People v. Cravens

• Decision Date: 14 March 2012
• Docket Number: No. S186661.,S186661.
• Citation: 12 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1187,2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 1196,267 P.3d 1113,53 Cal.4th 500,136 Cal.Rptr.3d 40
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Seth CRAVENS, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: California Supreme Court

12 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1187

136 Cal.Rptr.3d 40

2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 1196

267 P.3d 1113

53 Cal.4th 500

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.Seth CRAVENS, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S186661.

Supreme Court of California

Jan. 30, 2012.As Modified March 14, 2012.

Randall Bookout, San Diego, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.

Edmund G. Brown. Jr., and Kamala D. Harris, Attorneys General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Lilia E. Garcia, Pamela Ratner–Sobeck and Jeffrey J. Koch, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

BAXTER, J.

The issue presented in this case is whether there is sufficient evidence to support defendant Seth Cravens's conviction of second degree murder under a theory of implied malice. The Court of Appeal held there was not. After reviewing the entire record, we conclude the evidence is sufficient and therefore reverse the Court of Appeal.

Background

Defendant was convicted by a jury of various crimes against a number of victims: one count of making a criminal threat (Pen.Code, § 422); one count of battery (§ 242); four counts of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, one of which was enhanced because defendant personally inflicted great bodily injury (§§ 245, subd. (a)(1), 12022.7, subd. (a)); and one count of second degree murder (§ 187, subd. (a)). He was sentenced to 20 years to life. Because the issues in this proceeding concern only the murder conviction, we limit our factual recitation to the circumstances of that crime.

The principal characters, including defendant, then 21 years old, and the decedent, Emery Kauanui, 24, were all at the La Jolla Brew House on the night of May 23, 2007. Kauanui, a professional surfer, was sitting at the bar and drinking with some friends while he waited for his girlfriend, Jennifer Grosso, to arrive. Grosso left work late and got to the bar between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. to find her boyfriend in a “[v]ery cheerful” mood. About half an hour later, defendant arrived with his friends, all former football teammates from La Jolla High School: Eric House, Matthew Yanke, Orlando Osuna, and Henri “Hank” Hendricks. Grosso went up to say “hi” to defendant and gave him a big hug. Defendant and his friends approached the bar where Kauanui was seated and became “like ... a big group” where people were standing close to each other, “kind of elbow to elbow.”

Sometime later, Kauanui and Grosso started dancing next to the tables. Kauanui had a full drink in his hand. A little bit of it spilled accidentally on Eric House, who was close by. House complained, “You better watch out, you know. I can knock you out with one punch.” Kauanui replied, “ [W]hat? Like, what did you say?” Defendant stepped in and said, “Yeah. You know Eric could beat your ass. Like don't say anything.” The mood became more aggressive, less joking, but Kauanui kept asking, “[D]o you guys have like a problem?” In an effort to defuse the worsening situation, the bar manager, Ron Troyano, intervened and eventually suggested that Kauanui leave. Troyano explained that Kauanui was not being kicked out but that it was easier to remove Kauanui than to evict defendant, who was there with many friends. When Kauanui, who appeared calm, expressed a fear of being “jumped” outside, Troyano said he would escort Kauanui to his car. Defendant attempted to follow them as they left the bar, but Troyano told him twice to stop and wait. While Troyano was still at the vehicle, Grosso (who had been settling the tab) came out and said she would drive Kauanui home. Grosso had consumed less than one drink; Kauanui had consumed three or four. Defendant, House, Yanke, Osuna, and Hendricks eventually came outside to continue the argument, but Grosso and Kauanui drove off in Kauanui's car.

Kauanui was on the phone as Grosso pulled up to Kauanui's house a couple minutes later. She heard him say, “If you want to fight me one on one, I'll fight you.” She yelled at him to get off the phone. He did so, and they went inside together. She scolded him for acting in an immature manner. He apologized, admitted the situation was “dumb,” and “completely went back into a just really calm behavior.” Satisfied that he was contrite, Grosso felt able to walk back towards the bar to retrieve her own car, which was parked illegally in a nearby lot. He made her promise to come back and said he needed her.

