stolen property, that circumstance was

not enough to support a robbery conviction and corroborating evidence of his guilt

also was required, but “this corroborating evidence need only be slight, and need

not by itself be sufficient to warrant an inference of guilt.” Defendant contends

40

that CALJIC No. 2.15 gave the jury an option of convicting him of robbery based

on his possession of stolen goods plus some corroborating evidence, without

finding all the elements of robbery. He also claims that it unconstitutionally

lightened the state‟s burden of persuasion by permitting a conviction based on

“slight evidence.”

We have previously rejected the same arguments, concluding that CALJIC

No. 2.15 appropriately permits — but does not require — jurors to infer guilt of

burglary, robbery, or theft from the possession of stolen property plus some

corroborating evidence, and that it does not violate due process or reduce the

burden of proof. (See People v. Gamache (2010) 48 Cal.4th 347, 375-376; People

v. Parson (2008) 44 Cal.4th 332, 355-356; People v. Smithey (1999) 20 Cal.4th

936, 975-977.)

Defendant relies upon federal conspiracy cases that have found a violation

of due process when the jury was instructed, over the defendant‟s objection, that

“ „[o]nce the existence of the agreement or common scheme of conspiracy is

shown, . . . slight evidence is all that is required to connect a particular defendant

with the conspiracy.‟ ” (U.S. v. Partin (5th Cir. 1977) 552 F.2d 621, 628, italics

omitted; see U.S. v. Durrive (7th Cir. 1990) 902 F.2d 1221, 1228 [concluding that

on appellate review, reviewing court must find “ „substantial evidence,‟ ” rather

than “ „slight evidence,‟ ” connecting defendant to the conspiracy]; U.S. v. Dunn

(9th Cir. 1977) 564 F.2d 348, 356-357 [clarifying that defendant‟s connection to

the conspiracy need only be slight, but the connection must be proved beyond a

reasonable doubt].) According to these cases, the “slight evidence” instruction

“ „reduced the level of proof necessary for the government to carry its burden by

possibly confusing the jury about the proper standard or even convincing jury

members that a defendant‟s participation in the conspiracy need not be proved

41

beyond a reasonable doubt.‟ ” (U.S. v. Partin, at p. 629, quoting U.S. v. Hall (5th

Cir. 1976) 525 F.2d 1254, 1256.)

The problem with the instruction addressed in these federal cases is that it

permitted the jury to conclude that the defendant was a participant in the

conspiracy based only on “slight evidence.” By contrast, CALJIC No. 2.15

permits conviction of theft-related offenses based upon evidence that the

defendant was recently found in possession of stolen property plus additional,

“slight,” corroborating evidence. We have recognized that “[p]ossession of

recently stolen property is so incriminating that to warrant conviction there need

only be, in addition to possession, slight corroboration in the form of statements or

conduct of the defendant tending to show his guilt.” (People v. McFarland (1962)

58 Cal.2d 748, 754.) Defendant‟s reliance on the federal conspiracy cases is

therefore inapt.

H. Admission of testimony from a jailhouse informant

Jonathan Howe, an inmate in the Shasta County Jail where defendant was

incarcerated before trial, testified regarding admissions that defendant made to

him. Before trial, defense counsel unsuccessfully moved to exclude Howe‟s

testimony on several grounds, but he did not contend that the testimony should be

excluded on the ground that Howe‟s plea agreement with the prosecution placed

him under a strong compulsion to testify in accordance with his pretrial

statements. Defendant contends his counsel rendered constitutionally deficient

assistance in failing to move to exclude or strike Howe‟s testimony on this latter

ground.

It is proper for the prosecution to present the testimony of a witness

pursuant to a plea bargain if the witness believes that the agreement merely

requires truthful testimony. (People v. Garrison (1989) 47 Cal.3d 746, 768;

42

People v. Johnson (1989) 47 Cal.3d 1194, 1229.) A defendant is denied a fair

trial, however, if a plea agreement places the witness under “a strong compulsion

to testify in a particular fashion.” (Garrison, at p. 768.) Here, there is no evidence

that Howe was under any compulsion to testify in accordance with his previous

statements. Howe pleaded guilty to certain pending charges and agreed to a

sentence of up to 24 months in exchange for the dismissal of other charges. The

precise length of his sentence was to be decided by the same judge who was

presiding in the present case, depending upon his determination as to whether

Howe testified truthfully. The written plea agreement stated that Howe had “an

obligation to do nothing other than to tell the truth, fully and accurately.” He had

been offered this same agreement before he came forward with information

regarding defendant, except that the sentence would have been exactly 24 months.

Defendant argues that because the prosecution put Howe through a voice

stress test and two polygraphs before his testimony, it was clear to Howe that the

prosecution believed his pretrial statements were truthful and he therefore would

have understood the agreement to testify truthfully to mean he was required to

testify in accordance with his pretrial statements. The record demonstrates that

any such notion was dispelled by the trial court‟s very clear direction that Howe

was to tell the truth in court regardless of what he may have said previously. At

his plea hearing, Howe told the judge it was his understanding that he would have

to testify truthfully and “consistent with any report I‟ve — I‟ve made so far in this

case.” The judge clearly explained to him that he was to “testify truthfully

whether or not it‟s consistent with any other statement. . . . [I]f telling the truth

here, the actual truth, would be inconsistent with something you‟ve previously

said, that fact that it‟s inconsistent will not cause me to conclude that you‟re not

being truthful. . . . In other words, I don‟t want you to think in any way,

Mr. Howe, that for me to believe you‟re telling the truth that what you say here in

43

this courtroom has to be consistent with something you‟ve said before. . . . In

other words, do not say something that isn‟t true because it‟s consistent with what

you said previously to law enforcement, in hopes that I will therefore conclude

you‟re telling the truth here.” Howe repeatedly affirmed that he understood.

