People v. Henderson

• Decision Date: 30 November 1990
• Docket Number: Nos. A036286,A036290,s. A036286
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Velma HENDERSON, Defendant and Appellant. The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Philip HENDERSON, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 837

275 Cal.Rptr. 837

225 Cal.App.3d 1129

The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Velma HENDERSON, Defendant and Appellant.

The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Philip HENDERSON, Defendant and Appellant.

Nos. A036286, A036290.

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 3, California.

Nov. 30, 1990.

Certified for Partial Publication. ^*

Rehearing Denied Dec. 26, 1990 (A036286).

Rehearing Denied Dec. 27, 1990 (A036290).

Review Denied Feb. 21, 1991.

Eleanor M. Kraft, Cutten, for defendant and appellant Velma Henderson.

Fern M. Laethem, State Public Defender, Joel Kirshenbaum, Deputy State Public Defender, San Francisco, for defendant and appellant Philip Henderson.

John K. Van de Kamp, Atty. Gen., Richard B. Iglehart, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen., John H. Sugiyama, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., Laurence K. Sullivan, Supervising Deputy Atty. Gen., Linda James, Deputy Atty. Gen., San Francisco, for plaintiff and respondent.

MERRILL, Associate Justice.

Appellants Philip and Velma Henderson were charged by amended information with four counts of first degree murder (Pen.Code, § 187), ¹ two counts of robbery (§ 211), and one count of auto theft (Veh.Code, § 10851). Robbery-murder special circumstances were alleged in connection with the four murder counts (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(i)). In addition, the information contained a multiple-murder special-circumstance allegation (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)) as to both appellants. Appellants pleaded not guilty to all counts and denied the special circumstance allegations.

Among the numerous pretrial motions filed by appellants was a motion to suppress evidence pursuant to section 1538.5 and a challenge to the jury selection system in the City and County of San Francisco, both of which were denied.

The court granted appellants' motions to sever their trials and Philip Henderson's trial was the first to take place. The jury convicted him of first degree murder of Raymond (Ray) Boggs, first degree murder of Andrea (Angie) Boggs, second degree murder of a fetus, voluntary manslaughter of Raymond Boggs, Jr., two counts of robbery and one count of auto theft. In addition, the multiple-murder special circumstance and two of the robbery-murder special circumstances were found to be true. During the penalty phase, the jury recommended a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Following the jury trial of Velma Henderson, she was convicted of four counts of first degree murder as to the same victims involved in Philip's ² trial, one count of robbery, one count of grand theft from a person and one count of auto theft. The jury also found the robbery-murder special circumstance with respect to the murder of Ray Boggs and the multiple-murder special circumstance to be true. At sentencing, upon defense motion, the court modified the verdict against Velma Henderson by reducing her first degree murder convictions on counts III and IV (in respect to Raymond Boggs, Jr., and the fetus) to voluntary manslaughter and second degree murder respectively. As to both Philip and Velma Henderson, the court imposed sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on counts I and II, the first degree murder convictions of Ray and Angie Boggs, with the sentence on count II to run concurrently. Sentences on the remaining counts were either concurrent or stayed. The appeals of Philip and Velma Henderson have been consolidated for purposes of our review.

I

The victims, Ray Boggs, Angie Boggs, and Raymond Boggs, Jr., lived in an apartment at 753 Webster Street in San Francisco. At the time of her death, Angie was carrying a 30-week-old fetus.

Ray Boggs was last seen alive on January 11, 1982. On that day he went to his job at a glass company in Redwood City and worked all day. Shortly before 5 p.m. he made a telephone call, received a salary advance and left for the day. The Boggses' landlord, Ilyas Absar, received a telephone call from Angie Boggs on January 11, 1982. Angie had requested some help from Absar in connection with problems she had with another tenant. Absar had last seen Ray on January 8, 1982, when he collected a portion of the rent due.

In response to Angie's call, Absar went to the Boggses' apartment on January 13, 1982. No one answered the door. When he returned a few days later, he still could not locate the Boggs family. On January 25, Absar contacted Ray's employer who thought Ray had probably left town. Absar wanted to regain possession of the apartment. Upon the advice of an attorney, he posted a notice on the Boggses' apartment door, mailed copies of the notice to them and to their emergency contacts. He received no response to his notices.

