People v. Garcia
| Decision Date | 02 March 2015 |
| Docket Number | H036346 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. ESEQUIEL PAUL GARCIA et al., Defendants and Appellants. |
It is ordered that the opinion filed herein on March 2, 2015, be modified as follows:
On page 44, first full paragraph, replace the first sentence that starts with "Both Estrada and Miguel" with the following so that the sentence reads:
Both Estrada and Miguel complain that they were denied the right to confront a witness against them because the forensic pathologist who testified at trial had not performed the autopsy on Achilli or written the autopsy report.
There is no change in the judgment.
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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
(Santa Clara County Super. Ct. No. CC800985)
On February 4, 2009, the Santa Clara County District Attorney filed an amended information in which Esequiel Paul Garcia, Miguel Chaidez (Miguel),1 and Lucio Estrada (collectively defendants) were charged with the March 14, 2008, murder of Mark Achilli. (Pen. Code, § 187.) As to Estrada, the amended information contained three allegations—(1) that in the commission of the offense Estrada personally and intentionally discharged a firearm and proximately caused the death of Achilli; (2) that Estrada intentionally murdered Achilli for financial gain within the meaning of Penal Code section 190.2, subdivision (a)(1); and (3) that Estrada intentionally killed Achilli by means of lying in wait within the meaning of Penal Code section 190.2, subdivision (a)(15). As to Garcia, the district attorney alleged that if Garcia was not the actual killer, with the intent to kill he aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced,solicited, requested or assisted the principal actor in the commission of the murder within the meaning of Penal Code section 190.2, subdivision (c).
A jury trial started on August 16, 2010. On October 26, 2010, the jury found the defendants guilty of first degree murder and found true the special circumstance allegations.
On November 30, 2010, the court sentenced Estrada to life in prison without the possibility of parole consecutive to 25 years to life. Estrada filed a notice of appeal the same day.
On February 2, 2011, Garcia moved for a new trial. Subsequently, on February 23, 2011, after Garcia's trial counsel declared a conflict, the court appointed new counsel to represent him.
On March 17, 2011, the court sentenced Miguel to prison for 25 years to life. On April 13, 2011, Miguel filed his notice of appeal.
On December 22, 2011, Garcia's new counsel filed a motion for a new trial, which ultimately, the court denied on May 10, 2012. On the same day, the court sentenced Garcia to life in prison without the possibility of parole; Garcia filed his notice of appeal.
The defendants raise numerous issues on appeal, which we shall outline later. In addition, Garcia has filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, which this court ordered considered with the appeal. In his petition, Garcia contends on several grounds that trial counsel was ineffective. We have disposed of the petition by separate order filed this day. (See Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.387(b)(2)(B).)
At approximately 11:40 a.m. on March 14, 2008, after he was told by a man that he had heard eight gunshots fired in rapid succession from a semi-automatic hand-gun, Los Gatos Police Officer Daniel Accardo approached the driveway of 18400 Overlook. As he did so a white van approached; the driver of the van said he had heard thegunshots. As the officer drove into the driveway an elderly gentleman flagged down the officer and told him that there was a badly injured man near a carport.
At 18400 Overlook, Officer Accardo saw a man lying face down in a carport; the man was bleeding from multiple places and there were spent shell casings on the ground. Emergency personnel arrived and declared Achilli dead. Officer Accardo was able to identify Achilli from the driver's license the officer found in Achilli's wallet, which firefighters had collected from a pocket in Achilli's pants.
Approximately two hours after the shooting, Los Gatos Police Department Corporal Kalipona Kauweloa and other officers collected evidence from the area surrounding the shooting scene. Specifically, in various different places they found a torn photograph of Achilli, a gun cleaning cloth, a black jacket recovered on Chestnut Avenue,2 two black gloves, a gun magazine, a black Los Angeles Dodger's baseball cap, a gun magazine with two unspent .380 cartridges, and a page of printed driving directions from Fish Canyon Road to 18400 Overlook. The officers did not locate a gun.
