People v. Carrillo

• Decision Date: 28 May 2004
• Docket Number: No. G031382.,G031382.
• Citation: 13 Cal.Rptr.3d 878,119 Cal.App.4th 94
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Eva CARRILLO, Defendant and Appellant.

13 Cal.Rptr.3d 878

119 Cal.App.4th 94

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Eva CARRILLO, Defendant and Appellant.

No. G031382.

Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 3.

May 28, 2004.

David L. Polsky, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Alana R. Cohen Butler and Sara Gros-Cloren, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

BEDSWORTH, Acting P.J.

To ensure the fairness of criminal trials, the law provides that evidence of the defendant's poverty is generally inadmissible. In this case, however, the prosecution introduced a considerable amount of evidence showing Eva Carrillo was in difficult financial straits when she allegedly aided and abetted her boyfriend in a robbery. Her poverty was used to provide convincing harmony to the factual melody of the crime. The result was a composition that convinced the jury, but contravened the law. We find this evidence deprived Carrillo of a fair trial and reverse the judgment.

* * *

Eva Montero was walking down the street when Edgar Rendon came up to her and yanked a chain and medallion from her neck. Theodore Haas and his wife witnessed the robbery. They followed Rendon in their car as he ran behind a Burger King and into an alley by a strip mall. As Rendon made his way, he looked around as if he were trying to find someone.

Upon driving into the alley, the Haases saw a white van pull up and park behind a purple car. Carrillo was behind the wheel of the purple car, and the people in the van were pointing to her vehicle. She tried to back out around the van, but Mr. Haas positioned his car so as to block her way. He then went up to her car, spotted Rendon in the back seat and opened the front passenger door. Carrillo asked him what was going on, and Mr. Haas told her Rendon had just robbed someone. Rendon then told Carrillo to get going, but she did not do anything. This prompted Rendon to make a run for it. Mr. Haas and the men in the van ran after him.

Carrillo made several more attempts to get her car out, but Ms. Haas edged her vehicle forward, blocking her way. Carrillo told her, "I don't know what's going on[.] I don't even know who that guy is[.] He just jumped in my car and asked me for a ride." When Ms. Haas expressed doubt about this, Carrillo claimed she was waiting for a friend who was in the video store. She then implored Ms. Haas to let her out, saying she was late to pick up her kids in Riverside. However, Ms. Haas refused to move her car.

Moments later, Rendon came running back to Carrillo and told her to get her car out. When Carrillo explained she couldn't, Rendon kept running. Carrillo then again asked Ms. Haas to let her out. She also repeated her claim she did not know Rendon, but Ms. Haas was now even more dubious. Eventually, Carrillo left her car and walked toward the strip mall. Along the way, she saw Mr. Haas lying on the ground. He was bleeding from the mouth and had been knocked unconscious by Rendon.

Rendon didn't get far, though, as the police apprehended him a few blocks from the scene. They arrested Carrillo and placed her in custody with Rendon. After they kissed, she asked, "What did you do to that old man?" Rendon said, "Fuck, I hit him[.] What was I supposed to do when he tried to hit me?" He also told Carrillo, "Don't worry, baby. I will take the whole rap."

Carrillo testified Rendon is the father of her youngest daughter. She said they had dated for several years and planned to marry. However, at the time of the robbery, she was living with a friend and Rendon did not have a permanent place to live, so he kept many of his belongings in her car.

On the day of the robbery, Rendon paged her and asked her to meet him at the Burger King so he could get some clothes out of her car. When she did not see him at the restaurant, she drove around looking for him. At one point, she went into the alley with the intention of turning around and continuing her search. However, as soon as she pulled into a parking stall, Rendon jumped into her back seat and said, "Let's go." Carrillo was confused by Rendon's actions, but because she was in a hurry, she did not bother to seek an explanation. Rather, she just tried to back her car out. That's when the van pulled up and blocked her way.

According to Carrillo, she had no idea Rendon had committed a robbery and no intention of helping him get away. She was worried about the situation, however, which is why she lied to Ms. Haas. The reason she became so upset is because she was late to pick up her children in Riverside. Once she realized Ms. Haas was not going to let her out, she walked over to Burger King and bought a drink. She then returned to her car and waited there until the police arrived.

