People v. Grimes

Citation60 Cal.4th 729,182 Cal.Rptr.3d 50,340 P.3d 293
Decision Date05 January 2015
Docket NumberNo. S076339.,S076339.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court (California)
PartiesThe PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Gary Lee GRIMES, Defendant and Appellant.

James M. Fahey and Cliff Gardner, under appointments by the Supreme Court, Catherine White, San Diego, and Lazuli Whitt for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Ward A. Campbell, Stephanie A. Mitchell and Sean M. McCoy, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Michael J. Hersek, State Public Defender, Barry P. Helft, Chief Deputy State Public Defender, and Nina Rivkind, Deputy State Public Defender, for the Office of

the State Public Defender as Amicus Curiae.

Opinion

CANTIL–SAKAUYE, C.J.

Defendant Gary Lee Grimes was convicted by a jury of one count of murder with burglary and robbery special circumstances and one count each of robbery, burglary, conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit burglary, and unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle. (Pen.Code, §§ 182, subd. (a), 187, subd. (a), 190.2, subd. (a)(17), 211, 459 ; Veh.Code, § 10851, subd. (a).)1 In connection with the murder, robbery, burglary, and conspiracy counts, the jury found true allegations that defendant inflicted great bodily injury upon the victim, an elderly person (§ 1203.09, subd. (a)), and that the offenses were committed while defendant was on parole (§ 1203.085, subd. (b) ). In a bifurcated proceeding, the trial court found true allegations that defendant had served four prior prison terms (§ 667.5, subd. (b) ) and had been convicted of a serious or violent felony within the meaning of the Three Strikes law (§ 1170.12). The jury returned a verdict of death. The trial court sentenced defendant to death for the murder and imposed a term of six years for the driving or taking of a motor vehicle and four one-year terms for the four prior prison term allegations; sentences on the remaining counts were imposed and stayed.

The judgment is modified to vacate the true finding on one of the four prior prison term allegations, and is otherwise affirmed.

I. Facts
A. Guilt phase
1. The offenses

In October of 1995, defendant, then 33 years old, was staying with a friend, Sheila Abbott (Sheila), in her trailer. Also staying in the trailer were Sheila's son, Shane Fernalld, her daughter, Misty Abbott (Misty), and Misty's boyfriend, Patrick James Wilson, then 19 years old. On the morning of October 18, John Morris, a 20–year–old friend of the family, arrived at Sheila's trailer. At approximately noon, Morris, Wilson, and defendant obtained some medical gloves and bandanas from the trailer. They tried on the bandanas, placing them over their mouths, before putting them in their pockets. The three left in Morris's red sports car. They drove to the house shared by Betty Bone, who was then 98 years old, and her daughter. They ransacked the house and took property, including a .38–caliber handgun, a “boom box,” some jewelry, a rifle, a telephone in a Styrofoam box, and a brown truck.

Bone was killed. Her body showed evidence of blunt force trauma to the head

, ligature strangulation, and stab wounds. There was a telephone cord and a bandana around her neck. There was bruising on her tongue and lip that was likely caused by a gag. Her injuries were consistent with her having been knocked unconscious, strangled, and then stabbed repeatedly. Bleeding due to the stabbing was the cause of death, with strangulation as a contributory cause.

Defendant, Wilson, and Morris returned to Sheila's trailer, with Morris and Wilson in Morris's car and defendant driving the brown truck that had been taken from Bone's residence. They unloaded items from the truck. Defendant showed a bag of jewelry to Sheila, and asked her whether it was real; she told him it was costume jewelry. Defendant drove the truck to Shasta Lake, with Morris and Misty following in Morris's car. Defendant drove the truck into the lake. The three left the lake in Morris's car to go back to Sheila's trailer.

Later that afternoon defendant, Morris, and Misty were driving in defendant's brown Camaro when they approached a roadblock that had been set up by the sheriff's department. Before reaching the roadblock, defendant and Morris threw their guns out of the car and into the bushes. The weapons, which included the handgun taken from Bone's residence along with another handgun, were later recovered by law enforcement. When they went through the roadblock, defendant identified himself to an officer as Gary Woods and gave the officer a false Social Security number. He was wearing a pair of white fingerless gloves, similar to the type of gloves that Bone's daughter kept in the brown truck.

