People v. Gonzalez

• Decision Date: 24 January 2005
• Docket Number: No. S122240.,S122240.
• Citation: 23 Cal.Rptr.3d 295,34 Cal.4th 1111,104 P.3d 98
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Catarino GONZALEZ, Jr., Defendant and Appellant.

23 Cal.Rptr.3d 295

34 Cal.4th 1111

104 P.3d 98

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Catarino GONZALEZ, Jr., Defendant and Appellant.

No. S122240.

Supreme Court of California.

January 24, 2005.

Rehearing Denied March 16, 2005.¹

Certiorari Denied June 6, 2005.

Sylvia Whatley Beckham, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorney General, Scott A. Taryle, Donald E. De Nicola, Linda C. Johnson and James William Bilderback II, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

MORENO, J.

In Davis v. United States (1994) 512 U.S. 452, 114 S.Ct. 2350, 129 L.Ed.2d 362 (Davis), the United States Supreme Court held that a defendant's invocation of the right to counsel during custodial interrogation, safeguarded by Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (Miranda), must be unambiguous and unequivocal to be valid. In the present case, defendant said, before submitting to a polygraph examination during a custodial interrogation, "if for anything you guys are going to charge me I want to talk to a public defender too, for any little thing." The police assured him he could talk to a public defender "anytime you want to," but explained they planned to "book" him that night and would release him the following day if the polygraph examination showed he was telling the truth about his involvement in the murder that police suspected him of having committed. The interrogation continued that evening and the following day. Defendant ultimately confessed to the crime.

The Court of Appeal concluded defendant's statement was a "sufficiently clear" request for counsel and that, at a minimum, the police should have asked defendant to clarify whether he wanted an attorney. We disagree. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that defendant's statement was ambiguous and equivocal and that the police were not required to ask clarifying questions to determine his intent.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

Defendant Catarino Gonzalez, Jr., was convicted, following a jury trial, of the first degree murder of Los Angeles Police Officer Filbert Cuesta (Pen.Code, § 187, subd. (a)) with the special circumstances that the victim was engaged in the performance of his duties as a peace officer at the time of the murder, that the murder was committed to avoid a lawful arrest, and that it was committed by means of lying in wait (Pen.Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(5), (7), (15)).² Defendant was also convicted of the premeditated attempted murder of Officer Richard Gabaldon. The jury also found true various sentence enhancements for firearm use. (§§ 12022.5, subd. (a); 12022.53, subds. (c), (d), (e)(1).) Following the penalty phase of the trial, the jury fixed the penalty for the murder of Officer Cuesta at life without the possibility of parole. Defendant was sentenced to that term consecutive to a term of 25 years to life for using a firearm. On the attempted murder count, defendant was sentenced to a consecutive term of 15 years to life, consecutive to a term of 20 years to life for using a firearm.

The evidence introduced at trial showed the following: In April 1998, defendant was a member of the Smiley Hauser clique of the 18th Street gang and went by the moniker "Termite." Officer Cuesta and his partner, Gary Copeland, were members of a gang unit and monitored the Smiley Hauser clique. Over the preceding two-year period, the two officers had stopped and talked to defendant two or three times a week. On April 1, Officers Cuesta and Copeland participated in the arrest of defendant for possession of rock cocaine. Defendant was convicted and sentenced to probation, including a term in county jail. As a condition of probation, defendant was prohibited from associating with gang members. After he was released from county jail, defendant adopted a more confrontational attitude toward police, including Officers Cuesta and Copeland.

On August 3, 1998, Officer Copeland detained defendant for drinking in public. Defendant was taken to the police station, where he was cited and released. When Officer Copeland declined to give him a ride home, defendant became upset and called Copeland a "punk ass bitch." The following day, while on patrol, Officer Copeland observed freshly painted gang graffiti that read "T Mite," and "18th St T.M.L.S." and had the word "police" crossed out. This indicated to Copeland that the author of the graffiti intended to retaliate against, and possibly kill, a police officer. Copeland believed defendant was the author.

On August 8, Copeland called Officer Cuesta and told him about the graffiti. When Officer Cuesta began his shift that night, he told his partner, Officer Richard Gabaldon, that he believed the graffiti was grounds to revoke defendant's probation.

