In re Sakarias

• Citation: 25 Cal.Rptr.3d 265,106 P.3d 931,35 Cal.4th 140
• Decision Date: 03 March 2005
• Docket Number: No. S082299, No. S102401.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (California)
• Parties: In re Peter SAKARIAS on Habeas Corpus. In re Tauno Waidla on Habeas Corpus.

25 Cal.Rptr.3d 265

35 Cal.4th 140

106 P.3d 931

In re Peter SAKARIAS on Habeas Corpus.

In re Tauno Waidla on Habeas Corpus.

Nos. S082299, S102401.

Supreme Court of California.

March 3, 2005.

Certiorari Denied October 11, 2005.

Cliff Gardner, San Francisco, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Robert Derham, San Anselmo, for Petitioner Peter Sakarias.

Maria E. Stratton, Federal Public Defender and Sean K. Kennedy, Deputy Federal Public Defender, for Petitioner Tauno Waidla.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, David P. Druliner and Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Carol Wendelin Pollack and Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorneys General, Sanjay T. Kumar, Susan Lee Frierson, John R. Gorey and Michael C. Keller, Deputy Attorneys General, for Respondent the People.

Steve Cooley, District Attorney, Brentford J. Ferreira and Hyman Sisman, Deputy District Attorneys, for Los Angeles District Attorney's Office as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Respondent the People.

Certiorari Denied October 11, 2005. See 126 S.Ct. 430.

WERDEGAR, J.

In 1990, petitioners Peter Sakarias and Tauno Waidla were each, in separate trials, convicted of first degree murder with special circumstances and sentenced to death in the killing of Viivi Piirisild. We affirmed each of their convictions and sentences on automatic appeal (People v. Sakarias (2000) 22 Cal.4th 596, 94 Cal. Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152 (Sakarias); People v. Waidla (2000) 22 Cal.4th 690, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396, 996 P.2d 46 (Waidla)), but issued orders to show cause in response to their petitions for writs of habeas corpus, on claims the prosecutor, in each trial, had presented factual theories inconsistent with those presented at the codefendant's trial. In response to Waidla's petition, we also specified a procedural issue: whether claims of error under Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (Miranda) are cognizable on habeas corpus. On receipt of the returns and traverses, we consolidated the two causes for consideration and decision and appointed a referee to hear evidence and make factual findings. The referee has now issued his report, and the parties have filed briefs on the merits.

The evidence at petitioners' trials showed they both participated in the fatal attack on Viivi Piirisild, which was perpetrated with a hatchet and a knife. (See Sakarias, supra, 22 Cal.4th at pp. 611-613,94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17,995 P.2d 152; Waidla, supra, 22 Cal.4th at p. 710,94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396,996 P.2d 46.) But both petitioners contend their joint prosecutor, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Steven Ipsen, inconsistently and falsely portrayed their respective roles in the attack, attributing to each, in their respective trials, a series of three blows struck to the victim's head with the blade of the hatchet. Petitioners claim this prosecutorial inconsistency deprived them of due process, requiring that their death sentences be vacated. We agree with Sakarias that the prosecutor violated his due process rights by intentionally and without good faith justification arguing inconsistent and irreconcilable factual theories in the two trials, attributing to each petitioner in turn culpable acts that could have been committed by only one person. We also agree this violation prejudiced Sakarias, entitling him to relief. We do not decide whether the prosecutor's conduct was a due process violation as to Waidla, as we conclude any such violation was harmless in his case.

Finally, we hold Miranda claims are cognizable on habeas corpus in California courts, but that such a claim is subject to denial on procedural grounds where, because it rests on facts in the appellate record, the claim was already raised and rejected, or could have been raised but was not, on direct appeal. (In re Harris (1993) 5 Cal.4th 813, 824-829, 21 Cal. Rptr.2d 373, 855 P.2d 391; In re Waltreus (1965) 62 Cal.2d 218, 225, 42 Cal.Rptr. 9, 397 P.2d 1001; In re Dixon (1953) 41 Cal.2d 756, 759, 264 P.2d 513.) Other procedural bars, of course, may also apply to a Miranda claim in a given case.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Facts of the Crime

Waidla and Sakarias were both born in Estonia while that nation was part of the Soviet Union. They met as conscripts in the Soviet Army, from which they defected together, coming in 1987 to Los Angeles. There, they were taken under the wing of an Estonian-American couple, Avo and Viivi Piirisild, who offered to help them obtain jobs and education. For a period in 1987-1988, Waidla lived in the Piirisilds' guest house, performing remodeling work and other chores in exchange for his room and board. (Sakarias, supra, 22 Cal.4th at p. 609, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152; Waidla, supra, 22 Cal.4th at pp. 705-707, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396, 996 P.2d 46.)

