People v. Jackson

Decision Date01 August 2016
Docket NumberNo. S139103.,S139103.
Citation376 P.3d 528,1 Cal.5th 269,205 Cal.Rptr.3d 386
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
PartiesThe PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Bailey Lamar JACKSON, Defendant and Appellant.

Richard I. Targow, Sebastopol, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette and Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Holly D. Wilkens and Tami Falkenstein Hennick, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

LIU, J.

Defendant Bailey Lamar Jackson was convicted by a jury of first degree murder (Pen.Code, § 187, subd. (a) ; all further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated), first degree burglary (§ 459 ), and first degree robbery (§§ 211, 215, subd. (a) ) of Geraldine Myers. The jury found true the special circumstance allegations of robbery murder and burglary murder. (§§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17) (A), (G).) Jackson was also convicted of attempted murder (§§ 187, subd. (a), 664, subd. (a) ), first degree burglary (§ 459 ), first degree robbery (§§ 211, 215, subd. (a) ), torture (§ 206), forcible rape (§ 261, subd. (a)(2) ), forcible oral copulation (§ 288a, subd. (c)(2) ), and sexual penetration with a foreign object on an unconscious person (§ 289, subd. (d) ) against Myrna Mason. The jury found true allegations that Jackson personally inflicted great bodily injury on a person 70 years of age or older in the commission of the attempted murder and torture. (§§ 12022.7, subd. (c), 1192.7, subd. (c)(8).) In connection with the rape and forcible oral copulation charges, the jury found true that Jackson inflicted aggravated mayhem or torture on Mason (§ 667.61, subd. (d)(3) ), that he entered her house with the intent to commit a violent sexual offense (§ 667. 61, subds. (c) & (d)(4) ), and that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on Mason (§ 667.61, former subd. (e)(3)). The jury also found that Jackson had been convicted of two prior prison offenses (§ 667.5, subd. (b)), two serious prior felonies (§ 667, subd. (a)), and two serious or violent felonies within the meaning of the “Three Strikes” law (§§ 667, subds. (c), (d)(2), & (e)(2)(A), 1170.12, subd. (c)(2)(A)).

The jury was unable to reach a penalty verdict. A new jury was empaneled and the penalty phase was retried, resulting in a verdict of death. The trial court denied the automatic motion to modify the penalty, sentenced Jackson to death for the count of murder, and imposed a sentence of 212 years to life on the remaining counts. This appeal is automatic. (Cal. Const. art. VI, § 11, subd. (a); § 1239, subd. (b).) We remand to the trial court to recalculate the noncapital portion of Jackson's sentence. In all other respects, we affirm the judgment.

I. Facts
A. Guilt Phase

In May 2001, 82–year–old Geraldine Myers disappeared from her home in Riverside, California. Her car was later located in Las Vegas, but her body has not been found. Six weeks later, Myrna Mason, an 84–year–old woman living alone in the same neighborhood, was raped in her home. Jackson was arrested the following day for Mason's rape. The investigation yielded evidence suggesting that Jackson was also involved in Myers's disappearance, which led to further investigation specifically designed to connect Jackson with the Myers case. The following factual summary roughly tracks this chronology. Thus, certain evidence relevant to the Myers case (most notably, evidence derived through dog trailing) follows the discussion of the Mason case.

1. Prosecution Evidence
a. Discovery of Myers's Disappearance

Myers's daughter-in-law Monique testified that, on Mother's Day, May 13, 2001, she took Myers to a Sunday service at the Arlington Christian Church. Later that evening, one of her sons, William, took her to dinner. William and Myers returned to her home between 7:00 and 7:30 that evening, and he stayed with his mother until about 8:45 p.m. Monique called Myers several times throughout the following day (May 14), but received no answer. After speaking with her brother-in-law, Richard Myers, who had similarly been unable to reach Myers that day, Monique decided to see if Myers was home. Monique went to Myers's house on San Simeon Way at around 9:00 p.m. that night, but no one answered the door. Monique obtained a key to the back door (which was locked) from the property manager and entered the house. She looked around for five or 10 minutes and walked down the hallway and into the living room, but did not go into either bedroom. There was a light on in the living room, but the rest of the house was dark. She checked the front door and found it locked. She did not notice anything unusual, so she returned the spare key and went home.

Monique called Myers the next morning and again received no answer. Monique then called her daughter, Robin Myers Wilson, and instructed her to go to Myers's home to “see what's going on.”

