People v. Griffin

• Decision Date: 25 April 1967
• Docket Number: Cr. 10308
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 426 P.2d 507 The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Edward Dean GRIFFIN, Defendant and Appellant. In Bank

Page 107

58 Cal.Rptr. 107

66 Cal.2d 459, 426 P.2d 507

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Edward Dean GRIFFIN, Defendant and Appellant.

Cr. 10308.

Supreme Court of California,

In Bank.

April 25, 1967.

Erling J. Hovden, Public Defender, Charles A. Maple and James L. McCormick, Deputy Public Defenders, for defendant and appellant.

Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen., William E. James, Asst. Atty. Gen., and James H Kline, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.

TRAYNOR, Chief Justice.

Defendant was sentenced to death for the murder of Essie Mae Hodson. This appeal is automatic. (Pen.Code, § 1239, subd. (b).)

There have been three trials. In the first, defendant was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death. On automatic appeal we affirmed the judgment. (People v. Griffin, 60 Cal.2d 182, 32 Cal.Rptr. 24, 383 P.2d 432.) The United States Supreme Court reversed on the ground that the prosecutor's comments and the trial court's instructions to the jury concerning defendant's failure to take the stand and testify violated the self-incrimination clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment in Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 12 L.Ed.2d 653. (Griffin v. State of California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106.)

In the second trial the jury was discharged and a mistrial declared when the jury failed to reach a verdict. Based on this fact, defendant moved to enter a plea of once in jeopardy to the charge of first degree murder. The motion was denied, the case proceeded to the third trial, and the jury found defendant guilty of first degree murder and fixed the punishment at death.

The evidence disclosed the following events.

On December 2, 1961, Eddie Seay and a friend he knew as Al met defendant on a Los Angeles sidewalk. Defendant asked them for directions to the 41st Street Club, a beer and wine bar in the neighborhood. He also asked the two men where they were going and, learning that they were on their way to buy a bottle of wine, gave them a quarter toward the price. The group then parted, defendant presumably heading for the 41st Street Club.

Seay and Al bought and drank the wine and about 9 p.m. entered the 41st Street Club. Essie Mae Hodson, who had been living with Seay for about three years, was sitting at a booth with two friends. Seay and Al joined the group at the booth, and defendant, who had been standing at the bar, also joined them at Seay's invitation. They talked and drank wine and beer purchased by defendant. During the evening Al and Essie Mae's friends left the booth, and between midnight and 1 a.m. Essie Mae went home to bed. Defendant and Seay stayed at the bar drinking coffee until about 2 a.m. Because it was late, defendant asked Seay if he could spend the night in the apartment shared by Seay and Essie Mae. Seay agreed, and the two men left the bar together.

Seay and Essie Mae lived in an upstairs apartment of a four-unit building. Essie Mae was asleep in the bedroom when Seay and defendant arrived. Seay prepared a daybed in the living room for defendant and then went to bed with Essie Mae. He was awakened later by a noise in the living room. He got out of bed and saw defendant and Essie Mae struggling on the daybed. Essie Mae told Seay that defendant had put his hand over her mouth and tried to force her to have sexual relations with him. Seay suggested to defendant that they go out for coffee and took him down the back stairs. At the bottom of the stairs Seay told defendant to wait for a minute. He then left defendant, returned to the apartment by another stairway, and went back to bed with Essie Mae.

A few minutes later Seay heard knocking at the back door and defendant calling to be let in. He then heard glass breaking, got out of bed, put on his pants, and went back toward the door. He found defendant standing in the living room. Again Seay suggested that they go out for coffee, and again the two men went down the back stairs. Defendant at the time was making 'moaning' sounds and kept repeating that he wanted to return to the apartment. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, defendant hit Seay twice, knocking him to the ground. Seay got up and ran to the 41st Street Club for help. There he found a man called Piggy-bank who agreed to return to the apartment with him. When they arrived defendant and Essie Mae were gone. Seay never saw her alive again.

About 7 on the morning of December 3 Alfredo Villasenor went to an alley about 300 feet from Essie Mae's apartment to look for scrap wood. In the alley was a very large trash box used for sawdust and scrap. Villasenor saw defendant coming out of the box buttoning up his pants and asked him what he was doing. Defendant replied, 'Nothing,' and walked away. Villasenor looked into the trash box and saw Essie Mae. She was trembling and appeared to have been beaten.