Given these facts, a challenge to Howe‟s testimony on the ground that he was

under pressure to testify consistently with his former statements would have been

unsuccessful. There being nothing in the record to demonstrate defense counsel

performed deficiently by failing to challenge Howe‟s testimony on this ground,

relief on direct appeal is unwarranted. (See People v. Mendoza Tello (1997) 15

Cal.4th 264, 266-267; People v. Pope (1979) 23 Cal.3d 412, 426.)

I. Trial court’s refusal to impanel separate juries for the guilt and

penalty phases

Defendant contends the trial court erred in refusing to impanel separate

juries for the guilt and penalty phases. In support of his motion for separate juries,

defendant presented a transcript of the testimony of California State University,

Chico, Professor Edward Bronson in another case. Professor Bronson testified

that the process of death qualification is prejudicial to a defendant in two ways.

First, the jurors who are not eliminated tend to be less supportive of due process

values than those who were eliminated. Second, the process of death

qualification, by focusing on the death penalty and asking jurors to put themselves

in the position of having found the defendant to be guilty, suggests to jurors that

the defendant is guilty and that their duty is to find him guilty, and it may also

desensitize them to their task. According to Professor Bronson, sequestered voir

dire would “to some extent, minimize or mitigate those effects,” but it would not

eliminate them. The trial court denied defendant‟s motion, concluding that much

of the potential prejudice resulting from death qualification could be avoided if the

court used individual, sequestered voir dire and if the court and counsel were

44

careful to impress upon the potential jurors that defendant‟s guilt was not a

foregone conclusion.

Section 190.4, subdivision (c), requires the same jury to decide guilt and

penalty absent good cause. We review the trial court‟s ruling for abuse of

discretion. (People v. Bivert (2011) 52 Cal.4th 96, 108.) Professor Bronson‟s

testimony supported only the conclusion that death-qualified juries in general tend

to be more likely to convict. “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.” (People v. Davis (2009) 46 Cal.4th 539, 626; see Lockhart

v. McCree (1986) 476 U.S. 162; Hovey v. Superior Court (1980) 28 Cal.3d 1, 68-

69.) Nothing in Professor Bronson‟s testimony or the studies he cited provided

any information significantly different from that which was considered in our

previous decisions. Indeed, Professor Bronson testified that studies undertaken

after Lockhart and Hovey reached conclusions similar to those of the studies

addressed in those cases and he was not able to cite any significant new

developments in the research. Thus, Professor Bronson‟s testimony provided no

basis for the trial court to depart from the holdings in these prior cases. Defendant

offered no evidence to establish good cause for a separate penalty jury based on

the particular circumstances of this case. The trial court took steps to reduce any

prejudice to defendant that might result from the jury selection process, including

conducting individual, sequestered voir dire. We find no abuse of discretion.

J. Alleged deficient performance by counsel in advising defendant to

reject plea bargain

Defendant contends that his trial counsel performed deficiently in advising

him to reject a plea bargain that would have avoided the death penalty before

counsel was sufficiently familiar with the case to give such advice. Because the

45

record does not establish what counsel knew about the case at the time the plea

bargain was refused or what advice counsel gave to defendant, defendant has not

shown that his counsel‟s actions fell below an objective standard of

reasonableness.

Defendant was charged with murder and special circumstances in October

of 1995 and pled not guilty. Fifteen months later, in January of 1997, the District

Attorney of Shasta County, Dennis Sheehy, notified defendant‟s counsel that he

had decided not to seek the death penalty. Because defendant was not the actual

killer, District Attorney Sheehy did not believe that a jury would impose the death

penalty. Shortly thereafter, Sheehy resigned and McGregor Scott replaced him.

On May 23, 1997, in response to defendant‟s Marsden motion (People v. Marsden

(1970) 2 Cal.3d 118), the trial court appointed new counsel, Richard Maxion, for

defendant. Two weeks after Maxion was appointed, on June 6, District Attorney

Scott informed the court he would seek the death penalty as of June 27 unless,

before that date, defendant decided to plead guilty to special circumstances

murder. In court on June 27, defense counsel stated that his client would not plead

guilty and the prosecutor announced that he would seek the death penalty.

Prior to trial, defendant moved to prohibit the prosecution from seeking the

death penalty on a number of grounds, including claims that the decision to seek

the death penalty constituted vindictive prosecution and that defendant was denied

effective assistance of counsel because Attorney Maxion had not been given

enough time to attempt to persuade the district attorney not to seek death. At the

hearing on defendant‟s motion, the trial court rejected the claim that the

prosecution‟s offer to allow defendant only three weeks to decide whether to plead

guilty in exchange for a life sentence violated his right to effective assistance of

counsel because it was made only two weeks after new counsel was appointed.

46

Testimony established that defense counsel had agreed to the deadline, and that

the prosecutor would have given him more time if he had asked for it.

Here, defendant contends that his counsel rendered constitutionally

deficient assistance in advising him not to accept the plea before he had

adequately familiarized himself with the case. A defendant has the right to

effective assistance of counsel in deciding whether to accept or reject a proposed

plea agreement. (See In re Alvernaz (1992) 2 Cal.4th 924, 937.) An attorney‟s

performance is constitutionally deficient if (1) it falls below an objective standard

of reasonableness under prevailing professional norms; and (2) there is a

reasonable probability that, but for counsel‟s failings, the result would have been

more favorable to the defendant. (Strickland v. Washington (1984) 466 U.S. 668,

687-696.) “[A] defense attorney‟s simple misjudgment as to the strength of the

prosecution‟s case, the chances of acquittal, or the sentence a defendant is likely to

receive upon conviction, among other matters involving the exercise of counsel‟s

judgment, will not, without more, give rise to a claim of ineffective assistance of

counsel.” (In re Alvernaz, at p. 937.) “When a claim of ineffective assistance is

made on direct appeal, and the record does not show the reason for counsel‟s

challenged actions or omissions, the conviction must be affirmed unless there

could be no satisfactory explanation.” (People v. Anderson (2001) 25 Cal.4th 543,

569; see People v. Mendoza Tello, supra, 15 Cal.4th at pp. 266-267.)

