People v. Jennings

• Citation: 279 Cal.Rptr. 780,53 Cal.3d 334,807 P.2d 1009
• Decision Date: 11 April 1991
• Docket Number: No. S004754,S004754
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (California)
• Parties: , 807 P.2d 1009 The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Wilbur JENNINGS, Defendant and Appellant. Crim. 25938.

Page 780

279 Cal.Rptr. 780

53 Cal.3d 334, 807 P.2d 1009

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Wilbur JENNINGS, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S004754.

Crim. 25938.

Supreme Court of California In Bank.

April 11, 1991.

Rehearing Denied May 29, 1991.

Hallinan, Poplack & Levine and Hugh Anthony Levine, San Francisco, for defendant and appellant.

John K. Van de Kamp and Daniel E. Lungren, Attys. Gen., Steve White, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen., J. Robert Jibson, Cynthia G. Besemer, Raymond L. Brosterhous II, Ward A. Campbell and Robert R. Anderson, Deputy Attys. Gen., Sacramento, for plaintiff and respondent.

LUCAS, Chief Justice.

Wilbur Jennings was convicted in 1986 of the first degree murders of Linda Johnson, Olga Cannon, and Jacqueline Frazier, and the second degree murder of Karen Robinson. He was also convicted of numerous other felonies against these and three other victims, including a variety of forcible sexual assaults, robberies, arsons, and kidnapping for robbery. In addition, the jury sustained eight special circumstance allegations, finding that Johnson, Cannon, and Frazier were killed in the course of a robbery (Pen.Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(i); all further statutory references are to this code unless otherwise indicated), that Johnson and Cannon were killed in the course of a rape (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(iii)), and that defendant had "been convicted of more than one offense of murder in the first or second degree." (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3).) A Fresno County jury set the penalty at death. The trial court also sentenced defendant to life imprisonment for kidnapping for the purpose of robbery, a consecutive term of 15 years to life for second degree murder, and a total unstayed determinate terms of 49 years, 8 months on the remaining felony convictions. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).)

FACTS

Guilt Phase

1. Linda Johnson

Defendant lived in Selma, California, with his half brother, A.C. Harris, and their mother, Artis Williams. Linda Johnson had lived next door with her mother but moved to Long Beach to be with her boyfriend, Melvin Cooper. Defendant was acquainted with Johnson's brother, Flenard Johnson. On several occasions while Linda Johnson was gone, defendant asked Flenard Johnson about Linda's whereabouts. On one of these occasions, defendant remarked, "That little liar told me she was coming back this weekend. This [sic ] already been two weeks." Flenard was unaware of any intimate relationship defendant may have had with his sister. Linda Johnson returned from Long Beach on September 12, 1984, driving Cooper's blue Cadillac. After going to the hospital to see her ailing mother, she went home.

A fire broke out and destroyed the Johnson home around 5 a.m. on September 13th. Neither Linda Johnson nor the Cadillac was there. An arson expert determined that the fire was started by lighting a flammable liquid placed in three separate locations in the house. When Flenard went to defendant's house that morning, he noticed the tire tracks in the driveway were identical to those left by Cooper's blue Cadillac in Johnson's mother's driveway.

Later that day, police found the seminude body of Linda Johnson in a canal outside Fresno. Detective Martinez found two Budweiser beer cans about thirty-five feet from the body. An autopsy revealed the victim died from 18 separate blows to the head by a blunt instrument with a sharply angled edge. The blows caused numerous fractures and extensive hemorrhaging. Material taken from the victim's vagina tested positive for prostatic acid phosphatase, an enzyme found in semen. A black adhesive substance found on the body was similar to weather stripping found in the trunk of Cooper's Cadillac.

About 10 o'clock that night, a passerby observed a blue Cadillac on fire. The smell of gasoline was apparent. An expert investigating the car fire concluded that it was Cooper's Cadillac and that a flammable liquid was used to intentionally ignite the blaze. Police found a matchbook cover marked "Royal Guest" near the burning car, and also found a beer can about 100 yards away.

Police interviewed defendant the next day. There was a scratch on his face that appeared to be between 12 and 48 hours old. Police found another matchbook marked "Royal Guest" on the floorboard of defendant's red Cadillac.