Relations soon soured between petitioners and the Piirisilds. In May 1988, Waidla demanded the Piirisilds give him money or a sports car they had promised him for his work and threatened, otherwise, to report them for doing construction without a permit. When the Piirisilds told Waidla to leave their home, Waidla threatened to hurt or kill Avo. Later, Viivi received a postcard with a rattlesnake on it from Sakarias and Waidla, who were traveling together. Sakarias later told police he believed Viivi had been spreading harmful rumors about him and Waidla within the Estonian community, damaging their prospects for help from other Estonians around North America. (Sakarias, supra, 22 Cal.4th at pp. 610, 612, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152; Waidla, supra, 22 Cal.4th at pp. 707-709, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396, 996 P.2d 46.)

During early July 1988, petitioners broke into the Piirisilds' unoccupied cabin in Crestline. They stayed for several days, leaving only when they ran out of food and taking with them various items of the Piirisilds' property, including a hatchet. On July 12, angry, hungry, and in need of money, they went to the Piirisilds' North Hollywood home and broke in through the back door. They ate food from the kitchen and took some jewelry while waiting for Viivi to return home. Sakarias later told the police he and Waidla were planning to get money for food and to confront Viivi and frighten her into giving them the sports car; he also said that having contemplated killing themselves because of their poor situation, they decided to kill Viivi first so "`she is not gonna see my funeral'" or, with her husband, "`laugh on us for the rest of their lives.'" (Sakarias, supra, 22 Cal.4th at pp. 610, 612-613,94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17,995 P.2d 152; Waidla, supra, 22 Cal.4th at pp. 709-710,94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396,996 P.2d 46.)

When Viivi entered the house through the front door, petitioners immediately attacked her, using a knife and the hatchet they had taken from the Crestline cabin. They bludgeoned her with the blunt end of the hatchet, stabbed her with the knife, and chopped at her with the hatchet blade. Overall, the medical examiner found five blunt force impacts to Viivi's head (which fractured her skull and facial bones, knocked out her teeth, and broke her larynx), four stab wounds to her chest (two of which passed through vital organs), and three chopping wounds to her upper head. One of this last group of injuries, inflicted before death, was struck with "tremendous" force, penetrating Viivi's skull completely. The other two chopping wounds were inflicted with somewhat less force, after or around the time of death. The medical examiner attributed Viivi's death to the combination of wounds, several of which could have been fatal individually. After the attack in the entryway, petitioners dragged Viivi down the hall to a bedroom, where her body was found. According to the medical examiner's testimony at Waidla's trial, an abrasion on Viivi's lower back, caused by rubbing of her skin against another surface (which could have been incurred when she was dragged to the bedroom), was inflicted after her death. (Sakarias, supra, 22 Cal.4th at pp. 611-613, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152; Waidla, supra, 22 Cal.4th at p. 710, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396, 996 P.2d 46.)

Sakarias told police that during the initial attack he wielded the knife while Waidla used the hatchet. Sometime later, at Waidla's direction, he went to the bedroom and chopped Viivi's head twice with the hatchet. (Sakarias, supra, 22 Cal.4th at p. 613, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152.) Waidla gave a statement admitting only a single bludgeoning blow, with the back of the hatchet at the outset of the attack, and denying any memory of how the rest of the attack proceeded. He recanted even that confession at his trial, testifying he had left Los Angeles three days before Viivi Piirisild was killed. (Waidla, supra, 22 Cal.4th at p. 712, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396, 996 P.2d 46.)

Petitioners sold the jewelry they took and used Viivi's credit cards for airline tickets, telephone calls, and other purchases. They were arrested more than a month later near the United States-Canada border in New York State. (Sakarias, supra, 22 Cal.4th at p. 612, 94 Cal. Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152; Waidla, supra, 22 Cal.4th at pp. 710-711, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396, 996 P.2d 46.)

B. The Inconsistent Factual Theories

Petitioners were jointly charged with Viivi Piirisild's murder, but their cases were severed after Sakarias was found incompetent to stand trial. (Waidla, supra, 22 Cal.4th at p. 704, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396, 996 P.2d 46.) Waidla's jury trial began with the prosecution's opening statement on October 24, 1990; penalty arguments were made on January 2, 1991. Sakarias's trial began on September 30, 1991, with penalty arguments on October 30, 1991. As reflected in the summary above, the evidence at petitioners' trials, taken as a whole, strongly suggests Waidla (who first wielded the hatchet, according to both petitioners' statements) struck the first, antemortem blow with the hatchet blade in the entryway, while Sakarias (who admitted doing so) inflicted the two post- or...