The record does not show how much counsel knew about the case, how

counsel advised defendant, or what defendant‟s response was. There is no

evidence that he did not advise defendant to accept the offer. Defendant contends

that the record demonstrates that counsel could not have had a sufficient

understanding of the case to adequately advise defendant at the time that defendant

declined the plea offer and that, if properly advised, defendant would have

accepted the plea. He bases this conclusion on the fact that during jury selection

47

(more than a year after defendant declined the offer), when counsel was fully

prepared for trial, counsel told the court that defendant was willing to plead guilty

and accept a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. But the record does

not establish that defendant‟s decision to plead guilty was based on counsel‟s

additional knowledge about the case. Any number of circumstances unrelated to

counsel‟s representation may have occurred after defendant‟s rejection of the plea

offer and before the start of trial that could have led defendant to change his

mind.8 Consequently, defendant has failed to show that counsel‟s conduct fell

below professional norms or that defendant would have pled guilty if properly

advised.

K. Prosecution’s decision to seek death unless defendant pled guilty to

murder and the special circumstance

Defendant contends he was denied due process when the district attorney

decided to reverse the decision of the prior district attorney and to seek the death

penalty unless defendant pleaded guilty to the charge of murder with special

circumstances. As explained above, after the district attorney‟s office notified

defendant that it would not seek the death penalty, a new district attorney was

appointed. He reconsidered that decision and decided to seek the death penalty,

but gave defendant the opportunity to plead guilty to the charges of murder with

special circumstances and serve a sentence of life without possibility of parole.

Defendant argues his right to due process was violated because the district

attorney sought the death penalty after defendant refused to plead guilty, thereby

punishing him for exercising his right to a jury trial.

8 For example, during this time period witness Howe came forward to offer

evidence that defendant admitted he directed Morris to kill Bone, and trial counsel

became aware that Howe might be called as a witness.

48

Under the due process clause, prosecutors may not “tak[e] certain actions

against a criminal defendant, such as increasing the charges, in retaliation for the

defendant‟s exercise of constitutional rights. [Citations.] It is not a constitutional

violation, however, for a prosecutor to offer benefits, in the form of reduced

charges, in exchange for a defendant‟s guilty pleas, or to threaten to increase the

charges if the defendant does not plead guilty. [Citations.] In the pretrial setting,

there is no presumption of vindictiveness when the prosecution increases the

charges or, as here, the potential penalty. [Citations.] Rather, the defendant must

„prove objectively that the prosecutor‟s charging decision was motivated by a

desire to punish him for doing something the law plainly allowed him to do.‟ ”

(People v. Jurado (2006) 38 Cal.4th 72, 98.)

Absent proof of vindictiveness or other improper motive, increasing the

charges or punishment when a plea bargain is refused does not constitute

unconstitutional punishment or retaliation for the exercise of a defendant‟s legal

rights. “[I]n the „give-and-take‟ of plea bargaining, there is no such element of

punishment or retaliation so long as the accused is free to accept or reject the

prosecution‟s offer.” (Bordenkircher v. Hayes (1978) 434 U.S. 357, 363.) The

district attorney was free to change the decision made by his predecessor not to

seek the death penalty, and that decision does not raise “a presumption of

vindictiveness.” (United States v. Goodwin (1982) 457 U.S. 368, 382; see id. at

pp. 381-385.) “A prosecutor should remain free before trial to exercise the broad

discretion entrusted to him to determine the extent of the societal interest in

prosecution. An initial decision should not freeze future conduct.” (Id. at p. 382.)

In the present case, the record establishes nothing more than that a plea

bargain was offered and refused. The trial court conducted a hearing at which the

49

district attorney explained why he disagreed with the decision of his predecessor,

who had considered the decision a close call but believed that a jury was not likely

to return a death verdict. The new district attorney reconsidered that decision after

a thorough review of the case. Following a hearing at which both the former and

current district attorneys testified, the trial court concluded that the decision was

not arbitrary or capricious and that there was no element of retaliation in the

decision. Nothing in the record supports defendant‟s argument to the contrary.

L. Cumulative error

Defendant contends that the guilt and special circumstances verdicts should

be reversed based on the cumulative effect of the prejudice resulting from all

alleged errors, even if each is not prejudicial in itself. We have found only one

error — the trial court‟s exclusion of statements by John Morris to Misty Abbott

and Albert Lawson — and we concluded that this error was prejudicial only at the

penalty phase, not at the guilt phase. Consequently, there is nothing to cumulate

and hence there can be no cumulative prejudice.

M. Waiver of jury trial on prior conviction allegations

Defendant contends that the trial court‟s true findings on certain noncapital

sentencing allegations must be vacated because his waiver of a jury trial was

involuntary. The information contained a number of noncapital sentencing

allegations, including allegations that defendant committed the charged crimes

while on parole (§ 1203.085, subd. (b)), that he had been convicted of a serious or

violent felony within the meaning of the Three Strikes law (§ 1170.12), and that he

had served four prior prison terms (§ 667.5, subd. (b)). Prior to trial, defense

counsel moved to bifurcate proceedings on these allegations and offered to waive

50

jury trial. The trial court received defendant‟s waiver of a jury trial on these

allegations. Subsequently, during guilt phase deliberations, the court and defense

counsel reviewed the transcript of defendant‟s waiver and agreed that the waiver

was sufficient and no further advisements need be given. The allegations were

tried to the court, which found that defendant had been convicted of a serious or

violent felony within the meaning of the Three Strikes law and that he had served

four prior prison terms. Based on these findings, the trial court doubled

defendant‟s sentence under the Three Strikes law for the offense of unlawful

driving or taking of a vehicle, and imposed four one-year terms for the four prior

prison term enhancements.

