People v. Hill
| Decision Date | 20 April 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. A117787.,Certified for Partial Publication. ,A117787. |
| Citation | 120 Cal.Rptr.3d 251,191 Cal.App.4th 1104 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. David Lee HILL, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Kathy Moreno, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Assistant Attorney General, René A. Chacón and Bruce Ortega, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
While patrolling San Francisco's Bayview District in an undercover capacity, Police Officer Isaac Espinoza was shot and killed andhis partner, Officer Barry Parker, was wounded by David Lee Hill (appellant). Appellant's trial focused primarily on his motivation for shooting the officers. The jury rejected the defense theory that appellant did not realize the victims were police officers and shot them in self-defense. Appellant was convicted of second degree murder with a peace officer special circumstance and firearmenhancements (Pen.Code, §§ 187, 190, subd. (c), 12022.53, subd. (d), 12022.5, subd. (b)) 1 (count 1), attempted first degree murder ( §§ 664, 187) (count 2), assault on a peace officer with personal use of an assault weapon (§§ 245, subd. (d)(3), 12022.5, subd. (b)) (count 3), and possession of an assault weapon with a gang allegation (§§ 12280, subd. (b), 186.22, subd. (b)(1)) (count 4).2 He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on count 1, plus a consecutive term of life with the possibility of parole on count 2. The court stayed the weapon enhancements on count 1, and imposed a 15-year sentence on count 3 and a two-year sentence on count 5. The court imposed a consecutive two-year term plus a three-year enhancement on count 4, to be served first. (§ 669)
Appellant raises claims of evidentiary and sentencing error and prosecutorial misconduct, and contends his motion for new trial was erroneously denied. In the published portion of this opinion, we rule on appellant's numerous challenges to the testimony of the prosecution's gang expert, San Francisco Police Inspector Tony Chaplin. Among other issues, we address the trial court's determination that Chaplin could testify on direct examination about the out-of-court statements he relied on in forming certain of his opinions. The trial court ruled that such statements did not come in for their truth, but only to assist the jury in evaluating Chaplin's opinions. Though we disagree with this ruling, we conclude it rests on relevant Supreme Court precedent, which binds us. We conclude that no reversible error was committed by the trial court and affirm.
Around 9:00 p.m. on April 10, 2004, Parker and Espinoza patrolled the Bayview District (the Bayview) in an unmarked gray Crown Victoria patrol car, dressed in civilian clothes. Parker drove and Espinoza sat in the front passenger seat. As Parker turned from Third Street onto Newcomb Avenue (Newcomb), he heard someone say, "woo woo," usually a signal to people on the street that police are present. Parker continued driving down Newcombtoward Newhall Street (Newhall) and observed two men walking toward the corner of Newcomb and Newhall. As Parker drove closer, the two men appeared startled, stopped walking and looked in the officers' direction. One of the men, appellant, then turned right and walked southbound on Newhall, looking over his shoulder at the officers. Appellant wore a dark, three-quarter length pea coat. The other man continued walking straight ahead.
As the officers turned onto Newhall from Newcomb and drove "at a crawl," appellant stopped, backed up against a van and appeared to shrug his shoulders or take a deep breath. Seconds later, appellant continued walking on Newhall. The officers followed appellant until they were parallel with and approximately 16 feet from his position on the sidewalk. From inside the patrol car, Espinoza shined his flashlight on appellant's face; appellant immediately turned and looked directly toward the patrol car. Appellant then turned away and continued walking on the sidewalk down Newhall. Appellant's left arm swung in a natural walking motion, but not his right arm. Parker told Espinozaappellant was trying to conceal something from them and suggested the officers stop and talk to him.
Parker and Espinoza exited the patrol car. Parker's police star was outside his shirt. Parker stood between the open driver's door and the driver's seat while Espinoza approached appellant, who was walking on the sidewalk. Espinoza again flashed his flashlight on appellant and said, "Hey, let me talk to you." Appellant was about 10 to 12 feet in front of Espinoza. Appellant twice said, "I don't have any I.D." and looked over his shoulder at Espinoza. Espinoza did not take his gun out. Appellant started walking fast, and Espinoza twice said to him, "Stop, police."
