People v. Henriquez

• Decision Date: 07 December 2017
• Docket Number: S089311
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Christopher HENRIQUEZ, Defendant and Appellant.

4 Cal.5th 1

406 P.3d 748

226 Cal.Rptr.3d 69

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.Christopher HENRIQUEZ, Defendant and Appellant.

S089311

Supreme Court of California

Filed December 7, 2017

Lynne S. Coffin and Scott Kauffman, under appointments by the Supreme Court; and Oscar Bobrow, Deputy State Public Defender, for Defendant and Appellant.

Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Kamala D. Harris and Xavier Becerra, Attorneys General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Assistant Attorney General, Nanette Winaker, Margo J. Yu, Glenn R. Pruden, Sarah J. Farhat and Roni Dina Pomerantz, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Kruger, J.Defendant Christopher Henriquez killed his pregnant wife and their two-year-old daughter. He stipulated at trial that he killed the victims with malice aforethought, but asserted that the murders were not premeditated and were instead the unplanned result of a fit of rage. A jury convicted defendant of two counts of first degree murder and one count of second degree murder, found true a multiple-murder special circumstance, and returned a verdict of death. This appeal is automatic. ( Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment.

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On October 10, 1996, the Grand Jury of Contra Costa County indicted defendant Christopher Henriquez for the first degree murder of his wife, Carmen Henriquez (with an enhancement for personal use of a deadly or dangerous weapon), the first degree murder of his daughter, Zuri Henriquez with an enhancement for personal use of a deadly or dangerous weapon), and the second degree murder of the fetus Carmen was carrying. ( Pen. Code, §§ 187, subd. (a), 189, 12022, subd. (b)(1).) The indictment alleged as a special circumstance that defendant committed multiple murders. (Id., § 190.2, subd. (a)(3).) As later amended, the indictment also alleged that defendant had suffered a prior strike for a serious felony in New York. (Id., §§ 667, subd. (e)(1), 1170.12, subd. (c)(1).)

A jury convicted defendant of all charges, found true the alleged enhancements and special circumstance, and returned a verdict of death.

II. FACTS

A. Guilt Phase

1. Prosecution Case

Defendant admitted that he killed his pregnant wife and daughter, but denied that he acted with premeditation. Defendant stipulated "1. that he killed each of the alleged victims. 2. that each and all of the killings were unlawful. 3. that each and all of the killings were done with malice aforethought. 4. that each and all of the killings were done willfully." Defendant also stipulated that he had been convicted of second degree robbery in New York on April 27, 1994, served a term of 18 months, and was released on parole on July 28, 1995. Defendant was on parole at the time the murders were committed in August 1996.

In July 1996, Carmen and Zuri spent some time at the home of Carmen's father, Harold Jones. Jones learned that defendant intended to rob banks and called him on the telephone "to relay to him the consequences of—and the effects of robbing banks and the effects it would have on his family and himself." Defendant became "very defensive and boisterous" and said Jones "was intervening in his business." The conversation "deteriorated" and ended quickly. The next day, Jones's wife, Mona Lisa Jones, called defendant "trying to patch things up" and defendant repeated that "[t]his is my business."

In mid-July, defendant spoke to Carmen's best friend, Angelique Foster, and said that Carmen "was going crazy telling people that he was ... going to rob banks ...." Defendant was "irritated and angry." Defendant's younger brother, Francisco Henriquez, testified that in the late spring of 1996, defendant had said that he wanted to kill Carmen "because she doesn't listen." About a month before the murders, defendant repeated that if Carmen did not stop talking he would kill her.

Defendant's mother, Deborah Henriquez, testified that defendant told her in July that his neighbor, Gregory Morton, had come to their house with a gun and told defendant that he "should teach his wife not to talk so much." Morton declared that he was not going back to prison, and he did not "like the idea of [Carmen] talking about his business." Carmen took Zuri and fled to her mother's house.

On July 26, 1996, defendant and Morton robbed a bank in San Francisco and obtained $9,054. On July 31, 1996, defendant and Morton robbed another bank in San Francisco and obtained $179,397. Deborah testified that in July 1996, defendant came into some money. Defendant said he had gotten a boxing contract and his manager had given him an advance payment. Defendant told his mother that Carmen did not believe the money came from a boxing contract and instead believed defendant had gotten the money by committing robberies.