Defendant contends that his waiver of a jury trial on the allegations was

invalid because the trial court and counsel informed him that he was required to

waive that right so the jury would not be exposed to evidence of his criminal

history at the guilt phase. This advisement was misleading, defendant contends,

because defendant could have retained his right to a jury trial and the trial court

could have bifurcated trial on the sentencing allegations, so that the jurors would

not have heard evidence of his history until after they had decided his guilt on the

substantive charges. (See People v. Calderon (1994) 9 Cal.4th 69, 72.)

Defendant has forfeited this claim based on his failure to object in the trial

court. “[T]he deprivation of the statutory right to jury trial on the prior prison term

allegations does not implicate the state or federal constitutional right to jury trial.

Absent an objection to the discharge of the jury or commencement of court trial,

defendant is precluded from asserting on appeal a claim of ineffectual waiver of

the statutory right to jury trial of prior prison term allegations.” (People v. Vera

(1997) 15 Cal.4th 269, 278; see People v. Towne (2008) 44 Cal.4th 63, 74-79

51

[federal constitutional right to a jury trial does not extend to allegations that a

defendant has suffered a prior conviction or served a prior prison term].) Here,

after reviewing the transcript of defendant‟s waiver, defense counsel expressly

agreed with the trial court that defendant‟s waiver was sufficient.

Furthermore, the claim fails on the merits. There is no evidence in the

record that defense counsel advised defendant that trial on the sentencing

allegations could not be bifurcated unless defendant waived his right to a jury trial.

The record does not show what advice counsel gave to defendant. There was a

brief pause in the proceedings while defendant consulted with counsel before

hearing the trial court‟s advisements and waiving jury trial on the allegations. The

trial court explained to defendant that “your attorneys have indicated they want

this jury, when this jury is deciding the issue of whether or not the People have

proven the charges against you beyond a reasonable doubt, to be influenced in any

way by also considering the allegations of these prior felony convictions and

related matters. . . . In order to avoid having the jury deal with that issue, your

attorneys are recommending to you, apparently, that you waive your right to have

the jury decide that issue, and that you have those issues, as to each one of these

prior special allegations, be decided solely by the court.” Contrary to defendant‟s

contention, the court never stated that waiving a jury trial was the only way to

avoid exposing the jury to defendant‟s criminal history during the guilt phase.

Rather, the court stated only that waiving a jury trial was the means that

defendant‟s attorneys were recommending to avoid such exposure. That statement

was not incorrect or misleading, and does not render defendant‟s waiver

involuntary.

52

N. Sufficiency of evidence to prove four prior prison term allegations

Defendant claims the trial court improperly found four one-year

enhancement allegations for service of prior prison terms to be true when the

evidence showed that he had served only three separate prison terms. Section

667.5, subdivision (b), provides for a one year sentence enhancement “for each

prior separate prison term” served by the defendant. A “prior separate prison

term” is “a continuous completed period of prison incarceration imposed for the

particular offense alone or in combination with concurrent or consecutive

sentences for other crimes . . . .” (§ 667.5, subd. (g).) Under this provision, “a

defendant who has served concurrent or consecutive prison sentences on various

commitments is deemed to have served only one prior prison term for the purpose

of the enhancement provisions of Penal Code section 667.5.” (People v. James

(1980) 102 Cal.App.3d 728, 733; see also People v. Perez (1992) 4 Cal.App.4th

893, 911.)

As respondent concedes, the evidence shows that defendant served

consecutive terms on two of the four felony convictions alleged — his convictions

for being a felon in possession of a firearm and escape (Stanislaus County case

Nos. 265702 & 265697). Accordingly, he did not serve “separate” terms for these

offenses within the meaning of section 667.5, subdivision (b). Therefore, the trial

court‟s true finding on one of the section 667.5, subdivision (b), allegations must

be vacated.

53

III. DISPOSITION

We reverse the judgment of death, and we set aside one of the findings

under section 667.5, subdivision (b). The matter is remanded for a new penalty

determination and for resentencing. The judgment is affirmed in all other respects.

KRUGER, J.

WE CONCUR:

WERDEGAR, J.

LIU, J.

CUÉLLAR, J.

54

CONCURRING AND DISSENTING OPINION

BY CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J.

This court originally affirmed the judgment of death in this case, rejecting

defendant Gary Lee Grimes‟s argument that the exclusion of certain hearsay

statements at his trial amounted to prejudicial error. After granting rehearing, a

majority of this court now agrees with defendant that these statements should have

been admitted under the exception to the hearsay rule applicable to statements

against interest. (Evid. Code, § 1230.) The majority also concludes that although

the exclusion of these statements was harmless at the guilt phase, the perceived

possibility of a different outcome at the penalty phase means that the judgment of

death must be reversed.

I respectfully disagree with the majority‟s assessments of error and

prejudice. This court was correct when it originally found no reversible error in

the trial court‟s rulings as to the disputed statements. On rehearing, I have given

careful reconsideration to these issues and find even more reason now to conclude

that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding one of these statements,

and no reasonable possibility that introduction of the other proffered evidence

would have affected the outcome at the guilt or penalty phases of defendant‟s trial.

Therefore, while I concur with the majority insofar as it affirms the guilty verdict

and the special circumstance findings, I dissent from its reversal of the judgment

of death.

1

Prior to trial, defendant sought admission of statements coperpetrator John

Morris made to an acquaintance, Misty Abbott, on the day of the killing, and to a

fellow inmate, Albert Lawson, while Morris and Lawson were held in jail a few

days later. Morris committed suicide prior to trial and was therefore unavailable

to testify. As to both conversations, defendant‟s offer of proof included several

statements made by Morris that were clearly against Morris‟s penal interest.