On February 17, 1982, 18 days after posting the notice, Absar entered the apartment. He observed that the living room had the usual furniture and that the closet in that room contained clothes. However, the bedroom had no furniture and no clothes. Only a mattress lay on the floor. There were chairs and a table in the kitchen, but one of the chairs had been broken. Absar saw no signs of a struggle or fight. He found no money in the apartment.

Prior to this occasion, he had last been in the apartment in July 1981. At that time he had noticed a rifle hanging on the living room wall. The rifle was gone when he entered the apartment in February 1982.

Next to the telephone, Absar found what appeared to be a goodbye note to the Boggses. It stated something to the effect that they were sorry to have to leave like this but that is the way it was. Absar threw the note away.

On February 28, in cleaning up junk in the backyard of the apartment building, Absar came across the body of Ray Boggs wrapped in a rug or cloth. The back of the Webster Street apartment building was on stilts. There, underneath the Boggses' apartment, in an area which is exposed to the elements, he saw a large bundle. At first Absar thought it contained old clothes. He and a friend attempted to move it but it smelled so bad and it weighed so much that Absar realized it could not be clothes. Absar opened the bundle up a little and saw a person's upper arm. He called the police.

Dr. Boyd Stephens, Chief Medical Examiner for the City and County of San Francisco, conducted the autopsy. The body was in an advanced state of decomposition at the time of the autopsy. Ray Boggs's body had been wrapped in a blanket, sheet and pillows. He had been hog-tied, i.e., the hands were tied to the feet in the front. The obvious injury was a gunshot wound to the forehead, with the bullet lodged in the brain. The bullet recovered from Ray's body was a .22 caliber round. There were ligature marks on the areas of the body which had been tied. The bullet had not penetrated any of the bedding wrapped around the body. It was Dr. Stephens's opinion that Ray had been shot in one location and transported later. The degree of decomposition observed was consistent with January 11 being the time of death.

Inspectors Napolean Hendrix and Earl Sanders were in charge of the Boggs homicide investigation. A few days after the discovery of the body, the inspectors learned that the decedent was Ray Boggs. The inspectors interviewed the neighbors in the apartment building, Absar, and Ray Boggs's employer, but failed to find any leads as to possible suspects in the homicide. However, the inspectors did learn from the neighbors or other witnesses that the Boggs family had been missing for six or seven weeks.

On March 19, 1982, the inspectors received a call that more bodies had been found at the 753 Webster Street location. In cleaning the backyard area, one of the residents of the apartment building came upon the bodies of Angie Boggs and Raymond Boggs, Jr., behind a headboard, in the filth and debris under the house. The police had not entered that particular part of the premises on February 28.

Angie's body had been wrapped in a blanket which one of the neighbors recognized as belonging to the Boggs family. She was wearing a nightie, panties and only one slipper. The autopsy revealed that Angie's body was in an advanced state of decomposition. A towel had been wrapped tightly around her neck and knotted on one side. Dr. Stephens determined Angie's death had been caused by asphyxiation, even though any ligature marks from strangulation had been destroyed by the decomposition process. He also was of the opinion that she had been killed in one location and transported to another.

Ray Boggs, Jr., was approximately one year old when he died. He too had been wrapped in a blanket and was in an advanced state of decomposition at the time of the autopsy. Although Dr. Stephens classified the death as a homicide, he could detect no apparent trauma and was unable to determine the cause of death. He testified as to the relative ease with which an individual could asphyxiate a small child.

The fetus carried by Angie at the time of her death was at approximately 30 weeks gestation and viable outside the womb. In addition to analysis of physical developments of the fetus, Dr. Stephens determined the age of the fetus by comparison of X-rays taken during the autopsy with sonograms taken during the course of prenatal care received by Angie. The last sonogram conducted upon Angie was on December 30, 1981, at which time the fetus was between 27 and 28 weeks of gestational age. In this case, information about the fetus's age aided Dr. Stephens in establishing the time of death for Angie. Dr. Stephens stated it was most likely that mother and child were killed approximately two weeks after December 30, 1981.

There was no visible sign of trauma to the fetus or to the uterus of the mother. Dr. Stephens concluded the fetus died because the mother died. He explained that shortly after the death of a mother, the oxygen supply to the fetus becomes inadequate and the fetus dies.

In conducting the investigation, the inspectors learned that...