Carmen's cousin, Trenice White, testified that Carmen and Zuri stayed with her for three days in July 1996. Carmen seemed abnormal and withdrawn and said that defendant "was into heavy stuff," but did not elaborate.

In August 1996, defendant, Carmen, and Zuri went to Disneyland for several days, accompanied by defendant's mother, sister, and younger brother. Defendant paid for the trip. They returned home on Sunday, August 11, 1996. At the airport, defendant told his mother that he was thinking about going to New York.

Carmen's sister-in-law, Heidi Jones, testified that she spoke to Carmen on the telephone on Monday, August 12, 1996, the day she was killed. Carmen said, "Heidi, things are very bad right now." Heidi heard defendant yelling in the background. Carmen said she had to go and the conversation ended.

On August 12, 1996, the day after they returned from Disneyland, Deborah spoke to defendant on the telephone at about 5:30 p.m. He sounded troubled. Deborah invited him to come to her house. When he arrived, he appeared intoxicated and was incoherent. He looked sick and "a bit dazed." He threw up, began mumbling, "She just doesn't listen," and cried out for Zuri. Defendant's brother, Francisco, said defendant was different than Francisco had ever seen him. Defendant would not talk to Francisco. Francisco speculated at trial that "at this point [defendant] realized what he had done." Defendant would sporadically begin to cry and ask where Zuri was, calling for "Zuzu."

The next morning, Deborah went to work and spoke to defendant on the telephone. She told him she had called Carmen but had not reached her.

Defendant said, "Well, she's not going to return your call." When Deborah asked why, defendant said: "Carmen is dead. I killed Carmen." Deborah asked where Zuri was, and defendant replied that he had killed her as well.

Deborah returned home and asked defendant what had happened. Defendant said he and Carmen had argued when they returned from the airport. The next day, he awoke and heard Carmen talking to someone on the telephone. Defendant said, "She just, you know, didn't listen. She just didn't know how not to stop talking about things." Defendant became angry "because she was talking about their business, and it really shouldn't have been talked about." The next thing defendant knew, he was choking Carmen. Zuri woke up. Defendant claimed that while he was hitting Carmen with a hammer, "Zuri got in the way."

Deborah told defendant to go to the police, but defendant said he could not do that because he was on parole. He said that "he would never be in a cage again." After defendant "finished talking about, you know, how bad he felt and everything and the fact that he missed Zuri and he wanted his little girl, he just laid back and he—and then he sat up from the pavement and he says and, ‘Oh, by the way,’ ... ‘I robbed a bank.’ " Defendant said he could not believe he had killed his wife and daughter, but stated he killed Carmen because she "wouldn't stop blabbing her mouth." He had told Carmen he was planning to rob a bank and she was upset. The morning of the murders, he became enraged when "Carmen continued blabbing about his business to her friends." Deborah reported the crimes to the police after defendant left. She told the police she thought defendant might have gone to New York.

Police officers entered defendant's apartment shortly after 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 13, 1996, and found Carmen's body "covered or wrapped in a bed covering." She was lying facedown on a bed in a pool of blood. Her wrists and ankles were bound, and there was a plastic bag near her mouth. Zuri's body was in a large box nearby, also wrapped in a blanket.

An autopsy of Zuri revealed skull fractures

caused by at least two blows, possibly from a hammer that was found at the scene. Bruises on Zuri's neck were consistent with strangulation. There were multiple lacerations and abrasions on Zuri's face, some of which could have been inflicted with the clawed end of the hammer.

Carmen's hands were tied behind her back with a telephone cord. Her feet were bound together with shoelaces. She had been manually strangled. Her face was swollen and bruised, consistent with her having been kicked. She had defensive wounds

on her arms and two large bruises on her scalp. Carmen was "obviously pregnant" and was carrying an eight-month-old fetus.

Defendant was arrested when he disembarked from an airplane at La Guardia Airport in New York. He was carrying nearly $50,000 in cash. Defendant waived his Miranda rights and admitted that he had killed Carmen and Zuri. At the police station, defendant signed a five-page confession in which he admitted having robbed a bank on July 31, 1996, and telling his "wife at length about the robbery." He then took his family to Disneyland. Defendant stated that after they returned, on August 12, 1996, he started arguing with his wife. He continued: "She left the house to cash a check. After my wife left, I suffocated my daughter Zuri, who had been playing. I brought her over to her bed and put the pillow over her face until she was not breathing anymore. I covered Zuri with a sheet completely,...