Los Gatos Police Officer Steve Walpole collected .380 shell casings, .380 bullet fragments, and a bullet jacket at the scene; all were recovered from near where Achilli's body had been.3 Officer Walpole took a photograph of a bullet hole that was in a drain pipe. Officer Walpole removed a computer from unit No. 364 and collected a cellular telephone that had been recovered from amongst Achilli's bloody clothing. Achilli's body was removed from the scene by the coroner at 4:53 p.m.
On the day after the shooting, Los Gatos Police Officer Sam Wonnell retrieved a Lorcin .380 semi-automatic pistol with no rounds in the magazine from some ground ivylocated in front of some of the residences at 18400 Overlook. The next day, close to unit No. 35, Officer Wonnell found a .380-caliber shell casing.
On March 28, 2008, Santa Clara Police Sergeant Nicolas Richards served a search warrant on Miguel's residence in Duarte, California. Sergeant Richards seized a Dell laptop computer, a copier/fax machine, a gun cleaning kit, $3,240 cash, an Airsoft gun,5and a rifle. In the bedroom of the residence he located identifying information for Miguel. Sergeant Richards searched a Dodge Durango registered to Jose Chaidez; a MoneyGram receipt for $2,500 was found inside.
On March 29, 2008, California Highway Patrol Officer Edward Whitfield conducted a search of Estrada's Burbank apartment. There were papers belonging to Estrada in the apartment. Officer Whitfield recovered two baggies of marijuana, a baggie of various narcotics, a book entitled "Surgical Speed Shooting," a book entitled "The Gun Digest, Book of Combat Handgunnery," and a book entitled "Hit Man A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors." In addition, Officer Whitfield found two notebooks, one purple and one gray; a black bag containing $2,000 cash; and a black baseball cap with "LA" on it, which he found hanging on a hook on the back of a door. The notebooks were marked as exhibit Nos. 92 (the purple notebook) and 93 (the gray notebook), and two pages of notes taken from exhibit No. 93 were marked as exhibit No. 91. On one of the pages inside the purple notebook the name "Chaidez" was written. In the pages of the gray notebook was a letter addressed to Estrada. One of the pages of notes taken from the gray notebook included phrases such as "surveillance," "Fast Fast Fast," "Really Fast," "military style precision," "gloves, disguise," "fake wigs," "stay calm," "calm and precise," and "shoot to kill!" Inside a black backpack, Officer Whitfield found a .45-caliber handgun and under the bed he found two different .45-caliber handguns, numerous gun magazines, and a plastic baggie containing someammunition and a gun cleaning cloth. The next day Officer Whitfield searched Estrada's car and found two cellular telephones. No ammunition or .380-caliber handguns were found in the residence.
Criminalist Eric Barloewen from the Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory (the crime laboratory) examined the eight fired cartridge cases, two fired bullets, and the .380-caliber pistol. He testified that the Lorcin .380 pistol was the murder weapon. All the cartridge cases recovered from the scene were ejected from the recovered weapon. He explained that a fully loaded Lorcin pistol would be able to fire a total of eight rounds.
Crime laboratory employee Matthew Riles, an expert in examining physical evidence for latent prints, determined that there were no latent prints on the pistol. He explained, however, that if someone had worn gloves while using the pistol there would not be any prints. Riles was able to develop latent prints on the paper that contained the driving directions. Michael Valverde, a fingerprint examiner, was able to identify one of the prints as belonging to Cesar Chaidez, Miguel's brother, and two fingerprints belonging to Estrada.
An expert in DNA analysis examined the baseball cap recovered from the area close to 18400 Overlook and the right glove and black jacket. The major DNA profile for all three items was the same—Estrada. Garcia and Miguel were excluded as minor contributors. A gunshot residue expert testified that there were many particles of gunshot residue on the gloves.
On March 14, 2008, Laurie Babula lived at 18400 Overlook; she testified that 18400 Overlook Road is a complex of townhouses. At approximately 7:30 a.m. on March 14, she looked out of her bedroom window and saw a man in the parking lot dressed all in black with a black messenger bag; he was wearing a black baseball hat. When Babula left her townhouse at approximately 8:00 a.m. she saw the same man at a nearby intersection; he was looking at a newspaper. She described the man as a thinHispanic in his twenties. A couple of weeks later she identified Estrada from a photographic lineup as the man she saw on the day of the murder.
On March 14, 2008, Joe...
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