People v. Hoyos

• Decision Date: 23 July 2007
• Docket Number: No. S041008.,S041008.
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, Jaime Armando HOYOS, Defendant and Appellant.

63 Cal.Rptr.3d 1

41 Cal.4th 872

162 P.3d 528

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent Jaime Armando HOYOS, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S041008.

Supreme Court of California.

July 23, 2007.

Michael Snedeker and Lisa R. Short, under appointments by the Supreme Court, Portland, OR, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Meagan J. Beale and Anthony Da Silva, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

CHIN, J.

During the evening of May 26, 1992, Daniel and Mary Magoon were killed in their home and their three-year-old son J. was wounded. In 1994, a San Diego County jury convicted defendant Jaime Armando Hoyos and codefendant Jorge Emilio Alvarado of the first degree murders of Daniel and Mary Magoon. (Pen.Code, §§ 187, 189.)¹ It acquitted defendant and Alvarado of attempted murder as to J. (§§ 664, 187, subd. (a)), but convicted them of the lesser included offense of assault with a firearm. (§ 245, subd. (a)(2).) The jury further found that defendant and Alvarado personally used a firearm (§ 12022.5, subd. (a)), and found true the special circumstances that the murders were committed while defendant and Alvarado were engaged in the commission or attempted commission of robbery, in violation of section 211, and of burglary, in violation of section 459. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17).) It also found true a multiple murder allegation. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3).)² Before the penalty phase, the trial court granted Alvarado's motion for new trial but denied defendant's.³ After a penalty trial, the jury returned a verdict of life without possibility of parole for the murder of Daniel Magoon, and of death for the murder of Mary Magoon. The trial court denied defendant's motions for new trial (§ 1181) and to modify the penalty verdict (§ 190.4, subd. (e)) and sentenced defendant to death. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).)

We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

I. FACTS

A. Guilt Phase

1. The Prosecution's Case a. Evening of May 26, 1992

On May 26, 1992, Daniel Magoon, his wife Mary, and their children, D. (age seven) and J. (age three), were living on Steele Canyon Road in the Jamul area of San Diego County. Daniel Magoon operated a large-scale marijuana distribution business out of the garage of their house. He also kept weapons and money in the garage. A security gate around the house was usually closed.

Jimmy Johnson was a long-time friend and occasional partner of Daniel Magoon in the marijuana trade. In 1974, both Daniel Magoon and Johnson had pleaded guilty to intent to distribute a controlled substance. Johnson testified that he was not involved in dealing marijuana with Daniel Magoon at the time of Magoon's death.

Around 8:30 p.m., Daniel Magoon visited Johnson at Johnson's residence. Magoon told Johnson that he was expecting some people to come over to the Magoon house that evening, and then left Johnson's residence. That day, Johnson had seen Magoon with a stack of money, possibly as much as $250,000. Johnson never heard from Daniel Magoon again.

Around 7:45 p.m., the Magoons' nextdoor neighbor, Mary Jane Lange, entered her bedroom to read. Her bedroom windows were open. About 40 minutes later, Lange heard Daniel Magoon's voice and at least one other male voice. She heard Magoon say something like, "Oh, come on." Sometime between 10:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., Mrs. Lange heard what sounded like four firecrackers, in rapid succession, that came from the direction of the Magoon residence. Between five and 15 minutes later, Mrs. Lange heard a series of four to seven more firecracker noises in rapid succession, again coming from the direction of the Magoon house. Mrs. Lange's live-in son-in-law, Kenneth Wall, heard what sounded like four gunshots sometime between 11:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

b. Auto Stop and Arrest of Defendants

About 12:20 a.m., on May 27, 1992, El Cajon Police Officer William Pettus was on patrol when he noticed the rear license plate light was out on a passing Toyota Corolla. Officer Pettus stopped the Corolla, exited his patrol vehicle, and approached the car. He saw Alvarado in the driver's seat and defendant in the front passenger seat. Alvarado was shaking; he appeared nervous and was sweating, although the evening temperature was cool. Officer Pettus asked Alvarado for his driver's license and vehicle registration. Alvarado handed him a California Identification Card with the name "Ralph Varela." Alvarado told the officer that defendant had a driver's license, and the officer asked both Alvarado and defendant for defendant's license, but defendant did not produce one. After returning to his patrol car and determining that there was no record that either defendant or "Varela" had a valid driver's license, the officer began to write a citation and called for police back-up.