A.C. Harris told police that defendant described the crime in detail to him. According to Harris, defendant asked the victim to become a prostitute but she refused. Defendant then raped her and killed her by hitting her on the side of the head. He and a friend, Leonard Hutchinson, then placed the body in Cooper's Cadillac and dumped the body in an irrigation ditch. Returning to Johnson's house, defendant poured gasoline on it and started the fire to cover the evidence. When defendant came home shortly after the fire, he smelled like gasoline. Harris also stated defendant kept a sawed-off baseball bat, a knife, and a 30- to 36-inch piece of galvanized pipe in his car. Harris further said that when police came to arrest defendant, he told Harris, "I'm so nervous," and admitted he killed Linda Johnson and raped another woman. ¹

Police found another "Royal Guest" matchbook in Hutchinson's living room.

Melvin Cooper, the victim's boyfriend, testified that although he had a sexual relationship with the victim, they had not had relations in the three or four weeks prior to the victim's death.

Several witnesses testified to statements defendant made evidencing his intent to kill Linda Johnson. For example, Matt Miller said he saw defendant arguing with the victim two weeks before her death. After she left, defendant told Miller he was going to have sex with her "and then finish her, and dispose of her, done, over, no more." Later, he told Miller about a woman and said he had "caved her ... head in," and she wouldn't be troubling him anymore.

Albert Aranda testified that defendant told him that he was living with Flenard Johnson's younger sister and that "if she don't behave right, [I'm] gonna kill her like the rest of them." Two weeks later, Aranda heard Linda Johnson had been killed. Defendant frequently told Aranda that all prostitutes should be killed because they did not "treat him right."

Jessie Thomas testified that defendant told him that an attractive woman from Los Angeles lived next door to him, that he liked her, and that he would "get her one way or the other."

Two days after the killing, defendant sexually assaulted Janyce B., a prostitute. After the assault, he told her he killed the woman that lived next door to him in Selma. Later, he told her he was kidding.

Finally, after his arrest, defendant told his cellmate, Kenny Smith, that he had wanted to "make out" with his girlfriend, she refused, and he beat her until she was unconscious. He then claimed he burned down her house with gasoline, and drove a car to the country and burned it as well.

On the day of the murder, defendant's employer, Earl Wells, asked defendant and David Pulley to tear down an old garage, clear the brush, and burn the materials and debris. The two stopped at 10:30 that morning and filled a two-gallon can with gasoline for the job. Defendant saw the victim in Cooper's Cadillac and told Pulley, "Well, I'm gonna get that Cadillac one way or another, if it takes me to jail or imprisonment or killing her." After completing the demolition job, defendant told Pulley he was going to drink some beer, and "as soon as he got up enough courage that he was going to go over to whoever's house and burn the bitch out" with gasoline. Defendant drove off with the gasoline can still partially full.

2. Olga Cannon

Olga Cannon, also known as Wendy and Nene, worked as a prostitute on G Street in Fresno. She spoke often with defendant and he introduced her to various people as his girlfriend or his wife. In early August 1984, defendant complained to Flenard Johnson that Cannon charged him $35 for sexual relations but charged Mexicans only $15. He bragged that he would rape and rob Cannon, and then "put her out." On another occasion, he said he would "beat [her] brains out." Also around this time, defendant twice told Jessie Thomas that he wanted to kill Cannon.

Albert Aranda saw Cannon with defendant on August 14, 1984. Defendant told Aranda that if Cannon did not behave, he was going to kill her. He then sped off with Cannon in his van. Cannon's husband, Larry Shepard, reported her missing the next day.

Around this time, defendant was living with Louisia Thomas, a former prostitute who had worked on G Street and knew Olga Cannon. He told Louisia Thomas that Cannon had been killed by some Mexicans in a payment dispute. Later, he said he was only kidding. The next day, Louisia Thomas found a brown leatherette purse in defendant's car. She asked if she could have it but defendant took it away from her. Although he later gave it to her, he first removed some papers from it. The purse was later identified as belonging to Cannon.

Cannon's nude body was found on December 8, 1984, in an irrigation ditch outside Fresno. Because of advanced decomposition of the body, the cause of death could not be determined, although it was determined that she had a broken jaw. There was an empty Budweiser can three feet from the body.

As with the Linda Johnson killing, defendant also made incriminating statements about the Cannon killing to his cellmate, Kenny Smith. Defendant told Smith he picked up Cannon on G Street and demanded sex. She refused so he drove to the country and forced her to "make out" with him by slapping her. When she tried to get out of the car, he "went berserk" and beat her to death with a crowbar. He then "ditched her body."

3. Jacqueline Frazier

Jacqueline Frazier apparently worked as a prostitute in the Fresno area, often picking up men at Hunt's Club and bringing them home with her. Rodney Bradley, her former boyfriend, often watched her apartment and saw her come home with...