People v. Carter

• Decision Date: 28 October 1993
• Docket Number: No. A055123,A055123
• Citation: 23 Cal.Rptr.2d 888,19 Cal.App.4th 1236
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Charles Lee CARTER, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 888

23 Cal.Rptr.2d 888

19 Cal.App.4th 1236

The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Charles Lee CARTER, Defendant and Appellant.

No. A055123.

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 2, California.

Oct. 28, 1993.

Review Denied Feb. 24, 1994.

[19 Cal.App.4th 1239] Kyle Gee, Oakland, First Dist. Appellate Project, San Francisco, for defendant and appellant.

Daniel E. Lungren, Atty. Gen., George Williamson, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen., Ronald A. Bass, Senior Asst. Atty. Gen., Aileen Bunney, Supervising Deputy Atty. Gen., Joan Killeen, Deputy Atty. Gen., San Francisco, for plaintiff and respondent.

BENSON, Associate Justice.

Charles Lee Carter ("defendant") appeals from the judgment after he was convicted of murder and several lesser offenses and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. He claims the trial court erred by admitting evidence linking him with a prior similar murder, and by denying his request for immunity in connection with any testimony he might give to rebut that evidence. In addition, he claims the court gave an improper special instruction, and failed to give required instructions on lesser included offenses. We affirm.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In 1988, Ken Ericksen lived in Pleasant Hill, California. His neighbor, Raymond Floers, had known him for 21 years. Ericksen suffered from multiple sclerosis. Among his symptoms were physical weakness and an inability to hold objects securely in his hands, especially when under stress.

On September 11, 1988, at about 6 p.m., Ericksen asked Floers if Floers wanted any Chinese food. A short time later, Ericksen left. He was dressed in shorts and a tank top, and was driving his own car. At about 8 p.m. that night, Robert Flynn, who also had known Ericksen for some years, saw him in his car outside an adult bookstore in Pleasant Hill. The bookstore was a place where homosexual men were accustomed to meet each other; Flynn knew that Ericksen was gay.

At about 10 p.m. on the same evening, Peter Lloyd was driving away from Orinda, California, on Wildcat Canyon Road near its intersection with Camino Pablo Road. When he saw an unattended and blazing car by the side of the road, he turned around and headed back to Orinda to report it. On his way, he saw a car and three men in a turnout. The men were at the rear of the car; two were standing fully dressed, while the third was lying naked on the ground. The naked man looked at Lloyd but said nothing; the other two explained they were "pulling a prank." Lloyd left, but mentally noted the license number of the car. When he reached a phone, he reported both incidents, but when he returned to the scene of the car fire, the three men and their car were gone.

On September 13, 1988, Ericksen's naked body was discovered off Wildcat Canyon Road in the area described by Lloyd. Ericksen had been shot several times at close range with a .22 caliber weapon. One of the shots had killed him. On the following day, a school principal called police to check on a car that had been parked in the school lot for several days. The car was registered to Ericksen, and contained among other things his mortgage book, a tank top, jogging shorts, and underwear.

The license plate number given to police by Lloyd apparently led them to defendant; at about 10 p.m. on September 14, they went to defendant's address, but he was not home. On the following day, police saw defendant's car and pulled him over. Defendant and his friend Robert Staedel were in the car. Defendant and Staedel were taken into custody. While defendant and Staedel were at a local police station, police discovered a wallet containing Ericksen's driver's license in the car. Ericksen's photograph had been cut out, and Staedel's driver's license placed underneath to show Staedel's picture in Ericksen's license. A second wallet contained a license in the name of Scott Fullerton, which had been similarly mutilated and arranged to show defendant's picture instead of Fullerton's. ¹ Police also discovered sales receipts in Ericksen's name dated after his body was discovered, Ericksen's checkbook, his automatic teller card, a new coat, and various new auto accessories. When defendant's apartment was searched, police found another sales receipt in Ericksen's name and a Franchise Tax Board letter addressed to Ericksen. Like the other receipts, the receipt found in defendant's apartment was dated after Ericksen's body was discovered.