That night, defendant and other members of the 18th Street gang appeared uninvited at a wedding reception on Carlin Street. Defendant was seen showing a gun to some girls. Shortly after midnight, while on patrol, Officers Cuesta and Gabaldon saw several individuals whom they believed to be gang members going into the party, and stopped to investigate. About the same time, defendant and other gang members left the party through a back gate.

Officer Cuesta spoke to the hostess of the party, Maria Guzman, who complained about the uninvited gang members and wanted the party to end. The officers told her the party was too loud, that there were too many people and she would have to close it down. She told the police she doubted anyone would leave as long as they remained out front. Officer Cuesta suggested to Gabaldon that they drive around the block so that it would appear they were leaving. Officer Cuesta drove around the block and parked on Westhaven Street behind the party. The officers wanted to see if people from the party were climbing over the back fence. Gabaldon called for backup to assist in breaking up the party.

Cuesta continued around the block before parking at the intersection of Du Ray and Carlin Streets, three or four buildings east of the party. As Officer Gabaldon was getting out the car, he heard gunfire coming from behind him, a total of 12 to 15 shots fired in rapid succession. He got back into the car and slid down in his seat. Officer Cuesta yelled an epithet. The rear windshield was shot out and the car began to roll forward, then turned sharply left and hit a parked car. Officer Gabaldon looked over at his partner; Cuesta was slumped forward, his head resting on his chest; he was bleeding uncontrollably from a gunshot wound to his head. Gabaldon got out of the car with his weapon drawn and looked in the direction from which the shots had been fired. He saw three or four men running from the corner and fired at them.

Two eyewitnesses saw the shooting and both identified defendant as the shooter. The first, Agipato Negron, another 18th Street gang member, had been at the party with defendant. Negron saw defendant pull out a gun and start firing straight at the police car. The second eyewitness, Sylvia Thomas, lived in an apartment building on Cochran Street near the intersection of Carlin Street. She was standing on the balcony of her apartment shortly after midnight and saw a police car parked on Carlin with two officers inside. She noticed three men walking down Cochran Street toward Carlin. She recognized them as three men she had seen earlier that evening while warming up her car before driving her sister to work. One of the men was defendant. She saw defendant step forward, raise his hands and start shooting. She had no doubt the shooter was defendant because she watched to see the expression on his face as he fired and he "didn't look like he had feelings while he was doing it."

After the shooting stopped, defendant and the other two men ran from the scene. The following evening, police, led by Derective Richard Henry, executed a search warrant at the home of defendant's sister and brother-in-law, Araceli and Joel Loza, based on information that defendant had gone to their residence after the shooting. Police found an identification card bearing defendant's name, letters written to him that addressed him as "Termite," and 154 rounds of various brands of nine-millimeter ammunition in a shed behind the house.

The following day, Detective Henry spoke to the Lozas and told them he wanted to talk to defendant about Officer Cuesta's murder. Loza brought defendant to police headquarters on August 11, 1998. At Loza's request, defendant was photographed to show that he had no injuries before speaking to police.

Defendant was interviewed that day by Detectives Henry and Aldahl. After defendant waived his rights, he admitted he had been at the party but maintained that he had not shot Officer Cuesta. He told the detectives that, when the shooting began, he jumped over the back gate and ran away, eventually ending up at his sister and brother-in-law's house, where he remained until the next morning. He told them he fled the scene because he was afraid his probation would be violated for associating with gang members. In order to reconcile inconsistencies between defendant's denials and evidence that he had been involved in the shooting, Detective Aldahl asked defendant whether he would be willing to take a lie detector test. Defendant agreed.

At this point, Detective Aldahl asked, "You're willing to do it?" Defendant replied, "That um, one thing I want to ask you to that, if for anything you guys are going to charge me I want to talk to a public defender too, for any little thing. Because my brother-in-law told me that if they're trying to charge you for this case you might as well talk to a public defender and let him know cause they can't [Untranslatable]." Aldahl told defendant, "Well, you can do that anytime you want to. [¶] The thing is, that—that we're going to book you...