People v. Culuko

Citation78 Cal.App.4th 307,92 Cal.Rptr.2d 789
Decision Date17 February 2000
Docket NumberNo. E020267.,E020267.
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
PartiesThe PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Karen Lois CULUKO et al., Defendants and Appellants.

Daniel E. Lungren and Bill Lockyer, Attorneys General, George Williamson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Esteban Hernandez, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and Nancy L. Palmieri, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

RICHLI, J.

Somebody killed seven-month-old Jose ("Joey") Galindo, Jr. by hitting him in the stomach. The blow was so hard that it ruptured an artery at the back of his abdomen, and he died of internal bleeding. At various earlier times, somebody had broken his leg and four of his ribs, smashed him in the face, and shaken his head so violently that the resulting bleeding in his brain might have killed him if the bleeding from the ruptured artery had not killed him first.

The person who hit and killed Joey had to be either defendant Karen Lois Culuko, who was his mother, or defendant Leslie Eugene Garcia, who had moved in with Culuko two months earlier. The person who inflicted Joey's other injuries could have been the one who killed him, the other one, or both.

Defendants were charged with murder (Pen.Code, §§ 187, subd. (a)), fatal assault on a child under eight (Pen.Code, § 273ab), and felony child abuse (Pen. Code, § 273a, subd. (a)). The jurors were instructed that if (1) one defendant aided and abetted the commission of felony child abuse by the other, (2) the defendant who committed felony child abuse committed murder, and (3) murder was a natural and probable consequence of the commission of the crime of felony child endangerment, the aider and abettor was guilty of murder. The jurors were also instructed that they did not have to decide individually, nor agree unanimously, as to whether either defendant was guilty as a perpetrator or as an aider and abettor. Both defendants were found guilty as charged; the murder was set as second degree. Defendants were sentenced to 19 years to life in prison.

Defendants raise a host of challenges to their convictions. Most of these seek to capitalize on the fact that it is hard to feel sure which defendant actually struck the fatal blow; many of them revolve around the jury instructions summarized above. We will conclude, however, that the jury was properly instructed, and, based on those instructions, could properly find both defendants guilty on all charges. Accordingly, we will affirm.

I FACTUAL BACKGROUND
A. The Arrival at the Medical Clinic.

On Friday, January 26, 1996, at about 8:40 a.m., Culuko entered Colton Community Family Health, a medical clinic. She said her baby, who was outside, had fallen, was fussy, and would not eat. She was told to bring him in.

About five minutes later, she came back. She was crying and clutching the baby to her chest. She said he was not breathing. His body was "bluish-gray."

At first, Culuko said the baby had fallen off her bed. Later, she said he had fallen from his crib a few days earlier and hit his head. Still later, she repeated that he had fallen from a bed. She explained that, the day before, he had not eaten well; he had been awake most of the night. Just as they got to the clinic, he had stopped breathing.

Garcia came into the clinic. He appeared calm. When asked if he was the father, he said no, he had just given Culuko a ride.

At about 8:50 a.m., clinic personnel began administering CPR to the baby. There were "a lot of bruises and marks all over his body" and dried blood on his feet. He had no pulse. His pupils did not react to light. His body was limp, blue, and cool. From his temperature, Dr. Elisabeth Richards concluded he had stopped breathing more than thirty minutes earlier.

Paramedics transported the baby to Loma Linda Medical Center. At 9:12 a.m., he was seen by Dr. John Jones. He had multiple bruises, in various stages of healing, on his face, chest, arms, legs, genitals and both feet. There had been bleeding in the white of his right eye; his frenulum 1 was torn. By 9:40 a.m., Loma Linda personnel noted rigor mortis in his arms and legs as well as postmortem dependent lividity. Dr. Jones concluded that, at that point, the baby had been dead for at least two hours.

B. The Physical Evidence.

Dr. Frank Sheridan, who performed the autopsy, believed Joey had been dead at least an hour or two before he arrived at the clinic. About two hours after death, rigor mortis would have begun. Because it was noted in the arms and legs by 9:40 a.m., and it begins even earlier in the face, Dr. Sheridan believed it had already begun at the clinic, although clinic personnel did not note it because they were focused on resuscitation.

Joey died of internal bleeding from a ruptured artery at the back of the abdomen. It would have taken "[m]ajor force, like a violent punch," to rupture this artery. After the blow, "... you have a time frame from instantaneous up to a couple of hours ... for the artery to rupture." Then, after the rupture, death would have occurred within one hour. In sum, Joey died "[a]t the outside, about three hours" after the blow. Dr. Sheridan concluded the blow had been struck sometime after 3:45 a.m.

Joey's body was covered with bruises. On his face alone, there were bruises on the forehead, both eyes, nose, right cheek and mouth. There was "extensive injury to the inside of the mouth," including the torn frenulum. He had four broken ribs. They were the result of at least two separate blows, in addition to the later blow which had ruptured the artery. His left leg had been broken. This was a spiral fracture of the tibia, which indicated "that at the moment the bone was breaking, the leg was being twisted...."

Human bite marks were found on Joey's pubis and scrotum, his right arm, and both of his feet. Based on dental molds taken from both defendants, Dr. Gregory Golden, a forensic dentist, testified the usable bite marks and Culuko's teeth "had very consistent points of matching characteristics."