Grosso started out by walking but then realized the risk in being out alone at that time of night and jogged the rest of the way. Unable to shake a bad feeling about what might happen, she picked up the pace and, as she was running down the alley near the bar, heard defendant say, “Let's go fuck him up.... [D]on't call him. Don't call him. I know where he lives. Let's go fuck him up.” She screamed out defendant's name, but he and his friends sped past in a black Ford Explorer, ignoring her. She immediately tried to call Kauanui, but he did not answer. She ducked her head into the Brew House to tell her friends that Kauanui was going to get jumped. Then she ran to her car and raced back to the house. She figured she was one to two minutes behind defendant and his friends. Meanwhile, inside the Ford Explorer, defendant was egging on and encouraging House to fight Kauanui. The fight began promptly after defendant and the others exited the Explorer.

There was conflicting testimony as to whether the fight was truly a one-on-one battle between Kauanui and House or whether Kauanui was instead the victim of a group beating.

Neighbor Erica Wortham was awakened by loud voices out in the street. She saw four people approaching Kauanui with the apparent intention of fighting. As she left her balcony to call 911, she heard “a lot of blows, a lot of hitting. Like a maul.... [L]ike several people on top of each other hitting.... [R]eally awful. Like a soundtrack out of a movie.” The 911 call awakened her husband, Philip Baltazar, who saw what looked like a rugby scrum: “What I saw were four guys on top of one guy, and four guys were either kicking or punching or elbowing or kneeing. And as I said, you know, it was moving.... [I]t was like a scrum line. And they were just whaling—four guys were just whaling, you know, on someone who turned out to be Emery.”

Dylan Eckardt, who was friends with Kauanui and was driving towards Kauanui's house after receiving a frantic phone call from his friend that there was going to be a fight, saw a few men circled around Kauanui, kicking or hitting him while he was on the ground. Eckardt's girlfriend, Karen Loftus, saw four or five people punching or kicking Kauanui while he was on the ground.

On the other hand, defendant's friends and former teammates Matthew Yanke and Hank Hendricks claimed that the fight was between House and Kauanui alone. Yanke testified that Kauanui came out swinging, but that House ducked, tackled Kauanui around his legs, and brought him down to the ground. Hendricks confirmed that House tackled Kauanui and brought him to the ground. Yanke described a wrestling match, in which House and Kauanui took turns being on top. Hendricks said that House initially had the upper hand but that Kauanui later had the advantage.

In any case, House had the advantage when Grosso drove up. House was straddling Kauanui and punching him with both fists. Kauanui had one arm wrapped around House's shoulder, as though attempting a headlock, but it was not working. Grosso honked her horn to wake up the neighbors, but the beating continued. Kauanui was not yelling, he was not throwing any punches, and “[t]here was no strength being exerted from his body.” Grosso ran up and kicked House in an effort to break up the fight, but House did not react to her other than to tell his friends to “get her the fuck off of me.” Hendricks pulled Grosso away, but she continued to scream out their names and vow that they would go to jail. When this still failed to stop to the fight, she started to kick at the headlights and pound on the body of the Ford Explorer. The group then started talking amongst themselves, calling her “crazy” and suggesting it was time to leave.

Meanwhile, Kauanui had managed to get loose, but he was unsteady and could not walk straight. Loftus was surprised he was able to get up at all. Kauanui asked defendant, “How the fuck are you going to jump me at my house?” and raised his palms upward, as though asking “what happened?” He was not behaving in an aggressive manner. But defendant nonetheless “came flying out” and “coldcocked” Kauanui. At the time of the blow, defendant was on the curb and Kauanui was at street level. Grosso, Eckardt, and Hendricks opined that Kauanui was unconscious from the blow before he hit the ground. The punch was described by witnesses as “extremely hard” and “one of the hardest punches I've ever seen thrown.” Eckardt added that “[i]t was a knockout.... [A]ll you heard was like boom, like, from his head hitting the concrete. Nothing else hit first. It was like a side punch Mr.—Emery didn't see.” Even the neighbors could hear the sound of his skull hitting the ground. A pool of blood started to stream from the back of Kauanui's head. Grosso thought “he was dead right then and there.” Hendricks checked Kauanui's pulse to determine whether he was still alive.

When Grosso asked defendant why he did this, defendant had no reaction. Instead he said to his friends, “Come on. Let's go.” Yanke drove defendant away in the Ford Explorer. Grosso testified that the Explorer drove away quickly. Hendricks and Osuna left on foot. House refused to leave; he was on all fours on the ground looking for his tooth. (At the time police took him into custody, House had suffered a laceration above his right eye and a missing tooth, as well as abrasions to his knees and swollen knuckles.) An ambulance took Kauanui to the hospital. Kauanui had a blood-alcohol...