People v. Jackson

• Citation: 129 Cal.App.4th 129,28 Cal.Rptr.3d 136
• Decision Date: 09 May 2005
• Docket Number: No. B125364.,B125364.
• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Kaseen JACKSON et al., Defendants and Appellants.

28 Cal.Rptr.3d 136

129 Cal.App.4th 129

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Kaseen JACKSON et al., Defendants and Appellants.

No. B125364.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 7.

May 9, 2005.

Certified for Partial Publication.^*

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing June 7, 2005.

Review Denied August 17, 2005.^**

Christine Vento, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Kaseen Jackson.

Marilee Marshall, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, Los Angeles, for Defendant and Appellant Jant Price.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Victoria B. Wilson and Erika D. Jackson, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

JOHNSON, Acting P.J.

A jury convicted defendants Kaseen Jackson and Jant Price of one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder. It also convicted Jackson on a third count of attempted murder not involving Price. In the published portions of this opinion we hold the Leon "good faith" exception¹ does not apply to a motion to suppress unlawfully obtained wiretap evidence; the wiretap evidence in this case was unlawfully obtained because the wiretap orders failed to identify any of the persons who were targets of the wiretaps; and the prosecution must disclose all statements of the defendant intercepted by a wiretap. We also find, however, these errors were not prejudicial under the facts of this case. In the unpublished portions of this opinion we discuss the appellants' remaining contentions and conclude the judgments should be affirmed after minor modifications in the sentences.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Bearing in mind the numerous evidentiary issues raised by defendants, we nevertheless state the facts in the manner most favorable to the judgment in accord with the usual rules on appeal.²

A. Murder Of Hendrix; Attempted Murders Of Smith And Andrews.

1. A Day of Peace Turns Into a Night of Violence.

In an attempt to arrange a peace between three warring gangs, the 4-Deuces and 4-Treys on one side and the 5-Trey Avalons on the other, a former 4-Trey member hosted an afternoon barbeque at his home and invited members of all three gangs. Defendant Price, a 4-Trey, attended, as did members of the other gangs. Price and one of the Avalons got into a verbal altercation but no blood was spilled.

Later in the evening five 4-Deuces met on a street corner in their territory. As they stood talking and gambling two men dressed in black walked up and started shooting. The men killed one of the 4-Deuces, Baby Deuce, and wounded two others.

Defendant Jackson, a 4-Trey, arrived soon after the shooting. Dee Ragland, who lived across the street from the murder scene, stated Jackson appeared very upset about the murder and had tears in his eyes. Ragland told police Jackson, who often stayed at her home, left the scene after the ambulance took Baby Deuce away and she did not see him again until around midnight, approximately 5 hours later. Ragland's son corroborated his mother's statement and added he did not see Jackson again the rest of the night or the next morning.

Following the murder of Baby Deuce, 20 to 30 members of the 4-Treys and 4-Deuces gathered to discuss what should be done about Baby Deuce's murder. A witness to the meeting told police the crowd had a "lynch mob mentality." Some in the crowd believed the Avalons were responsible for the shooting while others accused another gang, the Bloods. After this meeting broke up Price and Jackson went looking for revenge against the Avalons.

Four members of the Avalon gang, Smith, Andrews, Harris and Hendrix (the latter known as "Lunatic"), were standing around Hendrix's car when a dark brown car with a missing headlight came slowly toward them. The car sped up and six shots were fired from the backseat on the driver's side. The four Avalons began running in different directions. Smith was hit in the ankle by one of the first shots and fell. As he lay on the ground Smith heard a car door open and saw a person get out. The person began firing at Andrews and Hendrix, who were running down an alley. Hendrix fell. The shooter walked up to him and fired additional shots into his body as he lay facedown on the ground. The shooter then returned to the car, which drove off. Hendrix died from his wounds.

Several witnesses stated there were three persons in the car from which the shots were fired but none could identify Price or Jackson. One witness, however, positively identified Price's car as the car with one headlight he had seen approaching the area just before the shooting started.