There was subdural bleeding around the brain. This indicated "violent shaking ... combined with an impact to the head...." It could not have been caused by a fall off a bed.

Dr. Sheridan was able to approximate the age of the injuries based on inflammation, which would begin six to eight hours after injury, and hemosiderin, which would appear several days after injury. Most of the injuries showed no inflammation, indicating they were inflicted "very shortly before death" — most likely at the same time as the fatal blow. The rib fractures, the bite mark on the right arm, and one set of forehead bruises showed slight inflammation, indicating they were "recent," meaning a few hours to a few days old. The broken leg and one of the bite marks on the right foot were the oldest injuries. Even so, they showed no hemosiderin, indicating they were not more than five days old.

Room 210 of the Early California Motel was rented to Garcia. In a search of the room, the police found both male and female clothes in the dresser. There was a makeshift baby bed on the floor; on the blankets of the baby bed, there were human blood stains.

C. Defendants' Statements to Police.
1. Culuko's Statements.

While Culuko was still at Loma Linda, a police officer interviewed her. She told him she had been staying in Room 210 of the Early California Motel in Riverside. On Wednesday, January 24, 1996, around 9 a.m., she was changing the baby's diaper when he fell off the bed. He cried briefly, but seemed fine. By about 9 p.m. on Thursday, January 25, however, he seemed to be sick. He was up most of the night. That morning, she took him to the clinic. She was changing his diaper when she noticed he was not breathing. She said Garcia was her boyfriend. She denied that he lived in the motel room.

Defendants were taken to the police station and interviewed separately. Culuko said she and Garcia were the only people who had been around the baby in the week before he died. From Tuesday through Thursday, Garcia had been home sick.2 On Wednesday, the baby had fallen off the bed. On Thursday, the baby started coughing and whimpering and would not eat much. On Friday morning, after Garcia had already left for work, the baby refused to eat and appeared dehydrated. Around 7:30 a.m., she called Garcia at work;3 he came back and drove them to the clinic.

Culuko went to check in. At that point, Garcia was holding the baby. When she got back to the car, the baby was in the passenger seat. When she picked him up, "He started going flimsy on me." She changed his diaper, then realized he was not breathing.

Culuko admitted using methamphetamine "infrequently]." Her face was bruised; she explained the bruise as a "hick[ey]."

2. Garcia's Statement.

Garcia told police he had been home sick for two days during the previous week; he made inconsistent statements as to which days they were and as to when he had gone to see a doctor. When asked how the baby had gotten bruised, he said that on Wednesday, around 9 a.m., the baby had fallen off a bed. On Wednesday or Thursday night, while giving the baby a bath, Garcia had noticed bruises on his face and scratches on his feet.

On January 26, at 2:30 a.m., Garcia awoke. The baby was also awake, moving and "talking" but not crying. He gave the baby a bottle. At 6 a.m., when he got up, the baby was awake and seemed normal. At 6:10 a.m., he left for work. His work hours were 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Around 7:30 a.m., Culuko called him at work. She said the baby was sick; she asked him to come back and take them to...

To continue reading

Request your trial
138 cases
  • People v. Johnson
    • United States
    • California Court of Appeals
    • 14 Enero 2016
    ......1026, 164 Cal.Rptr.3d 880, quoting People v. Culuko (2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 307, 322, 92 Cal.Rptr.2d 789.) 197 Cal.Rptr.3d 385 "Therefore, when a particular aiding and abetting case triggers application of the ‘natural and probable consequences' doctrine, the Beeman test applies, and the trier of fact must find that the defendant, acting with (1) ......
  • People v. Gentile
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court (California)
    • 17 Diciembre 2020
    ......(See Chiu , supra , 59 Cal.4th at p. 164, 172 Cal.Rptr.3d 438, 325 P.3d 972 [" ‘the mens rea of the aider and abettor with respect to [the nontarget] offense is irrelevant’ "]; People v. Culuko (2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 307, 322, 92 Cal.Rptr.2d 789 ["The natural and probable consequences doctrine .. allows an aider and abettor to be convicted of murder, without malice .."].) Indeed, the natural and probable consequences doctrine authorizes precisely what Senate Bill 1437 forbids: it allows a ......
  • Bom v. Superior Court
    • United States
    • California Court of Appeals
    • 6 Enero 2020
    ... 44 Cal.App.5th 1 257 Cal.Rptr.3d 276 Kevin BOM et al., Petitioners, v. SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Respondent; The People, Real Party in Interest. B292788, B292846, B292914, B292944 Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 1, California. Filed January 6, 2020 The ...Perez (2008) 164 Cal.App.4th 1462, 1472, 80 Cal.Rptr.3d 500 ( Perez ); People v. Culuko (2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 307, 335, 92 Cal.Rptr.2d 789 ( Culuko ); People v. Toney (1999) 76 Cal.App.4th 618, 621–622, 90 Cal.Rptr.2d 578 ( Toney ......
  • People v. Chiu
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court (California)
    • 2 Junio 2014
    ......An aider and abettor's liability for murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine operates independently of the felony-murder rule. ( People v. Culuko (2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 307, 322, 92 Cal.Rptr.2d 789.) Our holding in this case does not affect or limit an aider and abettor's liability for first degree felony murder under section 189. Aiders and abettors may still be convicted of first degree premeditated murder based on direct aiding and ......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT