People v. Brock
| Decision Date | 06 February 1984 |
| Citation | 199 Cal.Rptr. 115,151 Cal.App.3d 757 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Luther Clayton BROCK, Defendant and Appellant. A011530. |
For Opinion on Hearing, see 211 Cal.Rptr. 122, 695, P.2d 209.
Cecil L. McGriff, San Francisco, for defendant and appellant.
John Van de Kamp, Atty. Gen. of the State of Cal., John B. Moy, David D. Salmon, Deputy Attys. Gen., San Francisco, for plaintiff and respondent.
Defendant Luther Clayton Brock appeals from a judgment based on conviction by a jury of second degree murder and of unlawful administration of methamphetamine. (Pen.Code, § 187; Health & Saf.Code, § 11379.) He contends the trial court made evidentiary and other errors which deprived him of his constitutional rights of confrontation and due process. We affirm.
On August 15, 1980, a doctor informed the victim, Iris Southall, that she had an abscess on her arm which required surgery. Later that day she was admitted to San Francisco General Hospital where she was placed on Ward 4B in a room with another patient, Mary Williams.
Southall told the surgeon she had given herself an intramuscular injection of amphetamines about three days earlier. The surgeon's examinations of her before and during the operation on the abscess revealed no symptoms of amphetamine intoxication or poisoning.
Surgery was performed without incident from 10:15 to 11:15 p.m. Southall was placed in the recovery room. The surgeon reexamined her shortly before midnight. Again there were no symptoms of amphetamine intoxication.
An I.V. tube was placed in the patient's ankle through which she received penicillin and clindomycin. At 4 a.m., she was moved from the recovery room to the room she shared with Mary Williams. She was awake and alert and her vital signs were satisfactory. However, at 6:20 a.m., the nurse noted that Southall's vital signs had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. She could only be aroused with great difficulty. Her skin was cold and had a "bluish hue" around the extremities--a condition known as cyanosis. The nurse summoned a medical intern, Dr. Shae Goldstein. Goldstein asked Southall "if anybody had given her any drugs." She replied "yes," that "her friends did" just before the operation. After continued efforts to revive Southall, her condition continued to deteriorate and she was pronounced dead at 12:55 p.m. on the day following surgery.
The autopsy on Southall revealed extraordinarily high levels of amphetamine and methamphetamine (a stimulant twice as potent as amphetamine). The San Francisco medical examiner testified that these levels would have been lethal to any person. The coroner and other prosecution witnesses concluded the cause of death was a massive overdose of amphetamines and methamphetamines injected through the I.V. bag. Defense experts suggested several alternative theories.
Inspector Napoleon Hendrix of the San Francisco Police investigated Southall's death. On August 20, four days after the death, he interviewed Southall's hospital roommate, Mary Williams.
Hendrix' notes from the August 20 interview with Williams stated:
During the same interview Hendrix showed Williams six photographs. Hendrix' notes recite that Williams She signed the back of the photograph.
At the conclusion of the interview Hendrix signed the notes he had made from Williams' statements. He did not offer them to Williams to read or sign.
The account of events Williams gave Hendrix on August 20 was, for the most part, consistent with the statement she had made to Officer Dennis Bonnel on August 16, the day of Southall's death. There was one discrepancy. She had told Bonnel that no words were spoken between Southall and her visitor when he returned to the room around 4 a.m. Bonnel had taken notes from his August 16 interview and had incorporated these into a police report.
Seth Derish, a private investigator, interviewed Williams in January 1981. He returned a week later with defense counsel and taped a second interview, during which Williams contradicted some of her earlier statements to Hendrix. She told Derish and defense counsel that a black man had visited Southall early in the evening but had not returned after Southall came back from surgery. She also stated that Hendrix' account of his interview with her was incorrect. She claimed to have heard an "ashtray" not a "syringe" being placed on the table. Williams also stated Hendrix had displayed only one photograph (Brock's) to her, not six.
The defense theory at trial was alibi. An acquaintance of Southall and of Brock, Steve Irons, disputed the prosecution witness' account of the hours of Brock's visits to the hospital. Irons stated that he and Brock were at the hospital from 6 to 9 p.m. They returned at about 9:30 or 10 p.m. and remained until about midnight, but were unable to see Southall. Irons testified that he last saw Brock in Hunters Point at 12:30 or 1 a.m., August 16, the day of the death. Irons admitted that he had been high on amphetamines for several days preceding these events. A police officer testified that he observed Irons on August 16 at the hospital and that Irons clearly appeared under the influence of drugs. Two other defense witnesses stated that Brock was at a friend's house from 2 a.m. to about 6:30 a.m.
The preliminary hearing commenced February 25, 1981. The second day of the hearing was held in Williams' hospital room. The People sought Williams' testimony for the purpose of establishing the foundation for introduction under the hearsay exception for past recollection recorded (Evid.Code, § 1237) of Hendrix' notes of his August 20 interview with her. 1 Since the events in August 1980 her physical condition had worsened: her leg had been amputated, she was suffering from numerous other ailments and was receiving medication. Dr. George Lampe was present during Williams' testimony to monitor her condition.
On direct examination Williams testified: "Q. ... [D]id you have a time when you talked to Mr. Hendrix, this gentleman right here? Would you stand up please, sir? [p] A. Yeah, I know Mr. Hendrix good. [p] Q. Sure.... [D]id you tell him what you remembered at that time as to what you saw after Iris came into the room? [p] A. Yes, I'm sure I did because I told him just exactly what I thought I knowed. [p] Q. And you were telling him the truth then, weren't you? [p] A. I was. [p] Q. Now, your memory was good at that time about what happened, wasn't it? [p] A. Right.
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