People v. Espinoza

• Decision Date: 26 October 1992
• Docket Number: No. 25802,No. S004728,S004728,25802
• Citation: 838 P.2d 204,12 Cal.Rptr.2d 682,3 Cal.4th 806
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 838 P.2d 204 The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Antonio ESPINOZA, Defendant and Appellant. Crim.

Page 682

12 Cal.Rptr.2d 682

3 Cal.4th 806, 838 P.2d 204

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Antonio ESPINOZA, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S004728.

Crim. No. 25802.

Supreme Court of California In Bank.

Oct. 26, 1992.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing Dec. 17, 1992.

Fern M. Laethem, State Public Defender, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Jessica K. McGuire and Wilbur H Haines III, Deputy State Public Defenders, for defendant and appellant.

Daniel E. Lungren, Atty. Gen., George Williamson, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen., Robert R. Anderson, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., and Anthony L. Dicce, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.

KENNARD, Justice.

This is an automatic appeal from a judgment of death. (Pen.Code, § 1239, subd. (b); unless otherwise indicated all further statutory references are to the Penal Code.)

A jury convicted defendant Antonio Espinoza of these offenses: the first degree murders of Rayna R. and Nancy R. (§ 187); two counts (one as to each victim) of lewd and lascivious conduct by force with a child under the age of fourteen (§ 288, subd. (b)); and, with respect to Nancy R., one count of forcible rape (§ 261, subd. (2)) and one count of unlawful sexual intercourse (§ 261.5). The jury found to be true four special-circumstance allegations: an allegation that defendant committed the murder of Rayna R. during the course of a lewd and lascivious act upon a child under the age of fourteen (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(v)), an allegation that defendant committed the murder of Nancy R. in the course of a rape (id., subd. (a)(17)(iii)), and two allegations that the defendant was convicted in this proceeding of more than one offense of murder in the first degree (id., subd. (a)(3)). The judgment pronounced by the trial court includes only one of the multiple-murder special circumstance findings.

We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

I. FACTS

A. Guilt Phase Evidence

On the evening of January 24, 1982, 12-year-old Raquel R., her 13-year-old sister, Nancy R., and Nancy's 13-year-old friend, Rayna R., were standing outside the Headquarters Liquor Store on Charter Way in Stockton. A car containing defendant and another man, Alfredo Reyes, stopped by the girls. Defendant asked them to go for a ride with him and Reyes, but Rayna declined. The girls then accepted a ride from three young men in a car driven by Tommy Golde. As the girls entered Golde's car, defendant said something to Rayna. In her trial testimony, Raquel described the comment as "unfriendly"; she admitted she did not hear exactly what defendant said. The girls rode around for a short time with Golde and his friends and then returned to the liquor store.

Later that evening, Rayna, Nancy, and Raquel went for a ride with Oscar Moreno and three other young men. The group bought some beer and went to an apartment. There, Moreno and Nancy had sexual intercourse, after which Moreno gave Raquel a ride home and dropped off the other two girls on Charter Way.

Late the next morning, while checking an irrigation pump, a ranch foreman found the body of a young girl floating face down in a canal near Bacon Island Road in western San Joaquin County. In response to a dispatch regarding the body, a San Joaquin County Deputy Sheriff went to the canal, where he found a second body about 60 yards from the first. The bodies were those of Rayna and Nancy.

A pathologist testified that Rayna had died from suffocation and blood loss, as the result of six slash-like wounds to her neck, some of which cut through her larynx. An autopsy revealed a head injury caused by a blunt object, and superficial bruising on Rayna's ear, cheek, chest, forearm and vagina. These injuries had been inflicted within two hours of death.

A gynecologist testified that although the injuries to Rayna's vagina could have been caused by sexual intercourse, they were inconsistent with consensual intercourse. Rayna's body had not yet begun sexual development; she was 4 feet 10 inches tall, weighed 78 pounds, and appeared to be younger than her actual age.

Nancy was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 134 pounds; her body was sexually developed. Small hemorrhages to her vagina were consistent with forcible sexual intercourse. Bruises on her neck suggested manual strangulation; muddy water in her lungs indicated that she had drowned.

Present in the vaginas of both Rayna and Nancy were semen and spermatozoa, which contained secretions of type A and type O blood antigens. Tests revealed Oscar Moreno (with whom Nancy had engaged in sexual intercourse the evening before her body was discovered) and defendant to have type O blood and secrete type O blood agglutinins in other bodily fluids, including semen. A prosecution expert testified that the presence of type A secretions in the victims' vaginas meant that each must have had sexual intercourse with someone having type A blood. The presence of type O secretions, however, could be attributable to an individual with blood type A who secretes blood agglutinins in other bodily fluids, as type A secretors also produce some type O secretions.

