People v. Iii

• Decision Date: 11 August 2011
• Docket Number: No. S068863.,S068863.
• Citation: 129 Cal.Rptr.3d 91,52 Cal.4th 452,257 P.3d 703
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,v.David Lynn SCOTT III, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: California Supreme Court

52 Cal.4th 452

257 P.3d 703

129 Cal.Rptr.3d 91

11 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 10,206

2011 Daily Journal D.A.R. 12,128

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.David Lynn SCOTT III, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S068863.

Supreme Court of California

Aug. 11, 2011.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE Glen Niemy, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.Edmund G. Brown, Jr., and Kamala D. Harris, Attorneys General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Holly D. Wilkens and Adrianne S. Denault, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.CORRIGAN, J.

[257 P.3d 712 , 52 Cal.4th 458]

A jury convicted defendant David Lynn Scott III, of the first degree murder of Brenda Gail Kenny with the personal use of a deadly weapon.[fn1] IT CONCLUDED, AS Special circumstances, that the murder was committed in the course of burglary and rape.² Defendant was also convicted of first degree burglary and assault with a deadly weapon ³ on Colleen Cliff, first degree burglary and two rapes of Regina M., first degree burglary and false imprisonment ⁴ of Regenia Griffin, first degree burglary and two rapes of Julia K., first degree robbery of Joseph C.,⁵ attempted murders of Phillip Courtney and Howard Long,⁶ and prowling.⁷ The jury made the following findings supporting weapon enhancements: personal use of a deadly weapon ⁸ in the burglary of Colleen Cliff and the robbery of Joseph C.; use of a deadly weapon ⁹ in the rapes of Regina M. and Julia K.; personal use of a firearm ¹⁰ in the burglary and false imprisonment of Regenia Griffin, the robbery of Joseph C., and the attempted murders of Phillip Courtney and Howard Long. The jury found that defendant inflicted great bodily injury ¹¹ UPON PHILLIP COURTNEY.

Following a deadlock, the court declared a mistrial on four counts arising from two other incidents: burglary, false imprisonment, and kidnapping of Linda Gonzales; and assault with a deadly weapon on Edward Buhr. Before trial, two counts arising from still other incidents had been dismissed pursuant to section 995.

We affirm the judgment.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. Guilt Phase

1. The Murder of Brenda Gail Kenny

On Thursday, September 10, 1992, Brenda Kenny felt ill. So, instead of going to work at the library, she spent the day visiting her mother. At 10:00 p.m., Kenny drove to her home in Riverside's Canyon Creek apartment complex. The staircase to Kenny's apartment passed the bedroom window of Joseph Masewicz's apartment, which was directly below hers. That evening, after 10:00 p.m., Masewicz heard two people walking up the stairs. During the night he was awakened by a “bang,” as if someone had fallen. He then heard a “cry.” His alarm clock read 4:10 a.m. Because Masewicz knew that Kenny was prone to seizures, he got up to check on her. However, when he heard footsteps in her apartment, he concluded nothing was amiss and did not pursue the matter.¹²

Saturday evening Kenny's parents received a phone call from Ruth Hunter. Hunter, a library colleague, was concerned that Kenny had not been at work on Friday and had not called in ill. Mr. and Mrs. Kenny went to her apartment immediately. After knocking and receiving no response, they let themselves into the locked apartment with a key.

The first thing they noticed was “the smell of decomposition.” Next they noticed wind billowing the curtain through an unlocked sliding glass door leading to the balcony. They found their daughter lying on the floor of her bedroom between the bed and the dressing table. A blanket covered her face. Although Kenny was a very neat housekeeper, dresser drawers were open, clothes spilled out, and shoes were scattered across the floor.

Christine Keers, a police homicide detective, described the crime scene. A knife found under Ms. Kenny's elbow was similar to knives in her kitchen. The cord to an electric iron had been cut off and placed on the nightstand next to the bed. Sheets stripped from the bed were in a hamper. A leaflet for the New Wine Fellowship Church in nearby Moreno Valley was found by the front door.

Cause of death was “multiple sharp-force injuries.” Kenny had been stabbed five times in the neck, once in the chest, and once in the abdomen. Any one of four stab wounds would have been fatal. The knife found under Kenny's elbow could have inflicted them. There were also 16 cuts ¹³ on her hands, likely inflicted as she tried to defend herself. There was a semen stain on the crotch of Kenny's pants.

Defendant's responsibility for the murder was established by, among other things, incriminating statements he made to coworkers before his arrest, incriminating statements he made to investigators, and physical evidence.