According to Abbott, Morris told her that “he murdered the little old lady,” that “it

didn‟t work . . . strangling her . . . and so he stabbed her,” and that “she wouldn‟t

die choking her, so he had to get a knife from the kitchen.” Morris also told

Lawson that he “killed that old lady,” saying, “I stabbed her. Also I grabbed her

by the throat.” The trial court correctly recognized that these statements were

against Morris‟s penal interest when made, and thus found them admissible under

the statement against interest exception to the hearsay rule.

Defendant argues that the trial court also should have admitted other

hearsay statements Morris made to Abbott and Lawson, the inculpatory attributes

of which are far less obvious. According to the offer of proof by defendant‟s trial

counsel, when a detective asked Abbott if defendant and a third perpetrator,

Patrick Wilson, had participated in the killing, her response was, “no, Johnny

[Morris] told her after he quote did the lady, unquote that [defendant] and

[Wilson] looked at him as if they were saying, what in the hell are you doing,

dude.” Defendant also offered Morris‟s statement to Lawson that, in connection

with the home invasion and attack, defendant and Wilson “were in the house but

took no part in the actual killing.” Defendant asserts that these statements by

Morris, although hearsay, also qualify for the against-interest exception, and

claims that their exclusion by the trial court amounts to reversible error at both the

guilt and penalty phases. The majority agrees with defendant, at least in part. I do

not.

2

The exception to the hearsay rule for statements against interest appears at

Evidence Code section 1230. It provides, “Evidence of a statement by a declarant

having sufficient knowledge of the subject is not made inadmissible by the hearsay

rule if the declarant is unavailable as a witness and the statement, when made, was

so far contrary to the declarant‟s pecuniary or proprietary interest, or so far

subjected him to the risk of civil or criminal liability . . . that a reasonable man in

his position would not have made the statement unless he believed it to be true.”

(Evid. Code, § 1230.) “The proponent of such evidence must show that the

declarant is unavailable, that the declaration was against the declarant‟s penal

interest when made and that the declaration was sufficiently reliable to warrant

admission despite its hearsay character.” (People v. Duarte (2000) 24 Cal.4th 603,

610-611.) The against-interest exception to the hearsay rule is “inapplicable to

evidence of any statement or portion of a statement not itself specifically

disserving to the interests of the declarant” (People v. Leach (1975) 15 Cal.3d 419,

441; see also People v. Duarte, at p. 612), and “a declaration against penal interest

must be „distinctly‟ against the declarant‟s penal interest” (People v. Shipe (1975)

49 Cal.App.3d 343, 354; see also People v. Traylor (1972) 23 Cal.App.3d 323,

330-331). Whether or not a statement is against penal interest can be determined

only by considering “the statement in context.” (People v. Lawley (2002) 27

Cal.4th 102, 153 (Lawley).) Understood in context, even a statement that admits

to criminal wrongdoing may not be against the declarant‟s penal interest when

made. (People v. Duarte, at pp. 611-612.)

A ruling by the trial court as to whether a hearsay statement is admissible as

being against the declarant‟s penal interest is reviewed for abuse of discretion.

(Lawley, supra, 27 Cal.4th at p. 153.) Whether a statement meets the criteria for

this exception “goes to the core of the question of basic trustworthiness, and hence

must be deemed entrusted to the court‟s discretion.” (People v. Gordon (1990) 50

3

Cal.3d 1223, 1252.) Such a ruling “will not be disturbed except on a showing the

trial court exercised its discretion in an arbitrary, capricious, or patently absurd

manner that resulted in a manifest miscarriage of justice.” (People v. Rodriguez

(1999) 20 Cal.4th 1, 9-10.) In applying the abuse of discretion standard, a

reviewing court does not wholly replace the trial court‟s judgment with its own; if

a reasonable basis existed to exclude a statement, that means the trial court did not

abuse its discretion in doing so, even assuming that a reasonable argument also

existed for admitting it. (See People v. Valdez (2012) 55 Cal.4th 82, 144

[observing that in circumstances where the trial court reasonably could have

chosen to admit or exclude evidence, it does not abuse its discretion by choosing

either path]; People v. Gordon, at p. 1253 [same].)

The majority acknowledges that the abuse of discretion standard applies

here — but then spots what it perceives as a material mistake of law by the trial

court and on that basis conducts what amounts to de novo review. My review of

the record on rehearing leads me to disagree with this approach. The trial court

correctly ascertained the crux of the declaration against penal interest rule — that

a statement must be “specifically disserving” of the declarant‟s penal interest to

qualify for admission under this exception to the hearsay rule (People v. Leach,

supra, 15 Cal.3d at p. 441) — and the record does not establish that the judge

misapplied this principle in excluding Morris‟s statement about the looks he

received from defendant and Wilson after killing the victim.1 Applying the

1 The original majority opinion in this matter observed that the trial court

relied on People v. Gatlin (1989) 209 Cal.App.3d 31 (Gatlin), a somewhat

factually inapposite case, in ruling on the admissibility of Morris‟s statements, and

noted that the trial court may have endorsed the categorical principle (as the

majority phrased it) “that a declarant who has admitted to murder does not

enhance his personal culpability by claiming he acted alone” — an assertion that,

we observed, may not be accurate under some circumstances. Accordingly, the

(Footnote continued on next page.)

4

appropriate standard of review, I would hold that the trial court did not make an

arbitrary or absurd decision when it excluded this statement because the trial court

reasonably could have found that due to this statement‟s inherent ambiguity,

defendant failed to show that it was distinctly and specifically against Morris‟s

penal interest when made. (See Andrews v. United States (D.C. 2009) 981 A.2d

571, 576 [“if there are two possible interpretations of [a purported] statement

[against penal interest] . . . one of which would subject [the declarant] to criminal

liability while the other would not, the necessary indicia of trustworthiness are

absent”].)