The police were called. When they arrived, the officers found Essie Mae seated at the front of the trash box. She was dressed only in a long robe that was wet and dirty. She was shivering, bleeding from the head, had scratches on the backs of her hands, and appeared to be in shock. Her responses to questions were largely incoherent, and the police were able to learn nothing more than her name. The trash box was blood-stained; in the box was the wig that Essie Mae always wore.

Essie Mae was taken to a hospital where she died the next day. An autopsy revealed two large abrasions on her head, indicating that she either had been struck with or had fallen against a solid object at least twice. There were multiple abrasions and scratches on her face, chest, ankles, and on the backs of her hands. There were no bruises, tears, or other indications of forcible rape in the vicinity of the thighs or external genitalia, nor was there evidence of sperm. According to the pathologist who performed the autopsy, however, there would normally be no sperm present 24 or at most 48 hours after intercourse. The pathologist further testified that, judging from the nature of her injuries, it was unlikely that Essie Mae would have voluntarily participated in sexual intercourse or that she would have been able to resist sexual attack. Further, he felt that with her injuries she probably would have been unable to walk the 300 feet from the apartment stairway to the trash box without assistance.

After the attack on Essie Mae, defendant went to Mexicali, Mexico. There, in mid-December, he met Willie Kerr, who was living with Amanda Encinas. Kerr knew defendant as Willie Lee Fairchild. Defendant obtained work at a cotton mill in El Centro, California, where Kerr also worked. Kerr agreed to allow defendant to stay at his home in Mexicali.

On December 16, before Kerr went to work, he told Amanda that defendant would be coming to stay with them and instructed her to make defendant's breakfast when he came. When defendant arrived, he motioned to Amanda, who spoke only Spanish, that he wanted a towel. She testified that when she took the towel to defendant, he grabbed her, pushed her out of the kitchen and into another room, began to beat her, forced her to disrobe, threw her on the bed, and attempted to have intercourse with her. Amanda testified through an interpreter that during the attempt defendant said he would kill her in five minutes. Kerr returned home from work about noon. He found Amanda in her slip and defendant in the process of putting on his trousers. Kerr pushed Amanda and threatened defendant. The police, who had probably been called by neighbors, arrived and took Amanda, Kerr, and defendant to jail. Defendant was charged with rape, tried, and acquitted. He was subsequently arrested in Mexicali for the murder of Essie Mae.

We first consider defendant's contention that his third trial placed him twice in jeopardy of first degree murder. (Cal.Const., art. I, § 13; Pen.Code, § 1023.) The jury at the second trial was discharged after failing to reach a unanimous verdict, and a mistrial was declared. (Pen.Code, §§ 1140, 1141.) After the jury was discharged the foreman disclosed in open court that the jurors had stood 10 for acquittal and 2 for guilty of second degree murder. The trial court refused to make this information a matter of record, but the prosecution and defendant stipulated to the fact before the beginning of the third trial. Defendant contends that this fact establishes an implied acquittal of first degree murder.

This contention must be rejected. Defendant does not deny that the jury was properly discharged pursuant to Penal Code section 1140. (Compare Paulson v. Superior Court, 58 Cal.2d 1, 5, 22 Cal.Rptr. 649, 372 P.2d 641.) We may not infer from the foreman's statement that the jury had unanimously agreed to acquit of first degree murder. There is no reliable basis in fact for such an implication, for the jurors had not completed their deliberations and those voting for second degree murder may have been temporarily compromising in an effort to reach unanimity. Nor need we 'imply' an acquittal as a matter of policy. Defendant has not had a conviction of a lesser offense overturned on appeal, and it is therefore not necessary to prohibit retrial for any greater crime to protect the right to appeal. (Compare Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 78 S.Ct. 221, 2 L.Ed.2d 199; Gomez v. Superior Court, 50 Cal.2d 640, 328 P.2d 976; People v. Henderson, 60 Cal.2d 482, 35 Cal.Rptr. 77, 386 P.2d 677.)

Defendant contends that the trial court erred in admitting the evidence of the subsequent attack on Amanda in Mexico, on the ground that he was acquitted of that crime. It is settled, however, that competent and otherwise admissible evidence of another crime is not made inadmissible by reason of the defendant's acquittal of that crime. (People v. Griffin, 60 Cal.2d 182, 191, 32 Cal.Rptr. 24, 383 P.2d 432; People v. Frank, 28 Cal. 507; People v....