Alcala v. Superior Court

• Decision Date: 27 February 2007
• Docket Number: No. G036911.,G036911.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Rodney James ALCALA, Petitioner, v. The SUPERIOR COURT of Orange County, Respondent; People of the State of California, Real Party In Interest.

55 Cal.Rptr.3d 337

147 Cal.App.4th 1492

Rodney James ALCALA, Petitioner, v. The SUPERIOR COURT of Orange County, Respondent;

People of the State of California, Real Party In Interest.

No. G036911.

Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 3.

February 27, 2007.

Richard Schwartzberg, Tustin, and George Peters, Santa Monica, for Petitioner and Defendant.

No appearance for Respondent.

Tony Rackaukas, Orange County District Attorney, and Brian N. Gurwitz, Deputy District Attorney, for Real Party in Interest.

OPINION

SILLS, P.J.

Rodney James Alcala petitions us for an alternative writ of prohibition or mandate to prevent his single trial on multiple charges of murder which occurred in both Los Angeles County and Orange County. Originally, Alcala faced the single prosecution for the kidnapping and murder of 12year-old Robin Samsoe that occurred in Orange County in 1979. He was convicted, and the death penalty was imposed. That judgment was reversed in People v. Alcala (1984) 36 Cal.3d 604, 621, 205 Cal. Rptr. 775, 685 P.2d 1126 (Alcala I), which established a new standard for admitting evidence of other crimes. Returned to Grange County for retrial, Alcala was again convicted and the death penalty reimposed, which was affirmed on appeal. (See People v. Alcala (1992) 4 Cal.4th 742, 755, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 432, 842 P.2d 1192 (Alcala II).) This judgment was reversed by an order of a federal district court, which reversal was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Alcala v. Woodford (9th Cir.2003) 334 F.3d 862 (Alcala III) due to ineffective assistance of counsel. (Id. at pp. 865-866.) Again, Alcala returned to Orange County for retrial on the charges of kidnapping and murdering Robin Samsoe in 1979.

In the interim, the California Legislature passed Penal Code section 790, subdivision (b) (790(b)),¹ which provides that if "a defendant is charged with a special circumstance [murder charge], the jurisdiction for any charged murder, and for any crimes properly joinable with that murder, shall be in any county that has jurisdiction . . . for one or more of the murders charged in a single complaint or indictment as long as the charged murders are `connected together in their commission,' as that phrase: is used in Section 954, and subject to a hearing in the jurisdiction where the prosecution is attempting to consolidate the charged murders. . . ." With this statute in mind, the prosecution presented evidence to a grand jury which indicted Alcala for the separate murders of four young women in Los Angeles County in 1977, 1978, and 1979. The prosecution then brought the motion to consolidate the indictment with the case charging Alcala with the kidnapping and murder of Robin under the authority of 790(b).

In addition to the legislative creation of 790(b), the 20-year period between the crimes and the latest trial also saw the passage of Proposition 115. That initiative included a provision, now found in section 954.1 (954.1), that "cases in which two or more different offenses of the same class of crimes . . . have been charged together in the same accusatory pleading, or where two or more accusatory pleadings charging offenses of the same class of crimes . . . have been consolidated, evidence concerning one offense or offenses need not be admissible as to the other offense or offenses before the jointly charged offenses may be tried together. . . ."

After briefing and argument from both parties, the court granted the motion to consolidate and refused any severance. Alcala petitions us to bar the lower court from proceeding on the consolidated case and to sever the Los Angeles murder counts from the Robin Samsoe charges. We grant his petition in part and deny it in part.

FACTS

Robin Samsoe Case

The facts proving the Robin Samsoe case are taken from those laid out in Alcala II. On June 20, 1979, 12-year-old Robin Samsoe spent the afternoon with her girlfriend, Bridget Wilvert, along the cliffs overlooking the beach in Huntington Beach. A man approached them asking to' take their pictures for what he represented to be a school contest. The girls posed for him until Jackelyn Young, Wilvert's neighbor, noticed the man's suspicious attention on the young girls and interrupted them. The man hurriedly picked up his equipment and left. The man was identified as Alcala.² (Alcala II, supra, 4 Cal.4th at pp. 755-757, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 432, 842 P.2d 1192.)

A few minutes later, Samsoe and Wilvert returned to Wilvert's home where Samsoe borrowed Wilvert's bike to ride to her beloved ballet class. She was never seen again. (Alcala II, supra, 4 Cal.4th at 755-756, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 432, 842 P.2d 1192.)