One of the officers looked in her trunk, where many of Rendon's clothes were located. Carrillo told the officer about Rendon's page, but she would not let the officer access the messages on her pager. Nor would she provide a name for the person she was with when she received the page.

The defense called several witnesses to corroborate Carrillo's testimony. While cross-examining these witnesses, the prosecutor elicited considerable evidence regarding Carrillo's financial circumstances. Carrillo's sister Zonia admitted Carrillo was not working when they were living together in the months leading up to the robbery. When the prosecutor asked her where Carrillo was getting her rent money, Zonia said, "She was having some checks come in for her for her daughter." The prosecutor also asked Zonia when Carrillo bought her car and where she got the money to buy it. Eva did not know the answer to these questions.

In an attempt to rehabilitate Carrillo on the job issue, defense counsel asked Zonia on redirect about Carrillo's employment history. However, the court sustained the prosecutor's objection to this line of questioning on the grounds of relevancy. When defense counsel protested that "the prosecution brought this up in her cross," the court instructed defense counsel to move on, so he did.

Carrillo's other sister, Sally, was next to testify. Over defense objection, the prosecutor peppered her with questions about Carrillo's car. Sally did not know exactly when Carrillo acquired the vehicle, but she surmised it was a couple of months before the robbery.

The prosecutor continued in this vein during her cross-examination of defense witness Catalina Ortiz, with whom Carrillo was living at the time of the robbery. After asking Ortiz about Carrillo's car, the prosecutor got Ortiz to admit that Carrillo was unemployed when they lived together and that Carrillo's share of the rent was $375.

Nor was Carrillo herself immune from questioning in this area. In fact, the prosecutor inquired into her financial situation several times. The following exchange is typical:

"Q. [Rendon] didn't have a job [when you moved in with Ortiz], did he?

"A. No.

"Q. And you didn't have a job during that time period, correct?

"A. No.

"Q.... One of the reasons [you moved was so] you could be closer to him, again, correct?

"A. Because we were going to try ... to get our own place, yes.

"Q. Okay. And so prior to you trying to get your own place, you are going to kind of stay at Catalina Ortiz'?

"A. Just so we both [could] kind of save up to get our own.

"Q. So the two of you were trying to save up money to get your own place?

"A. Well, in the process of getting a job and trying to work at it, that was our goal.

"Q. Because you didn't have money to do it at that time, right?

"A. No, I didn't."

The prosecutor then grilled Carrillo about when she got her car and whether it was registered and insured. The court sustained defense counsel's objections to the registration and insurance questions on the ground of relevancy. Later, the prosecutor asked Carrillo whether she had a job interview on the morning of the robbery. When Carrillo said she actually had a "WIC appointment," the prosecutor asked her, "What is WIC?" Carrillo explained it is a state-run program through which she received infant formula for her daughter.

In closing argument, the prosecutor reminded the jury Carrillo and Rendon were out of work at the time of the robbery. She also argued that "if you are somebody looking to get something of value so you can get some money, boom, of course, quick, easy, take the chain, guaranteed. Guaranteed value right there. Go to your local pawn store, you get whatever, 50 bucks, whatever it is, 40 bucks."

In the end, the jury convicted Carrillo of robbery and aggravated assault. The court sentenced her to probation and ordered her to serve a year in local custody.

* * *

Carrillo contends the prosecutor committed prejudicial misconduct by evoking testimony about her financial situation. The Attorney General does not attempt to justify this evidence. Rather, he argues Carrillo waived her right to challenge it on appeal. He also argues the evidence was not prejudicial. We find the Attorney General's arguments earnest but unavailing.

We also take issue with Carrillo's characterization of the issue as one involving prosecutorial misconduct. "Although it is misconduct for a prosecutor intentionally to elicit inadmissible testimony [citation], merely eliciting evidence is not misconduct." (People v. Scott (1997) 15 Cal.4th 1188, 1218, 65 Cal.Rptr.2d 240, 939 P.2d 354.) We can find nothing to suggest the prosecutor intentionally elicited inadmissible evidence in this case — although the long line of decisional law prohibiting such evidence should have given her pause. Rather, she simply elicited as much evidence as the trial court allowed. Under these circumstances, Carrillo's "real argument is that the evidence was inadmissible." (Ibid.)

To preserve an evidentiary issue for appeal, the complaining party generally is required to make...