Numerous witnesses testified to transactions in which Ericksen's credit cards were used to purchase new goods between September 12, 1988 and September 15, 1988. On September 12, Staedel and another man used Ericksen's American Express card to buy clothing at the Pleasanton Emporium. On the same day, Ericksen's cards were used at various locations to buy electronic equipment, a silver plated tea service, more clothing, and other personal items such as sunglasses, perfume, and jewelry. Several of the witnesses identified the purchaser as either defendant or Staedel. On September 14, Ericksen's cards were used to buy more jewelry, and defendant and Staedel attempted to use Ericksen's cards to buy more electronic equipment, jewelry, and clothing, but the charges were refused. On September 15, defendant purchased a watch with Ericksen's Emporium card, and Ericksen's credit card was used to buy a jacket at the same store.

After defendant was arrested on September 15, he and Staedel were interviewed separately by police. In the initial stages of the interview with defendant, he denied any knowledge of the Ericksen killing. However, as police revealed the extent of the evidence they had gathered at that point, defendant's version evolved and expanded.

At first, defendant admitted only that he had been driving on Wildcat Canyon Road on the night in question, but when police told him they had found Ericksen's credit cards in his car, he said he and Staedel had gotten the cards from a briefcase they had found beside the road.

After being told the cards belonged to a murder victim, defendant eventually said he and Staedel had gone to the Pleasant Hill adult bookstore to make a sexual pickup. They found Ericksen there, and the three of them went to a nearby industrial area. According to defendant, Ericksen was sexually forward, which offended him and Staedel. Defendant and Staedel forced Ericksen to strip, and ordered him into the trunk of their car. They went through Ericksen's papers, and drove up to "the road," where they took Ericksen out of the trunk. Ericksen was lying on his stomach when Lloyd drove by and asked what was going on. Defendant told Lloyd it was a fraternity prank. After Lloyd left, Ericksen got up, told defendant and Staedel they would have to beat him up, and walked off into the bushes. According to defendant, he and Staedel then left.

When police told defendant that Ericksen had been shot, defendant again added to his version of events. He told police that about two weeks before, he had borrowed a Beretta .22 pistol from a friend. He described the events leading up to the confrontation on Wildcat Canyon Road much as he had before, but then related a different conclusion. He told police that Ericksen picked up a large rock and advanced toward defendant and Staedel. Defendant told Staedel to look out, and returned to the car to get the gun. He loaded the gun and told Ericksen to drop the rock. Defendant told police that Ericksen said "you'll have to kill me, or I'm going to kill you," upon which defendant shot Ericksen twice, wounding him. Ericksen began screaming, and Staedel took the gun and shot Ericksen again. Defendant said Ericksen fell over a cliff. Defendant and Staedel went and looked at Ericksen, who was "just lying there," and then left.

In tape recorded interviews that were before the jury, ² defendant elaborated on the events leading to Ericksen's death. In addition to the events we have summarized above, defendant told police that after he shot Ericksen twice, Ericksen again picked up a rock. Staedel asked for the gun, and defendant gave it to him. Staedel fired several more shots at Ericksen, hitting him several times. Ericksen fell over a cliff; he appeared to be dead. According to defendant, after Staedel and defendant checked the body, they left. However, in an interview at which both Staedel and defendant were present with police, Staedel said that Ericksen fell after he shot him, upon which he and defendant rolled Ericksen over the embankment. Defendant went part of the way to where Ericksen had fallen, but Staedel went all the way, and shot Ericksen five or six more times when he saw Ericksen was still moving. Defendant did not contradict Staedel's version of events at the interview.

The jury also heard tape recordings of defendant's conversations with Staedel at the police station when officers left them alone in an interview room. In those conversations, defendant and Staedel among other things discussed the offense, how they would present themselves to the jury, and compared the stories they had told the police. In the latter exchange, Staedel told defendant he had "stuck to the plan" until told that defendant was blaming "it" on him.

Other witnesses added details of defendant and Staedel's activities before and after Ericksen was killed. Scott Davis, a friend of both defendant and Staedel, testified that on September 12, 1988, he learned that defendant and Staedel were using someone else's credit cards. When he asked what they would do when the owner cancelled the cards, defendant and Staedel laughed, and Staedel told him the owner would not cancel. Staedel and defendant proposed that all three of them go to Lake Tahoe, but after Davis learned that defendant intended to use Ericksen's stolen credit card, he decided not to go. On September 15, when Davis told them they would get caught if they used the credit cards, defendant told Davis they would...