In January 1982, when Rayna and Nancy were killed, Jose Uranga lived in an apartment next to defendant's. About 3 o'clock one morning, a few days after the discovery of the girls' bodies, Uranga heard through the apartment wall an argument in Spanish between defendant and another man. The other man said, "You killed them." Defendant responded, "No, we both fucked them." The other man agreed, but added, "You took the knife out and you forced me to kill her." The other man then said he intended to return to Mexico, to which defendant responded, "Don't be a coward, don't go to Mexico. The police will not know anything."

On November 28, 1983, defendant was arrested for the murders of Rayna and Nancy. After advisement and waiver of his constitutional rights, defendant initially denied any knowledge of the two victims or their killings, but then gave this statement: On the evening of January 24, 1982, Alfredo Reyes had insisted on picking up the two young girls. Defendant and Reyes drove with the girls to a deserted area where they paired off in couples, Reyes with Rayna and defendant with Nancy. While defendant and Nancy were having sexual intercourse, which defendant claimed to be consensual, Reyes called out to defendant and then led him to Rayna's body. Rayna's throat had been cut. Reyes then killed Nancy, despite defendant's efforts to stop him. Defendant fled, but was soon picked up by Reyes who drove him back to Stockton. A couple of weeks later, defendant left for Texas. He never saw Reyes again.

The main thrust of the defense was to discredit the damaging testimony of Jose Uranga, defendant's next-door neighbor, who said he overheard an argument between defendant and a man unknown to Uranga implicating defendant in the killings. Defendant's wife and three other women testified they were in defendant's apartment in January 1982 when the argument was supposed to have taken place but that they did not hear the argument. They said that, because of the small size of the apartment, an argument as described by Uranga would have been heard by everyone else present in defendant's apartment.

Robert Vigil, a relative of defendant's wife, testified that he had twice seen Uranga with Alfredo Reyes, who defendant said was the killer. Vigil later recanted this testimony, saying he had lied at defendant's urging.

Defendant did not testify at the guilt phase of his trial.

B. Penalty Phase Evidence

To establish prior criminal activity by defendant involving the use of force or violence, the prosecution presented evidence of the fatal stabbing of one Luis Ramirez. In October 1978, Brenda Williams (then defendant's girlfriend and the mother of his two children) and Brenda's two sisters had an altercation with Ramirez on a street in Stockton. One of the sisters ran into a nearby bar and returned with her mother, Pat Williams; Pat's boyfriend, Jack Hopper; and defendant. Defendant had a knife. Defendant, Pat, and Hopper chased Ramirez to a vacant lot, where Ramirez fell to the ground. Witnesses testified they saw defendant kneeling over Ramirez making stabbing motions and later cleaning the blade of a knife with a handkerchief. Ramirez died of shock and hemorrhage from multiple stab wounds.

The parties stipulated that on May 30, 1980, defendant had suffered a felony conviction for second degree burglary of a business with intent to commit theft. (§§ 459, 460, subd. (b).)

Testifying in his own behalf, defendant denied he had raped or killed either Nancy R. or Rayna R. Defendant admitted he had stabbed Luis Ramirez, but claimed he had been severely intoxicated at the time.

Defendant described his childhood. His parents separated when he was six years old, after which he lived in various locations in Texas, Nebraska, and California. Shortly before his arrest in this case, he became a "born again" Christian; since then he had been engaged in Bible study and in efforts to convert other jail inmates. Defendant also read at length from letters he had written to his two children and one Vickie Ornelas, a young woman he met after his incarceration.

Vickie Ornelas testified that she met defendant through her church, had known him about four months, and hoped to marry him.

According to defendant's mother, Guadalupe Burciaga, defendant was frequently beaten by his father.

Pat Williams, the grandmother of defendant's two children, described defendant as a loving and responsible parent.

Psychiatrist James Peal attributed defendant's violent behavior to low intelligence and an abusive upbringing. Based upon a clinical interview, Dr. Peal also concluded that defendant manifested symptoms of soft organic brain damage.

II. GUILT PHASE ISSUES

A. Exclusion of Evidence About a Proposed Polygraph Test

On the day of his arrest, and after advisement and waiver of his constitutional rights under Miranda v. Arizona...