(Footnote continued from previous page.)

majority recognized that it could affirm on any ground in the record, before

concluding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding Morris‟s

statement to Abbott about the looks he had received, and determining that any

assumed error in the exclusion of other statements was harmless.

A rehearing requires a fresh look at the record. This review establishes that

regardless of whether the facts of Gatlin, supra, 209 Cal.App.3d 31 were on all

fours with those involved here, the trial court gleaned from that case the correct

principle that “the Evidence Code section 1230 declaration against interest

exception applies only to that part of the statement which is specifically disserving

to the — the declarant.” (See Gatlin, at p. 44 [“Section 1230 is not applicable to

evidence of any statement not itself specifically disserving to the interests of the

declarant”].) Meanwhile, to the extent that the trial court may have made

categorical assertions regarding certain types of hearsay statements, the record

shows that the court was contemplating circumstances in which a declarant,

having admitted to a crime, also said that “nobody else there had any part of it” or

that others “did or did not assist him” — phrasing that parallels some, but not all,

of the contested statements here.

Therefore, regardless of whether the trial court may have been mistaken on

a point of law pertinent to Morris‟s other statements, I would not assume, as the

majority does, that the trial court labored under a misunderstanding of the law in

excluding Morris‟s statement about the looks he received from defendant and

Wilson. The inherent ambiguity of this statement (as will be examined post)

meant that it was subject to exclusion on the simple basis that defendant had not

shown that it was specifically disserving.

5

In other statements he made to Abbott, Morris told her that he had killed

the victim by strangling and stabbing her. The trial court properly found these

statements admissible. In contrast, Morris‟s tangential remark that related how his

cohorts reacted to the killing once it was complete does not unambiguously

possess the distinctly incriminating connotations that the against-interest exception

demands. Significantly, Morris‟s statement did not explain why he thought

defendant and Wilson looked at him in the manner he described. Morris‟s

description of the looks as signifying “what in the hell are you doing, dude”

admits to several interpretations. Among them, the statement may have reflected

Morris‟s impression that defendant and Wilson were surprised by the difficulty

that Morris had in killing the victim. Or Morris could have believed that

defendant and Wilson were annoyed or frustrated that the killing had taken as long

as it did. Or Morris could have perceived them as amused by the circumstances of

the killing; “what in the hell are you doing” does not necessarily describe a

negative reaction, depending on how Morris delivered these words. Other

interpretations, even less disserving of Morris‟s penal interest, also are possible.

Under any of these interpretations, viewed in context Morris‟s observation

regarding the reactions of others to the violent actions he described in his other

statements to Abbott was a collateral assertion that was insufficiently disserving of

his penal interest as to possess the trustworthiness and reliability demanded by the

against-interest exception.

The most disserving construction of this statement would cast it as an

implicit admission by Morris that he alone had made the decision to kill the victim

— causing defendant to register surprise at the fact that Betty Bone was killed at

all. But this is a dubious interpretation of Morris‟s statement. As the majority

observes, defendant himself admitted to police that, knowing a robbery was

planned, he helped Morris find his gun, and that before they entered the victim‟s

6

residence Morris saw a woman taking out her trash and said, “ „Fuck it, we‟ll just

fuckin‟ kill her an‟ look at the house . . . .‟ ” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 27.)

Furthermore, in his statement to police defendant said that he had observed Morris

strangling Bone, heard Morris say that she would not die, saw Morris look for a

knife in the kitchen, and then saw or heard him stabbing Bone. Given these facts,

it seems unlikely that defendant was surprised afterward at the fact of the killing.

More fundamentally, even assuming the possibility of such an interpretation, the

presence of other readings of the statement whereby it was not specifically and

distinctly against Morris‟s penal interest when made means that the trial court did

not abuse its discretion in declining to admit the statement.2

The majority acknowledges the ambiguous character of this statement, and

therefore cannot and does not state that it was “specifically disserving,” as our

precedent demands for the admission of a statement, or a portion of a statement,

under Evidence Code section 1230. (People v. Leach, supra, 15 Cal.3d at p. 441;

see also People v. Duarte, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 612.) Grasping for an alternative

rationale, the majority nevertheless finds the against-interest exception applicable

because “under any conceivable interpretation of the statement, it tended to

underscore Morris‟s responsibility for the crime, rather than diminish it,” the

2 The majority asserts that “no plausible reason” has been offered why this

statement should be regarded as “any less trustworthy” than Morris‟s other

statements to Abbott, and that it can think of none. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 24-25.)

The ambiguity of Morris‟s surmise about looks he received, which even the

majority cannot say is specifically disserving — as juxtaposed against statements

in which Morris told Abbott in no uncertain terms that he had personally strangled

and stabbed the victim — supplies such a reason. And of course, the majority‟s

point merely sidesteps the fact that the crucial inquiry in applying the declaration

against interest exception concerns whether the statement is “specifically

disserving,” not a more generic trustworthiness assessment. (People v. Leach,

supra, 15 Cal.3d at p. 441.)

7

statement “elaborated on [Morris‟s] confession,” and the statement was “not

practically separable from the remainder of [Morris‟s] statements” to Abbott.3

(Maj. opn., ante, at p. 22.) As I will explain, the last of these assertions is

demonstrably false. The other two simply replace the existing standard for

declarations against interest with a nebulous and less rigorous approach that will

be more difficult for courts to apply and less likely to screen out untrustworthy

hearsay.

With regard to the majority‟s assertion that Morris‟s statement about the

looks he received was “not practically separable from the remainder of [Morris‟s]

statements” to Abbott (maj. opn., ante, at p. 22), I cannot see how this is so.