Dana Crappa was a seasonal worker for the United States Forestry Service stationed at Chantry Flats, an area near Sierra Madre. Later on the same day Samsoe disappeared, Crappa was driving in the remote region of those hills and came across a Datsun F10 parked on a turnout. There was a dark-haired man pushing or "forcefully steering" (Alcala II, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 758, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 432, 842 P.2d 1192) a blond-haired young lady towards a dry stream bed. Crappa did nothing about the sighting even though she thought it strange. The next day, she was again returning to her barracks and had the occasion to pass the same area. The same car was parked nearby the original site, and this time the man was leaning against a nearby rock. He appeared to have dirt or stains all down the front of him. She felt there was something wrong with this scenario, but again told no one and did nothing about it. (Id. at pp. 758-759, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 432, 842 P.2d 1192.) Crappa tentatively identified Alcala as the man she saw.

Five days after the original sighting, Crappa again returned to the site, this time to satisfy her curiosity about the scene. She discovered a mutilated body of a young girl whose head had been partially severed from the body and whose hands and feet had been severed. Surprisingly, she did not report this finding nor did she reveal it to anyone, feeling guilt over not having reported what she had seen five days earlier. It wasn't until July 2, 1979, that a colleague of Crappa's discovered some bones in the area and reported it to the authorities. By this time, however, wild animals had so disrupted the decomposed remains that it could not be determined what had caused the death or whether the person had been sexually assaulted. At this time, the skull was completely separated from the spine, and the front teeth were smashed in. A "Kane Kut" kitchen knife was found near the main portion of the remains; and less than a mile away, Samsoe's beach towel was discovered with blood on it of a type consistent with that drawn from the bone marrow of the remains. Her personalized tennis shoe was found, too, but that was the sole piece of clothing retrieved. (Alcala II, supra, 4 Cal.4th at pp. 758-760, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 432, 842 P.2d 1192.)

In the interim, Wilvert assisted a police composite artist in drawing up a sketch of the man who took the girls' pictures. That composite sketch was distributed by the media on or about June 22. Alcala's parole officer saw the sketch and felt it was a match to Alcala, particularly in light of Alcala's aberrant sexual interest in young girls and his familiarity with the area in which the remains were found, which were matters known to the parole officer." (Alcala II, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 756, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 432, 8452 P.2d 1192.)

A search warrant was served on the home Alcala shared with his mother in Monterey Park. The police impounded a Datsun F10 parked at the home which was registered to Alcala, inside of which the officers found camera equipment and a briefcase containing a set of keys. Inside the home, they seized sets of Kane Kut kitchen knives and noticed — but failed to seize³ — a receipt for a storage locker in Seattle, Washington. (Alcala II, supra, 4 Cal.4th at pp. 756-761, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 432, 842 P.2d 1192.)

The storage locker was then searched pursuant to a warrant and the authorities made several interesting discoveries: (1) The keys from Alcala's briefcase opened both of the two locks put on the locker; (2) in one of the boxes of photographs inside the locker, they found slides taken of Lorraine Werts at the beach on the same day Robin had disappeared; (3) several items of jewelry were found, including a pair of gold ball earrings often worn by Samsoe and which Samsoe's mother identified as her own, based on a modification she had made by using her nail clippers to alter the surface; and (4) the striatums found on those earrings were consistent with marks made by those nail clippers in a test. (Alcola II, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 761, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 432, 842 P.2d 1192.)

Alcala's girlfriend, Elizabeth Kelleher, testified that she saw Alcala on June 22, at which time he was sporting his usual long, curly hair. The next day, however, the composite sketch was exhibited throughout the area. On June 23, Alcala "straightened" his hair using a chemical solution and then cut his hair short on June 26. On July 8, he informed Kelleher that he was going to move from southern California to Texas to start a photography business. However, he actually went to Seattle — not Texas — on July 11. It was at this time he obtained the storage locker. He returned to Monterey Park, informing Kelleher that he planned to leave for Texas permanently on July 24. On the other hand, he told another friend, Leslie Schneider, that he was leaving for Chicago. (Alcala II, supra, 4 Cal.4th at 760, 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 432, 842 P.2d 1192.)

Alcala relied on an alibi defense, although not testifying himself.⁴ He called various witnesses who testified he applied for a photographer's position at Knott's Berry Farm on June 20. He also had a defense witness testify that the striations on the gold earrings were consistent with having been made with nail clippers provided by Alcala's mother. He also had a different friend testify...