Defendant worked at Canyon Springs Cinema in Moreno Valley, along with his girlfriend Stephanie Compton, Terry De la Torre, Ricardo Decker, Kenya Starr, Matthew Shreiner, Yolanda Narez, and Matthew Texera.

According to Decker, Compton related a conversation she had with defendant as they drove past Kenny's apartment complex. Defendant said he dreamt he saw the librarian being murdered. As Compton told this to Decker, defendant was present and Compton asked him for confirmation. “Dave, didn't you have a dream about that librarian being murdered over in the apartments by Canyon Crest?” Defendant nodded in the affirmative. At trial, Compton denied that she told Decker about the dream. She did testify that defendant told her of a recurrent dream in which he looked through a window and saw someone being stabbed. Defendant later admitted to Detective Keers that he dreamt of seeing a man stabbing a woman lying on a bed.

Kenya Starr testified that while he and defendant were cleaning the theater, defendant said: “I shouldn't have done it, she was nice, I shouldn't have killed her.” Starr asked defendant what he was talking about. Defendant repeated that she was nice and he shouldn't have killed her. Starr said he did not believe defendant had killed anyone. Defendant responded that he could prove it, and a couple of days later he showed Starr a newspaper clipping of the Kenny murder.

Matthew Texera testified that defendant had assaulted him with a knife about a month before defendant was arrested for Kenny's murder. While Texera stood at the theater snack bar, defendant approached him from behind. Texera turned to see defendant punching him. When Texera tried to parry a blow, defendant slashed Texera's hand with a knife he carried in his other hand. On another occasion, defendant told Mr. Decker that he “had had to stab several people” in the past.

Defendant lived in a house in Moreno Valley with four other young men. In the bedroom defendant shared with one of them, officers found three newspaper clippings concerning the Kenny murder.¹⁴

The leaflet for the New Wine Fellowship Church Detective Keers found by Ms. Kenny's front door also linked defendant to her murder. Defendant was a member of the church and, like other congregants, passed out New Wine leaflets to prospective members. A month or two before the Kenny murder, defendant rang the doorbell of Darryl Luntao, who lived in a downstairs apartment directly across from Ms. Kenny. Defendant handed Luntao a New Wine leaflet and spoke to him for several minutes.

Finally, defendant was linked to the murder by serological testing of the semen stain found on the pants Kenny was wearing at the time of her death. Defendant, like 8 percent of the general population, shared the genetic profile revealed by that stain.

2. The Burglary and Assault on Colleen Cliff

On October 1, 1992, Colleen Cliff was sleeping in a guest room at the home of friends in Riverside. Ms. Cliff awoke with a man straddling her and holding a knife to her throat. When she screamed, he told her to shut up or he would kill her. He asked who else was in the house. When she named her host, the intruder apologized and said he had made a terrible mistake. He claimed he was a “hit man” and was in the wrong house. He led Ms. Cliff to the kitchen, where he returned the knife to a drawer. Threatening to come back and kill her if she called police, he ran out the door.

Ms. Cliff testified that her assailant was six feet tall and slender. Defendant was five feet 11 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds.

Although Ms. Cliff's assailant was wearing a ski mask, she could see the skin around his mouth, which she described as that of a Black man with a light skin tone. She testified that defendant's skin tone was “[e]xactly as I remember.”

Ms. Cliff's assailant was dressed in “all black,” including a turtleneck sweater. According to defendant's coworkers at the movie theater, he sometimes dressed entirely in black. Yolanda Narez testified that once after work defendant changed into a black outfit he had in his backpack. On another occasion Matthew Shreiner saw defendant dressed “in his ninja garb,” “all black” with a “ninja mask” revealing only his eyes. Stephanie Compton's car was parked in front of defendant's house. In the trunk the police found a laundry bag containing a black turtleneck and a navy blue knit cap with eye and mouth holes cut into it.

3. The Burglary and Rapes of Regina M.

On November 3, 1992, Regina M. was asleep in her apartment in the Canyon Crest area of Riverside. Awakened by a noise, she saw a man at the foot of her bed. Calling himself a “ninja,” the man was dressed entirely in black, with gloves, “sock type” nylon booties, and a mask or hood that revealed only his eyes. He was pointing a silver pistol at her.

The intruder asked Regina whether she was married. Hoping to scare him away, she falsely answered she was. He then claimed to be a “hit man” hired to murder her husband. Later, thinking he heard someone coming into the apartment, he stood inside the bedroom door, holding a dart he had taken from his sleeve.

The intruder had Regina change from her sleepwear to a business suit, then strip, put the suit back on, and then strip again before raping...