Unlike situations in which a contextual fact is “inextricably tied to and part of” a

specifically disserving statement (e.g., People v. Samuels (2005) 36 Cal.4th 96,

121), in which case stripping the contextual fact would require alteration of the

incriminating statement itself, Morris‟s statement describing the looks he received

was readily separable from his admissions that he had strangled and stabbed the

victim. It takes no great leap of imagination to appreciate how Abbott could have

testified fully and coherently to Morris‟s statements about strangling and stabbing

3 The majority also describes this statement as “simply an elaboration on

Morris‟s acknowledgement that defendant and Wilson did not participate in the

murder,” and references the trial court‟s supposedly similar “view[]” of the

statement. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 22, fn. 5.) In excluding the statement, the trial

court stated, “The next statement that was mentioned was where Mr. Morris

allegedly told Ms. Abbott that Mr. Grimes and Mr. Wilson did not take part in the

killing and some other details regarding that, again, that does not appear at all to

be disserving of Mr. Morris‟ interest.” This shorthand description of defendant‟s

vague offer of proof did not involve any measured “view” regarding the meaning

of Morris‟s statement about the looks he received, and does not establish that the

trial court perceived Morris‟s statement as unambiguous.

8

Bone without also testifying to Morris‟s collateral statement about the looks he

received from defendant and Wilson afterward.

As for the majority‟s other rationales, the accepted test for admissibility of

a statement under the against-interest exception is not whether the statement

somehow tends to “underscore” the declarant‟s responsibility for a crime, nor

whether it “elaborate[s] on” an actual statement against interest (maj. opn., ante, at

p. 22), but the more stringent standard of whether the statement was so

“specifically disserving” of the declarant‟s interests “that a reasonable man in his

position would not have made the statement unless he believed it to be true.”

(People v. Leach, supra, 15 Cal.3d at p. 441; Evid. Code, § 1230.) As discussed

above, this standard has not been met here. By watering down the standard for

admission under the against-interest exception, the majority erroneously “assumes

that a declaration against interest involves a truth-telling frame of mind which

carries over to statements other than those against interest. But the presence of the

declaration against interest does not add to the trustworthiness of neutral and self-

serving statements. They would seem equally trustworthy or unreliable whether

accompanied by a declaration against interest or not.” (Jefferson, Declarations

Against Interest: An Exception to the Hearsay Rule (1944) 58 Harv. L.Rev. 1, 62;

see also Williamson v. United States (1994) 512 U.S. 594, 600 [“The fact that a

statement is self-inculpatory does make it more reliable; but the fact that a

statement is collateral to a self-inculpatory statement says nothing at all about the

collateral statement‟s reliability”].)

The majority‟s expansion of the against-interest exception represents a

significant and, in my view, misguided shift in our interpretation of Evidence

Code section 1230. In effect, the majority endorses a form of bootstrapping

whereby a specifically disserving statement can tow related collateral assertions

within a larger, generally incriminating narrative into the against-interest

9

exception. This is not merely a “contextual approach,” as the majority

characterizes it (maj. opn, ante, at p. 21), since the “specifically disserving”

standard already requires the consideration of a statement‟s context. (E.g., People

v. Duarte, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 612.) Instead, the majority‟s invocation of

“context” provides cover for its dilution of the prevailing rule. This approach

raises difficult questions about the necessary logical and narrative tethers, points

on which the majority provides little guidance. It also retreats from our formerly

rigorous enforcement of the “specifically disserving” standard (People v. Leach,

supra, 15 Cal.3d at p. 441; see Lawley, supra, 27 Cal.4th at p. 154 [finding no

abuse of discretion in the trial court‟s exclusion of evidence that did not meet this

standard]; People v. Duarte, supra, 24 Cal.4th at pp. 612-614, 618 [finding error

in the trial court‟s decision to admit, as a statement against interest, a statement

containing portions that were not “specifically disserving”]; Leach, at pp. 441-

442), thereby abandoning a position consistent with the one taken by the United

States Supreme Court in its construction of the parallel federal rule, Federal Rules

of Evidence, rule 804(b)(3) (28 U.S.C.) (Williamson v. United States, supra, 512

U.S. at pp. 600-601 [“the most faithful reading of Rule 804(b)(3) is that it does not

allow admission of non-self-inculpatory statements, even if they are made within a

broader narrative that is generally self-inculpatory”].) The requirement that each

hearsay statement within a narrative be specifically and distinctly disserving to

gain admission under the against-interest exception is not a mere formalism, for it

serves the greater purpose of screening out the unreliable hearsay that clever or

careless declarants often interweave with truly inculpatory facts. (See id. at

pp. 599-600 [“One of the most effective ways to lie is to mix falsehood with truth,

especially truth that seems particularly persuasive because of its self-inculpatory

nature”].) The majority‟s approach compromises this screening function. In all,

by substituting propinquity for the particular indicia of trustworthiness required of

10

a statement against interest, and thereby adding a vague and imprecise gloss to

what previously had been a more clear rule, the majority needlessly complicates

the law regarding statements against interest and opens the door to potentially

untrustworthy hearsay.

Our decision in Lawley, supra, 27 Cal.4th 102, applied the against-interest

exception more faithfully and establishes that there was no abuse of discretion

here. The defendant in Lawley was convicted of murder based on evidence that he

hired one Seabourn to kill the victim. We held that the trial court did not abuse its

discretion in admitting Seabourn‟s hearsay statement that he was hired to and did

kill the victim as a statement against interest, while excluding Seabourn‟s

statements that he had been hired by the Aryan Brotherhood for the hit, and that

“an innocent man was in jail for the crime.” (Id. at p. 154.) We reasoned that

these latter two statements did not specifically disserve Seabourn‟s penal interest

— even though they arguably underscored Seabourn‟s responsibility for the crime

by adding details regarding his involvement, and elaborated on Seabourn‟s core

admission of involvement in a murder for hire. (Id. at pp. 154, 155, fn. 21.) The

same reasoning applies to Morris‟s statement about the looks he received after the

killing. Even though Morris‟s statement may have a connection to specifically

disserving statements, it was itself not distinctly and specifically disserving when

viewed in context, and therefore does not qualify for the against-interest

exception.4

4 Furthermore, in Lawley, supra, 27 Cal.4th 102, this court did not press the

limits of its imagination to devise some conceivable way that Seabourn‟s collateral

statements could have incriminated him. (His statement concerning the Aryan

Brotherhood, for example, might have suggested gang ties.) With good reason; a

statement is not specifically and distinctly disserving in every instance where

judges can conceive, after the fact, some possible though nonobvious basis upon

which the statement could have had an incriminating effect. (See People v.

