People v. Knights

• Citation: 212 Cal.Rptr. 307,166 Cal.App.3d 46
• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Decision Date: 26 March 1985
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Lewis Patrick KNIGHTS, Defendant and Appellant. A026128.

Page 307

212 Cal.Rptr. 307

166 Cal.App.3d 46

The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Lewis Patrick KNIGHTS, Defendant and Appellant.

A026128.

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 5, California.

March 26, 1985.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing April 24, 1985.

Hearing Denied May 2, 1985.

Jonathan M. Purver, Court-appointed counsel by the Court of Appeal, Novato, for defendant and appellant.

Linda Ludlow, Deputy Atty. Gen., San Francisco, for plaintiff and respondent.

LOW, Presiding Justice.

Defendant Lewis Patrick Knights appeals from judgment entered after a jury found him guilty of first degree murder (Pen.Code, § 187) and found true an allegation of use of a deadly weapon in the commission of the offense (Pen.Code, § 12022, subd. (b)). This case was submitted, pursuant to California Rules of Court, rule 17(b), on the record and on appellant's opening brief filed October 19, 1984. We regret that we did not have the brief of the Attorney General which might have aided our review. ¹ On appeal, defendant contends the trial court erred (1) in denying his motions for a mistrial and a new trial because juror misconduct irreversibly prejudiced him, and (2) in admitting expert testimony regarding footprint identification. We affirm.

I.

On the evening of February 5, 1976, Don Davis asked defendant to accompany him to an apartment on Bahia Way in San Rafael so Davis could buy a fish tank. The people selling the fish tank were not at home; Davis and defendant went to an apartment across the landing. Davis asked the occupant, Marianne Mathews, if she knew when the people selling the fish tank would return; she did not know. Davis asked for paper and pencil so he could leave a message. After leaving the message in the doorjamb of the first apartment, Davis left with defendant. When they got back to the car, defendant told Davis he wanted to go back to make a date with Mathews. Defendant returned after about 20 to 30 minutes carrying Mathews' purse; his hair was also "dripping wet." Defendant told Davis he had taken a shower, and, at Davis' request, threw the purse in a gutter. Later, at a bar in Greenbrae, defendant told Davis he had stabbed Mathews in the throat because "he was trying to take her panties down and she was screaming and yelling and bit his finger." Defendant said that he took a shower after killing Mathews.

Mathews' body was discovered the following afternoon when Elaine N. and Dianne R., two of Mathews' friends and classmates, became concerned about Mathews' absence and went to her apartment. Both noticed her apartment door was ajar; Dianne entered and saw a head of hair, discolored and surrounded by what appeared to be "very dry, black blood." She immediately left the apartment to summon the police. One of the police officers who came to Mathews' apartment, Sergeant Kosta, noted that Mathews' hair was bloody, her throat was slit and her body was partially disrobed. There was a knife protruding from her chest and a broken flowerpot next to her head. Kosta also found some bloody sockprints in the kitchen and a partial print in the bathroom. The coroner, Ervin Jindrich, later testified that, in addition to a deep scalp laceration and stab wounds in her neck and chest, there was evidence of strangulation, dried semen in Mathews' pubic hair, and spermatozoa in her vagina and rectum.

The initial investigation into Mathews' death led to no arrest, but the case was reopened in August 1982 by Detective Ted Lindquist of the San Rafael Police Department when he received new information. Defendant became a suspect in the Mathews' killing as a result of a monitored telephone conversation and subsequent police contacts with an inmate at San Quentin. On October 29, 1982, Detective Lindquist and Sergeant Kosta questioned defendant at California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo, where defendant was serving a sentence for the murders of Rebekah Mathison and her daughter Shaunicy. Following the visit by Lindquist and Kosta, defendant contacted his sister, Barbara N., and when she visited him a few days later, defendant admitted raping and killing Mathews. On November 23, 1982, defendant was charged with the murder of Mathews.