El Cajon Police Officer Christopher Pietrzak arrived at the scene shortly thereafter. Officer Pettus ordered defendant and Alvarado out of the car. Officer Pietrzak watched defendant and Alvarado, while Officer Pettus searched the Corolla. Officer Pettus searched the driver's side and found a nine-millimeter gun magazine (containing 12 rounds), and two large caliber rounds. On the passenger side, under the seat, he found a loaded nine-millimeter, semi-automatic, Egyptian-manufactured Helwan pistol. It had one round in the chamber and eight rounds in its magazine. The Helwan pistol matched a gun box later found in the victims' house for a gun that Daniel Magoon owned.

Officer Pettus then searched the back seat of the car, where he found phone bills, rental agency forms, and a license plate. He searched the trunk and found approximately 28 pounds of marijuana, some of which was frozen, both in brick form and inside plastic baggies contained in boxes. A latent fingerprint removed from a piece of tape used to wrap the marijuana was later identified as Daniel Magoon's.

Officer Pettus arrested Alvarado and defendant. The officer conducted a patdown search of Alvarado before placing him in a patrol car. He found an empty nine-millimeter casing in Alvarado's left front pants pocket. After placing Alvarado in a holding cell, the officer checked the back seat of the patrol car and found two nine-millimeter cartridges. A strip search of Alvarado yielded a rock of methamphetamine.

At the police station, Officer Pietrzak searched defendant and found $1,033 in various denominations in his right rear pants pocket, and three $1 dollar bills in a front pocket. He also found defendant's Mexican driver's license.

c. Discovery of the Murders

On May 27, 1992, about 7:00 a.m., seven-year-old D. woke up in his home. He saw his three-year-old brother, J., sleeping on a futon in the living room, woke him up, and asked him if he was okay. J. answered "yeah," and fell back to sleep. D., however, saw some blood on J. He then found the body of his mother, Mary Magoon, in the bathroom. He found his father's body in the kitchen by the microwave. D. attempted to use the telephone to call 911 or the police, but was unsuccessful. He left to go to his best friend's house down the street.

At approximately 7:30 a.m., Patricia Bagnell was jogging through a field behind a 7-Eleven store in Jamul. She encountered D., barefoot, walking quickly down the side of a dirt road. D. looked pale and was crying. She said hello, and asked him why he was crying. He said that his parents were dead and there was a lot of blood in his house. She walked with him towards the residence of his best friend, where they encountered Richard Brewer. Brewer asked if they needed help. Bagnell told Brewer that D. had told her that his parents were dead. Brewer asked D. where he lived, and the three of them drove to D.'s house. When they arrived at the Magoon residence, both security gates were open and they pulled into the driveway.

The front door was open, and Brewer entered the residence while the other two stayed in his truck. The house was a shambles; everything was torn up. Brewer saw a little boy on the living room floor close to two rifles and a gun with a silencer. Brewer shook the little boy but got no response. Brewer got nervous and left to call for help, leaving the little boy where he was. Brewer, D., and Bagnell went to Bagnell's house nearby and called 911.

Firefighters arrived at the Magoon residence about 8:00 a.m. Brewer told Fire Captain Jeffrey Nelson that there was a bleeding child in the living room, and that there might be more people down the hallway. After making sure that police deputies were on their way, Captain Nelson entered the house through the front door. He noticed a "Mac-10" style submachine gun on the carpet just beyond the entry tile, later identified as an Ingram, semiautomatic .45-caliber pistol with a barrel extension. As he walked into the entryway, he saw J. lying on a futon. As he moved toward the child, he saw two rifles that were lying parallel to each other, later identified as a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic .223-caliber rifle, and a .177-caliber air rifle.

J.'s hair was matted and wet from blood. The upper part of his T-shirt was covered with blood, which had spilled down onto his diaper. When Captain Nelson attempted to feel for a pulse, J. woke up and looked very scared. Captain Nelson then carried him outside to receive medical attention. J. had a laceration to the back of his head, and a six-to-eight-inch-long bruise in the left shoulder blade area. His head laceration was later determined to be a bullet wound.

Police deputies and other investigators went through the house. Daniel Magoon was found dead, lying on the floor in the kitchen area. Mary Magoon was also found dead, lying on her right side with her shoulder and head at the threshold of the hallway bathroom doorway. There was no evidence of forced entry to the Magoon residence.

d. Crime Scene Evidence

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