People v. Maury

• Decision Date: 24 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. S012852.,S012852.
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Robert Edward MAURY, Defendant and Appellant.

133 Cal.Rptr.2d 561

30 Cal.4th 342

68 P.3d 1

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Robert Edward MAURY, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S012852.

Supreme Court of California.

April 24, 2003.

Rehearing Denied June 18, 2003.

As Modified June 18, 2003.

Certiorari Denied January 12, 2004.

Joseph E. Chabot, under appointment by the Supreme Court, San Francisco, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, David P. Druliner, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Assistant Attorney General, Ward A. Campbell and Stanley Cross, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Certiorari Denied January 12, 2004. See 124 S.Ct. 1058.

CHIN, J.

A jury convicted defendant Robert Edward Maury for the first degree murders (Pen.Code, § 187)¹ of Averill Weeden, Belinda Jo Stark and Dawn Berryhill, the assault on Stark with intent to commit rape (§ 220), the robbery (§ 211) of Berryhill, and the forcible rape (§ 261, subd. (2)) of Jacqueline H. It found true special circumstance allegations of multiple murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)) and robbery murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(i)). After a penalty trial, the jury returned a verdict of death, and the trial court imposed that sentence. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) As will appear, we affirm the judgment in its entirety.

I. Facts

A. Guilt Phase

1. The Prosecution's Case

a. Introduction

The prosecution presented a fact-intensive, circumstantial case of defendant's guilt, which interconnected three murders and the rape of a fourth victim.

A central element in the case was the Shasta County Secret Witness program (Secret Witness), which was established as a telephone "hotline" to receive information from citizens about crimes committed in the county. A month after Weeden's disappearance in 1985, an anonymous caller called the Secret Witness with information on the location of Weeden's body in exchange for reward money. This information led to the discovery of Weeden's body. Although the police suspected that defendant, Weeden's roommate, had been involved in her disappearance and was possibly the Secret Witness caller, there was insufficient evidence of his involvement in Weeden's death or that he was the caller.

In 1986, defendant called the Secret Witness about seeking a reward for information on an unrelated burglary. During the call, defendant identified himself by name. The operator believed that he was the same person who had previously provided information on Weeden.

At the end of June 1987, Berryhill and Stark disappeared. Soon afterwards, the Secret Witness operator received a series of telephone calls from an unidentified caller, whom she believed to be the previous caller. He provided information leading to the discovery of the women's bodies, which were later located in the same rural area, within three-tenths of a mile of each other. The caller again received monetary rewards for the information provided. When the caller retrieved the reward money at a designated drop-off point, the police identified him as defendant. After the police later confronted defendant with this information, he made a series of incriminating statements, which eventually led to his arrest.

b. Weeden's disappearance

In May 1985, Weeden lived in Redding and rented a room in her house to defendant. On Thursday, May 23, Eula Chartier, Weeden's mother, spoke to defendant several times on the telephone inquiring about her daughter's whereabouts. Defendant related that Weeden was at the store. On the last call, defendant exclaimed, "How in the hell am I supposed to know where she is." Unable to locate Weeden, Chartier reported to the police that her daughter was missing.

While searching for his sister, Bill Chartier asked defendant where she was. Defendant gave conflicting stories. Ray Morris, who was with defendant at the Weeden house on one occasion, told Chartier that he last saw Weeden riding off with defendant on the back of his motorcycle.

Assigned to investigate the disappearance of Weeden, Redding Police Detective Dave Mundy spoke with defendant at the police department on June 3, 1985. Defendant appeared to be "relaxed and self-assured" and denied any involvement in Weeden's disappearance. He related that the last time he had seen Weeden was "either Thursday, Friday, or a Saturday." At that time, defendant drove Weeden on his motorcycle to a telephone booth, left her there while he went to another location to pick up some drugs for Weeden, returned to pick her up, and drove her back to her house. A week later, Detective Mundy spoke again with defendant, who confirmed this account.

c. The 1985 Secret Witness telephone calls and discovery of Weeden's body

On June 19, 1985, an anonymous person called the Secret Witness, inquiring as to how much he would receive for information on the location of Weeden's body. Shirley Landreth, who answered most of the incoming calls for the Secret Witness, spoke to this person.