(Footnote continued on next page.)

11

In sum, whereas our decision in Lawley, supra, 27 Cal.4th 102, as well as

our prior rulings construing the against-interest exception appropriately recognized

the difference between specifically disserving statements and statements that are

merely collateral, today‟s decision regrettably blurs this distinction and fails to

apply the proper standard of review in concluding that the trial court erred. I

therefore disagree with its finding of error.

This disagreement also leads me to depart from the majority in its

assessment of prejudice. The exclusion of Morris‟s “what in the hell are you

doing” statement forms the backbone of the majority‟s prejudice analysis. But as

explained above, the trial court did not abuse its discretion, and therefore did not

err, in excluding this statement. With regard to the trial court‟s exclusion of the

other disputed evidence, even assuming error by the trial court, no reasonable

possibility exists that the error affected the outcome at the guilt phase or the

penalty phase of defendant‟s trial.

The most reasonable interpretation of the proffered statement that defendant

was in another part of the house and did not participate in the “actual killing” (and

whatever similar statement Morris may have made to Abbott, as to which

defendant‟s offer of proof was not clear) was that he did not participate in the act

of killing. But the prosecutor never argued that defendant participated in the act of

killing, making this clarification beside the point. The evidence presented at trial

(Footnote continued from previous page.)

Traylor, supra, 23 Cal.App.3d at p. 331 [“The test [for applying the exception] is

not whether the statement could provide a link in a chain of evidence leading to

the declarant‟s criminal liability, but whether the statement satisfies the reason

why declarations against interest are admitted as an exception to the hearsay

rule”].) The reasonable person approach codified by Evidence Code section 1230

does not presume such omniscience by the declarant.

12

portrayed Morris as the actual killer, and the prosecution presented no evidence

that defendant had actually participated in the homicidal act. In his statement to

the police defendant said he was present in the house while Morris killed Bone,

but asserted that he did not participate in the killing. Misty Abbott‟s testimony

concerning Morris‟s description of how he killed the victim cast Morris as the sole

person responsible for the actual killing.5 Likewise, defendant‟s out-of-court

statement to jailhouse informant Jonathan Howe was that he never personally

touched the victim and his DNA would not be found on the body. No DNA or

other physical evidence linked defendant to the actual killing. As the majority

observes, the prosecution did present testimony from Howe that defendant

admitted he had ordered Morris and Wilson to kill the victim. However, the

challenged evidence would not have countered this testimony. Morris‟s statement

that defendant did not participate in the “actual killing” did not conflict with

Howe‟s testimony that defendant admitted he ordered Morris to kill Bone.6 In

5 In one colloquy, Abbott testified as follows:

“Q: Did Mr. Morris tell you on the way to the lake that he had murdered the

old lady?

“A: Yes.

“Q: Okay. And on the way to the lake, did Mr. Morris say that he had

stabbed the old lady?

“A: Yes.

“Q: That he tried to strangle her first, Mr. Morris tried to strangle her first?

“A: Yes.

“Q: And Mr. Morris told you that the lady wouldn‟t die; is that right?

“A: That‟s right.

“Q: And Mr. Morris told you then that he went to the kitchen and got a

knife and stabbed her?

“A: Yes.”

6 Although Morris‟s grandfather testified that Morris had told him that others

were wrongly blaming him for the murder, that statement was admitted only for

(Footnote continued on next page.)

13

short, had the jury heard a representation by Morris that defendant was not

involved in the actual killing, this additional evidence would not have impacted

the arguments made at trial nor the jury‟s assessment of the evidence as a whole,

whether at the guilt phase or the penalty phase.

This court‟s decision to grant rehearing in this case has led to a careful

reconsideration of defendant‟s claims of error, as it should. To me, however, this

review leads back to the same conclusion we drew before — that defendant‟s trial

involved no errors that require reversal of the judgment of death. In holding

otherwise, the majority renders the against-interest exception less coherent and

spots error and prejudice where none exist. I therefore dissent.

CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J.

WE CONCUR:

CHIN, J.

CORRIGAN, J.

(Footnote continued from previous page.)

purposes of impeachment and, in any event, nothing in it suggested that defendant

assisted Morris in killing Bone.

14

See next page for addresses and telephone numbers for counsel who argued in Supreme Court.

Name of Opinion People v. Grimes

__________________________________________________________________________________

Unpublished Opinion

Original Appeal XXX

Original Proceeding

Review Granted

Rehearing Granted

__________________________________________________________________________________

Opinion No. S076339

Date Filed: August 22, 2016

__________________________________________________________________________________

Court: Superior

County: Shasta

Judge: Bradley L. Boeckman

__________________________________________________________________________________

Counsel:

Cliff Gardner, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Catherine White and Lazuli Whitt for Defendant

and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette and Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorneys

General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Ward A. Campbell, Kenneth N. Sokoler and

Stephanie A. Mitchell, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Michael J. Hersek, State Public defender, Barry P. Helft, Chief Deputy State Public Defender, and Nina

Rivkind, Deputy State Public Defender, for Office of the State Public Defender as Amicus Curiae.

Counsel who argued in Supreme Court (not intended for publication with opinion):

Cliff Gardner

Law Office of Cliff Gardner

1448 San Pablo Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94702

(510) 524-1093

Stephanie A. Mitchell

Deputy Attorney General

1300 I Street, Suite 125

Sacramento, CA 94244-2550

(916) 323-8044