They returned to Sheila's trailer and then left for Sacramento. Misty and her baby went in Morris's car and defendant drove in his car with Misty's brother, Shane Fernalld. They spent the night in Sacramento with Morris's aunt. In her apartment, they left a bag of jewelry and the box containing a telephone that had been taken from Bone's house. The next day, Fernalld left defendant at the Sheraton apartment complex.

2. Defendant's arrest and statements to police

Morris was arrested on October 21, 1995, three days after the crime, and killed himself in his jail cell the next afternoon. Wilson was arrested the following day. Also that day, a deputy sheriff recovered two knives that had been buried near Sheila Abbott's property. One was a long kitchen knife and the other was a pocket knife. DNA from both knives was consistent with a mixture of Bone's DNA and Wilson's DNA; none of the DNA on the knives could have come from defendant. Defendant was arrested on the following day, as he pulled his car into the parking area of the Sheraton apartment complex. As he got out of the car, a loaded .22–caliber handgun fell out of the driver's side door. Defendant called Sheila Abbott from jail, and she told him that Morris had killed himself.

Defendant was interviewed by detectives, and a tape recording of the interview was played for the jury. Defendant admitted that he was involved in the burglary and robbery, but denied any involvement in the murder, claiming that Morris had killed Bone while defendant was in the back of the house. Defendant stated that it had been Morris's idea to break into a house because he needed money to pay for his automobile insurance. Defendant said that he, Morris, and Wilson each had a bandana that Sheila had given them, and they had latex gloves that were obtained from her first-aid kit. Morris drove defendant and Wilson to Bone's neighborhood, an area in which defendant had formerly lived. In the car, defendant handed Morris a gun, which was wrapped in a bandana, and Morris put it in his pants. According to defendant, they were watching a house in the neighborhood and saw a woman outside; Morris said they could kill her and take their time going through the house, but defendant told Morris that he was “not into killin' people.”

Defendant told the detectives that when they arrived at the Bone house, Morris and Wilson knocked on the door of the house and initially no one answered; Morris commented that no one was there and defendant concluded they would just be committing a burglary. Then Morris stated there was someone in the house. Defendant walked back to the car and saw Bone answer the door. Wilson asked for a girl named Debbie and Bone replied “no, my daughter's name is Barbara.” Wilson pushed the door open, hitting Bone and knocking her to the ground. Defendant walked through the open door. At some point he saw Bone lying on the floor with Morris on top of her; Bone pleaded with him to let her go. Defendant told the detectives that he said to Morris, “don't hurt no women, don't hurt nobody.” He said he went into the back of the house because he “couldn't deal with it.” When he came back out of the bedroom he saw Morris strangling Bone, who was tied up with a phone cord. According to defendant, Morris said, “I can't leave no witnesses.” Morris also said, “that fucking bitch won't die.” Defendant saw Morris rummaging through the kitchen looking for a knife. He saw or heard Morris stabbing Bone forcefully and repeatedly. Morris gave Wilson a paper sack containing the knives that were later recovered, and told him to get rid of them.

According to defendant, Morris ordered him to take Bone's truck. They loaded the items from the house into the truck and took them back to Sheila's trailer. Wilson and Morris siphoned the gas out of the truck. Defendant drove the truck to Shasta Lake, following Morris and Misty. Morris instructed defendant to break out the windows of the truck and drive it into the lake. Defendant told the detectives that the gun he had when he was arrested in Sacramento did not come from the house and that he had obtained it that same day. He stated that Wilson had found a gun in the house and Morris had found a rifle. Defendant denied knowing the location of the guns taken from the house and asserted that Morris was supposed to dispose of them.

3. Testimony regarding out-of-court statements

At trial, Misty Abbott testified that during the ride to Shasta Lake, Morris told her that he had killed a woman; specifically, he had tried to strangle her but because she did not die he took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her. She testified that during the ride back to her mother's trailer, after they dumped the truck into the lake, defendant and Morris fired their guns out the windows of the car. When she was interviewed by Wilson's private investigator, she also said that Morris and defendant were laughing about the murder and calling each other “down white boys.” Misty's brother, Shane Fernalld, testified that while he and defendant were driving to Sacramento, defendant told Fernalld either she deserved it” or she didn't deserve it”; he was not sure which. Before trial, however, he told...

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