On August 8, 1985, the same person (whose voice Landreth recognized) called and asked again about the amount of reward money he would receive for information on the location of Weeden's body. This time, having received authorization to pay the reward money, Landreth agreed with the caller on the amount. The caller then gave precise directions to a wooded area located off a trail behind an automobile body shop in Redding. In relating the distances, he used the term "meters." Claiming that he knew the identity of the person responsible for the Weeden killing, the caller offered to give information about the "responsible" person if he received his reward money in a timely manner. He also related that there were six unsolved murders in Shasta County and he could give information to solve two others.

Based on the information provided by the caller, the police found Weeden's badly decomposed body. It had been covered with cardboard and what appeared to be an old carpet. An autopsy, performed on August 23, 1985, revealed that Weeden's skull and the bone at the top of her throat had been fractured "at or near the time of death." The medical examiner opined that Weeden died from multiple traumatic injuries; either fracture, independently, or both fractures in conjunction, could have caused Weeden's death. The fractured bone in Weeden's throat was consistent with manual strangulation.

After the discovery of Weeden's body, Landreth received four more telephone calls from the same caller in August 1985. On August 12, the caller said that the person who had lived with Weeden was responsible for her death. Although the caller refused to talk with Detective Mundy, he said he would call back and answer questions that the officer gave to Landreth.

On August 15, 1985, the Secret Witness caller telephoned Landreth as promised. Responding to Detective Mundy's questions, the caller related that the person responsible for Weeden's death was named "Robert" or "Bob" and had rented a room from Weeden; he knew this because he was "sort of with him"; he was Bob's drug connection and had gone with him to collect the money; Bob had provided drugs to Weeden; and when Weeden could not pay for the drugs, Bob went out of control and strangled her with a nylon clothesline obtained from Weeden's backyard. The caller further related that the killing occurred Thursday night on a trail and the body was dragged to where it was found. He refused to admit that he had observed the killing. Landreth asked, "If Bob denies [the involvement], how can we nail him?" The caller responded, "Tell Bob that Dave has talked to Frank" and that "it will scare the hmm [later described as a `four-letter word'] out of him."²

On August 15, 1985, the Secret Witness caller telephoned Landreth again and responded to more questions provided by Detective Mundy. The caller related that Weeden was picked up at dusk and killed with a six- to eight-inch rock at 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. on Thursday; he knew it was Thursday because it had been a relative's birthday; and Bob drove Weeden on his motorcycle while the caller drove his own car. The caller reiterated that Weeden had been strangled beside the trail, dragged to where she was eventually found, hit with a rock to make sure that she was dead, and covered with leaves and branches. Bob returned later and covered Weeden's body with an object such as a blanket, towel, or rug. In describing where the police could find Weeden's glasses, the rope, and the rock, the caller again used the term "meters." When Landreth related that the police were unable to find the rope near the location of the body, the caller said that it could be found next to a shed in Weeden's backyard. The police later found a nylon clothesline there. The caller said that he would check the next day and warned that if he did not receive his reward money, they would not hear from him again.

On August 26, 1985, the same caller telephoned Landreth again. Responding to more questions provided by Detective Mundy, the caller described the clothing Weeden had worn and said that Bob covered the body with a rug. When asked if anyone had seen Bob return to the body, the caller responded that he did not know, although Bob had gone back several times on his dirt bike.

d. Defendant's additional statements to the police about Weeden's death

On September 4, 1985, Detective Mundy spoke with defendant again at defendant's house. Defendant reiterated that he had driven Weeden on his motorcycle to a telephone booth, left her there while he retrieved some drugs, returned to Weeden, and then brought her back to her house. He believed this occurred on Friday night, May 24, because he recalled that the next day he attended a birthday party for his brother's children.

In November 1985, defendant telephoned Shasta County Sheriffs Detective Chester Ashmun. This time, he offered information on the cause of Weeden's death to the effect that she had been strangled and hit on the head. He...