Four motions in limine were made prior to trial. In regard to the prosecution's motion to admit evidence of the two Sonoma County murders committed by defendant, the court ruled only the murder of Rebekah Mathison could be admitted and used for the limited purpose of showing identity and intent. The court denied the prosecution's motion with respect to the murder of Mathison's four-year-old daughter, Shaunicy, because of the possibility of prejudice and lack of relevance. Defendant's motion to exclude the testimony of the prosecution's expert witness on footprint identification, Louise Robbins, was granted in part. ² The court ruled Dr. Robbins' method for measuring and comparing footprints was unreliable because it could not be verified by other scientists in the same general field. As a result, Dr. Robbins would not be able to express her opinion on the comparison of defendant's footprint exemplar and the photographs of the bloody sockprints found in Mathews' apartment. Dr. Robbins, however, could testify to any measurements she had taken which conformed to well-established standards in the scientific community.

II.

During the second but first full day of jury deliberations, the court was informed by the jury foreman that a problem had arisen: One of the jurors had brought in evidence not raised at trial by saying, "Well, he killed the four-year-old child!" The foreman's note asked for the court's opinion before the jury would resume its deliberations. Through an exchange of notes between the foreman and court, the identity of the juror who had made the remark was learned; the juror, Marie M., returned to the courtroom where the court conducted a voir dire. She told the court that she had seen some friends at the bank a week earlier and told them she would be unable to attend a social engagement because of jury duty. As the juror was walking away, she overheard one woman say to the other, "Oh, that's that murder case from Sonoma where that man killed a woman and a four-year-old child." Although the juror felt the overheard conversation would not affect her judgment, the court excused her and replaced her with an alternate juror.

A showing of juror misconduct raises a presumption of prejudice to the defendant. The presumption, however, may be rebutted by proof that no prejudice actually resulted. (People v. Honeycutt (1977) 20 Cal.3d 150, 156, 141 Cal.Rptr. 698, 570 P.2d 1050; People v. Pierce (1979) 24 Cal.3d 199, 207, 155 Cal.Rptr. 657, 595 P.2d 91.) We review the entire record "to determine whether there is a reasonable probability of actual harm to the complaining party resulting from the misconduct. [Citations.]" (Hasson v. Ford Motor Co. (1982) 32 Cal.3d 388, 417, 185 Cal.Rptr. 654, 650 P.2d 1171.)

The juror's statement that defendant had killed a four-year-old child constituted misconduct, for a juror cannot consider evidence obtained from sources other than in court. (People v. Martinez (1978) 82 Cal.App.3d 1, 21, 147 Cal.Rptr. 208.) Nevertheless, the presumption of prejudice is rebutted by the record. The record shows an extremely conscientious jury. A great deal of media publicity surrounded defendant's trial, and the jury was regularly admonished not to read any newspaper articles about the case. After an article had appeared in the Independent Journal discussing the Sonoma County murders, defense counsel requested a voir dire of the jury, although he expressed reservations about the willingness of individual jurors to acknowledge in front of others that they had disobeyed a court order not to read about or discuss the case. Despite defense reservations, however, two jurors volunteered information during voir dire that their spouses had attempted to discuss aspects of the case; both jurors refused to discuss or listen to anything said by the spouses. The misconduct occurred early in the deliberations and was brought immediately to the court's attention by the foreman because some jurors refused to further deliberate until they heard the court's opinion. Upon learning of the misconduct, the court undertook several precautions to minimize any chance of prejudice. The potentially biased juror was excused and replaced with an alternate juror. The remaining jurors were reinstructed on the evidence they could consider and were reminded of the limited purpose for which the murder of Rebekah Mathison could be used. The jurors were individually questioned on their ability to disregard Marie M.'s statement; each one answered that he or she would consider the case solely on the evidence adduced in the courtroom and in accordance with the given jury instructions. Finally, the jurors were instructed to begin deliberations again as if no deliberations had ever occurred; all of these precautions had been taken by the court before the alternate juror was seated. In his post-trial affidavit, the alternate, Gerald C., stated that there was no mention of Marie M.'s statement during jury deliberations; the first time he learned of any killing of the four-year-old child was after the verdict had been rendered. We find the presumption of prejudice rebutted.

We are unpersuaded by defendant's argument that he was irreversibly prejudiced by Marie M.'s statement because her misconduct so tainted jury deliberations, none of the precautions taken by the court could possibly remove the taint. The potentially prejudiced juror was immediately replaced early in the deliberations; this distinguishes Honeycutt, relied on by defendant, where the juror misconduct was not discovered until after deliberations had been completed and a verdict entered. (People v. Honeycutt, supra, 20 Cal.3d at pp. 154-155, 141 Cal.Rptr. 698, 570 P.2d 1050; see also People v. Diaz (1...