Robin Myers Wilson testified that, on May 15, 2001, after speaking with her mother, she went with her younger sister Deanna to Myers's home. Wilson immediately noticed that something was wrong: cleaning products were in disarray, Myers's shoes were scattered on the floor, and a window curtain was lying in the sink. Wilson recognized Myers's purse in the kitchen. Walking further into the house, Wilson noticed an apparent bleach stain in the hallway, which had not been there when she had visited the Saturday before, as well as a torn envelope on Myers's bed. In the spare bedroom, Wilson found a dress and pantyhose lying on the floor. (Roberta Myers, Geraldine Myers's daughter-in-law, described this as the black skirt that Myers had worn on Mother's Day. Deanna described it as the blue dress Myers had worn that day.) Wilson called her mother to tell her that something was wrong and then called 911 to report that Myers was missing.

b. Preliminary Investigation of Myers's House

Riverside Police Officer Robert Arnold testified that he took a missing persons report from Myers's son, Douglas, and then drove to her home at around 12:30 p.m. on May 15, 2001, to investigate. He walked the perimeter of the house and did not see any signs of a forced entry or a disturbance within the house.

Riverside Police Sergeant Victor Williams testified that, on the afternoon of May 15, 2001, he went to Myers's house to collect evidence in relation to the missing persons report. In front of the house, Williams found newspapers from Monday, May 14, and Tuesday, May 15. As he walked through the house, a stain in the hallway “stood out” to him. It looked like a bleach stain but gave off no distinctive smell. Williams also noted a strike mark on the door opening from the hall into the living room, which was shallow and appeared to have been made by a hard object. White marks around the same door suggested that it had been recently cleaned. Similar marks were visible on the door from the hallway to the laundry room.

Williams found two empty beer bottles and an empty water bottle in a garbage bag in the laundry room. These items did not yield DNA or latent fingerprints. William Myers, Myers's son and the last person to leave her house on Mother's Day, testified that neither he nor Myers consumed beer that evening.

Williams also found approximately $8,000 in cash and bags of coins in Myers's bedroom closet.

c. Recovery of Myers's Car in Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas Police Officer Steven Perry testified that, on May 18, 2001, he stopped a red Toyota Corolla, later identified as Myers's car, outside the city for a lane infraction. The driver was 16–year–old Donald Rogers. Rogers told Officer Perry that he had found the car in a Las Vegas parking lot with the keys in the ignition and decided to take it. During an inventory search of the vehicle, officers found a Macy's shopping bag in the trunk that appeared to have blood on it.

Federal Bureau of Investigations Special Agent Lawrence Wenko testified that he lifted 21 latent fingerprints from the vehicle, none of which belonged to Jackson. Wenko also collected the Macy's bag, an aqua-colored wallet, and a white plastic bag containing shoes and other items, all of which he checked for hair and fibers. He collected soil and debris from the passenger side rear bumper. He did not identify any blood in the vehicle, other than what was on the Macy's bag. He obtained video surveillance tapes for May 16 and 17, 2001, from the store where Rogers said he had found the car; no earlier surveillance tapes were available.

Rogers testified that he stole Myers's car from the parking lot of a shopping center. He was looking for a car to steal, saw that the keys to the Corolla were in the ignition, and decided to take it. Rogers drove the car around with his friend, Jose Davila, and several of Davila's cousins. He recalled being surprised by how empty the vehicle was; he did not find anything in the passenger compartment or glove box, not even a vehicle registration. He described the trunk, however, as full of [a] lot of shoes and crayons and a bloody bag.” Rogers did not recall taking anything from the trunk, except some crayons for Davila's sisters. Rogers testified that he and his friend played with the bag, teasingly pushing it towards each other, and that, in the process, he may have taken it out of the trunk and put it back in, although he was not “a hundred percent sure.”

Rogers's statements were inconsistent as to the date on which he found Myers's car. At the time of his arrest, he told Officer Perry he had taken it on Thursday, May 17. During an interview several weeks later, he told Riverside Police Detective Bill Barnes that he had taken it on Wednesday, May 16. At trial, Rogers testified that he found the car on either Monday, May 14, or Tuesday, May 15, but that he could not say for sure which of the two dates was correct.

Detective Barnes traveled to Las Vegas on Friday, May 18, 2001 to inspect Myers's car and interview...

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