Three days later police stopped Price on an unrelated matter. The officers noticed a bullet hole in the rear passenger door on the driver's side, which had been made by a bullet fired from within the car. They also observed the rear window was broken and glass fragments were lying on the backseat. One of the car's headlights did not work. Price admitted he had attended the peace barbeque earlier in the week. He told the officers he remained there until around midnight. He also stated he had not loaned his car to anyone that night and the bullet hole resulted from someone shooting at him weeks earlier.

2. Jackson and Price Admit The Murder And Attempted Murders.

Jackson and Price admitted their involvement in the murder and attempted murders to several persons.

The jury heard a taped interview with Tywaun Cannon, who had been in the group of 4-Deuces when Baby Deuce was shot and killed. Cannon stated Jackson came up to him at Baby Deuce's funeral complaining members of the 4-Treys were angry at him for killing Hendrix. Jackson thought this was unfair. He told Cannon: "`Man, the homie get killed. I go over there 20 minutes later and smokin' a nigger and theys acting like they mad at me.'" Repeating his complaint, Jackson stated: "`I'll [sic] go over there and kill this nigger, Lunatic, 20 minutes later . . . and now they act like they mad at me.'" When called as a prosecution witness Cannon admitted he made these statements to the police but claimed they were lies. According to Cannon's trial testimony the police had threatened to prosecute him for the Hendrix murder unless he implicated Jackson.

Curtis Davis, a member of the 4-Hoover gang, told police Jackson had talked to him about the shootings. Jackson told Davis "I killed the nigger" and "I got one of them, one got away. I don't know how he got away." At trial Davis denied knowing Jackson, knowing anything about this case, having any conversations with the police about the case or making any of the statements attributed to him.

George Lewis (Little Scrappy), a member of the 4-Deuces, told police in a taped interview Price admitted to him two days after the shooting he had been the one driving the car. Price said: "[T]he Avons have got smoked, you know."³ When Lewis responded, "Really?" Price said "Yeah, . . . I took the homies over . . . to go serve them."⁴ At trial Lewis denied making any of the statements on the tape.

Another witness, George Wheeler, overheard a conversation the day after the shooting in which one 4-Trey told another he should not have shot when he did because he shot Price's car. Price then said, "Yeah, you damn near shot me in the back of the head, cuz." In his trial testimony Wheeler claimed he could not recall telling the police about this conversation.

B. Attempted Murder Of Marquis Grays.

Three weeks after the Hendrix murder another Avalon gang member, Carl Caldwell, was shot to death during a confrontation between Avalons and 4-Treys. Marquis Grays, an Avalon gang member who was a potential witness to the Caldwell murder, was shot and wounded a few days later as he sat in a car in front of his mother's house.

Grays told police just before the Caldwell shooting a Ford Taurus pulled up along side the car he was riding in and a passenger in the Taurus yelled out "4-Trey, motherfucker." The cars then went in different directions. Grays parked in front of his mother's house and he and the driver sat in the car drinking. Grays heard gunshots. Someone said Caldwell had been shot around the corner. Grays went to the scene and found Caldwell lying in the street.

Three days later, as Grays again sat in a car parked in front of his mother's house, two cars pulled up and someone inside one of the cars started shooting at him. A bullet wounded Grays in the leg but he managed to drive away.

Grays identified Jackson from a photographic line up as the person who had yelled "4-Trey motherfucker" on the night Caldwell was killed and who had shot at him three days later.

Grays recanted his statements to the police when called as a witness. He testified he had lied to the detectives because he was angry and frustrated over his friend Caldwell's death and he wanted someone to pay. He also stated the reason why he had identified Jackson as the shooter was because the police had manipulated the photographic lineup.

Frankie Andrews testified at Jackson's trial and at the trial of the 4-Trey member accused and convicted of killing Caldwell. At the trial in the present case Andrews stated she was at home when she heard an argument out on the street. Looking outside she saw men in a Ford Taurus arguing with Caldwell and another Avalon member who were in a Chevrolet Caprice. One of the men in the Taurus began shooting at the Caprice. From a photographic line-up Andrews identified Jackson as one of the men in the Taurus but said he was not the shooter. Andrews was unable or unwilling to confirm her identification of Jackson at trial. Andrews also testified that after she went to the police with her information on the Caldwell case she received threats, and the police helped her relocate. She denied her move was the result of intimidation from 4-Trey members. She admitted, however, that during a break in the Jackson trial she told one of the...