Parker then entered the patrol car and drove about 10 feet further up the street. Appellant continued walking, with Espinoza following him on foot at a distance of five to seven feet. Appellant stopped and turned to face Espinoza. Parker saw the magazine of an assault rifle, and appellant fired two shots. Espinoza fell to the ground.
Parker exited the patrol car, knelt down between the front driver's door and driver's seat and took out his gun. Parker heard more shots fired in his direction; the patrol car's windshield exploded. Parker moved behind the trunk of the patrol car as he continued to receive gunfire. He then ran across the street seeking "good cover" on the sidewalk on the east side of Newhall. Parker never had a chance to fire a shot. At some point the shooting stopped and Parker radioed an "officer down" message.
The "upset, scared" Parker went to Espinoza, who was lying on the sidewalk, with his fully loaded gun inside its fastened holster. Espinoza wastransported to the hospital, where he died from loss of blood from gunshot wounds to his thigh and abdomen. Parker was treated at the hospital for bullet fragments in his ankle. At 1:00 a.m., about three hours after the shooting, while at the emergency room, Parker was shown a photo lineup and identified a picture of Reuben Sibley as Espinoza's killer. Parker signed and wrote his star number on Sibley's photo.3
Police recovered 12 shell casings at the shooting scene on Newhall between the unmarked patrol car and the street. An AK-style semi-automatic assault rifle with an attached magazine was found nearby at 1790 Oakdale Avenue. Eleven of the 12 shell casings were later determined to have been fired from this weapon. 4 Each bullet fired required a separate trigger pull. A crime scene investigator opined that, based on the trajectory of the shots fired, some shots were fired from the sidewalk, while others were fired after the shooter moved from the sidewalk into the street.
At 1835 Palou Street, police found a pea coat and gloves which residents had seen someone discard. Appellant's California identification card and a small plastic bag containing suspected marijuana were found inside the pea coat.
Between 11:00 and 11:45 p.m. on the night of the shooting, appellant went to the San Francisco home of his grandmother, Annie Lee Clark, and told her he thought he had shot someone. Appellant seemed "nervous and upset."
The next morning, at 11:30 a.m., uniformed San Ramon police officers weredispatched to the San Ramon Regional Medical Center (medical center) in response to a report that a large male in the emergency room was acting "very strange" and paranoid and the staff feared he might become violent. En route, police learned there was a murder suspect in the emergency room. The police arrived with guns drawn and found appellant holding two plastic flowers. Appellant complied with police orders to lie prone on the floor and was handcuffed. Thereafter, he began loudly making repeated comments about being a slave, such as: "Mary Lou made me do it," "Master Charley, don't beat me," and "I pick over 100 pounds of cotton a day." At one point he stood up and yelled, "Guards," three or four times. He moved to within six inches of the glass window in the door and loudly said, He then twice violently slammed his forehead into the door window.
Out of concern for appellant's safety, he was placed in ankle restraints while on the floor. He was moaning, groaning, grunting and yelling unintelligibly. He then urinated on himself and rolled onto his back so that his hands were wiping the urine. When Pera and her partner (Inspector Toomey) arrived, appellant was continuously saying "master, master, don't hurt me, master." When appellant saw an officer holding a gunshot residue kit he began kicking and screaming and was physically restrained during the performance of the gunshot residue test.
After the medical center cleared appellant for release, he was transported by ambulance to the San Francisco jail. A blood test conducted on him at approximately 4:00 p.m. on April 11, 2004, reflected the inactive metabolite of marijuana. The blood test results indicated that there was no active, psychoactive compound present in appellant's blood, but that at some point he had consumed marijuana, possibly at 4:00 a.m. or 6:00 a.m.5
Chaplin testified as an expert on gang members, specifically those from African-American gangs in the Bayview/Hunters Point areas of San Francisco. Chaplin said West Mob is a criminal street gang that has continually existed since before 2000. He identified West Mob's geographic "territory," an area between West Point and Middle Point. West Mob members commit rape, homicide, assault with firearms, narcotic sales, car theft, burglary, and robbery. These crimes enhance the gang's reputation and benefit it monetarily. West Mob operates with ...
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