People v. Linville

• Decision Date: 28 September 2018
• Docket Number: A140600,A147938
• Citation: 238 Cal.Rptr.3d 492,27 Cal.App.5th 919
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Paige Tillie LINVILLE, Defendant and Appellant. In re Paige Tillie Linville, on Habeas Corpus.

27 Cal.App.5th 919

238 Cal.Rptr.3d 492

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. Paige Tillie LINVILLE, Defendant and Appellant.In re Paige Tillie Linville, on Habeas Corpus.

A140600

A147938

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 2, California.

Filed September 28, 2018

Laura S. Kelly, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris and Xavier Becerra, Attorneys General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Jeffrey M. Laurence, Senior Assistant Attorney General, René A. Chacón, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, David M. Baskind, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

STEWART, J.

Defendant Paige Tillie Linville was charged with two counts of murder in connection with a brazen, drug-fueled killing spree carried out with her ex-boyfriend. Their victims were two unsuspecting strangers, gunned down deliberately for sick thrills within 24 hours of each other. The first victim, transient Amber Chappell, was killed shortly after midnight on a remote backroad in Cordelia, California after the couple picked her up for a ride in Linville's sport-utility vehicle (SUV). The second victim, Christina Baxley, was killed later the same day in Dixon, California, in broad daylight, when the couple spotted her taking her dog for a walk.

A jury deadlocked on the murder charge against Linville concerning the first victim, Amber Chappell, but found Linville guilty of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the shooting death of the second victim, Christina Baxley.

Linville now appeals, contending she should not have been prosecuted for either murder because she had already been prosecuted for a crime related to the killings. Previously, she pled guilty and was sentenced to a three-year prison term for being an accessory after the fact to the killings, for having disposed of the vehicle used in the killings (by trading it for another car). She entered that plea while the homicide investigation was at an early stage, at a time when she denied any involvement in either shooting. Her accessory conviction was based on the premise her boyfriend had committed the murders and Linville later got rid of the vehicle to help him evade detection. Now she asserts that because her prior conviction and the present prosecution involve the same murders, her murder prosecution for the two shooting deaths was prohibited by Penal Code section 654 ’s ban on multiple prosecutions, because the prosecution knew or should have known of the potential murder charges when it charged her the first time.

We disagree. While the accessory charge and the homicide charges involved the same killings, the same course of conduct did not play a significant part in both prosecutions and section 654 therefore does not apply. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment on direct appeal and deny Linville's related petition for a writ of habeas corpus.¹

BACKGROUND

Sometime after midnight, in the early morning hours of November 16, 2007,² Linville and her boyfriend Mario Moreno drove in Linville's SUV to the parking lot of a shopping center in Vallejo, California to sell drugs, after having smoked methamphetamine together. The two often dealt drugs to support their methamphetamine habit. As they were driving out of the parking lot afterwards, a woman later identified as Amber Chappell emerged from the sidewalk and flagged them down, asking for drugs and a ride. Moreno, who was driving, declined to stop for her and they drove away. But then Moreno asked Linville if she had ever thought about killing someone, and Linville said yes. They turned around, went back and picked up the woman.

According to Moreno, they did this intending to kill her. Moreno said she seemed like an easy target. And, according to Moreno, he asked Linville if she wanted to kill the woman and Linville said yes.

The woman wasn't very coherent when they picked her up, seemed high on drugs and wanted more. She told them her name was Amber. They drove around with her for an hour or two promising to find her some drugs, but then stopped at the end of a secluded, dead-end road in Cordelia. According to Moreno, Linville pulled Amber out of the car. Moreno then got out, walked over and shot her in the head, multiple times. He and Linville then drove off.

According to Linville, there was no plan to kill Amber Chappell. Moreno started shooting out of the blue, and Linville was terrified and in shock after it happened as they drove back to Vallejo. When Moreno had asked if she ever thought about killing someone, she thought it was one of the ridiculous things he would often say and responded "[s]ure, whatever Mario." Linville had helped him get Chappell out of the SUV because she had been touching and grabbing Moreno flirtatiously and he was irritated.

After the killing, they briefly stopped by the home of one of Moreno's friends in a nearby trailer park and Moreno told his friend about the killing. They then went to buy cleaning supplies at a 24-hour Walmart and cleaned the inside of Linville's SUV, and at 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning drove to a carwash in Vallejo and cleaned out the car again. Next, they bought more ammunition and paper targets and went to a rural property in Dixon that Moreno's uncle owned and shot target practice. After that, they drove around Dixon together, eventually parked and smoked more methamphetamine. When they resumed driving, they saw a woman, later identified as Christina Baxley, walking a dog, and Moreno stopped the car.

Moreno testified Linville got out of the car and shot Baxley. She did this, according to Moreno, after having told him during their target practice that she should shoot someone too so Moreno would not have to worry about her telling on him. According to Moreno, Linville donned a wig, they drove around Dixon looking for someone to kill and ultimately she picked Baxley as their next victim.

Linville testified it was Moreno who got out of the car and shot Baxley. According to Linville, Moreno's friend had said upon learning of the first killing that only one person walks away from something like that, and so Moreno had been insisting Linville would have to kill someone too or else he would kill her, and he had been driving around looking for someone for her to shoot while she protested in fear. Linville testified she was terrified by the second killing, and had no idea Moreno was planning to do that. Afterwards, Moreno drove them back to Vallejo and dropped Linville off at work.

Approximately two to five days later, Linville drove her SUV to Richmond and got rid of it by trading cars with a friend.

A month later, acting on a hotline tip implicating both Moreno and Linville, police arrested Moreno for both murders, on December 18. Moreno confessed to being present at both crimes but told police Linville had committed the killings. The next day, Linville was arrested for both murders too. She denied knowing anything about the killings and asked for a lawyer.

Moreno was charged in a felony complaint with two counts of murder on December 20. The next day, the People filed a "notice of pending prosecution" stating that no formal murder charges would be brought at that time against Linville, pending further investigation. Five days later, on December 26, the People filed a second notice stating the same thing, along with a felony complaint charging Linville with being an accessory after the fact to murder by Moreno and possession of methamphetamine.

A week and a half later, on January 4, 2008, Linville pled guilty to both counts when the matter was called for a preliminary hearing. She believed that by doing so, she could not later be charged with murder. The prosecutor said he did not object to the plea. He also said he did not think Kellett v. Superior Court (1966) 63 Cal.2d 822, 48 Cal.Rptr. 366, 409 P.2d 206 was implicated, a reference to the leading California Supreme Court case construing section 654, but in any event would have four weeks until sentencing "in which to figure it out for sure."

The Solano County Probation Department subsequently interviewed Linville, with her counsel present, and she concocted a story about what had happened. According to the probation report in her prior case, she told the probation officer she loaned her SUV to Moreno, and when he returned it he told her to get rid of it because something bad had happened in it. She felt intimidated by Moreno and agreed to swap the vehicle with a friend in another county without knowing what had occurred. She found out about the homicides a few days after they occurred but did not go to police because she felt intimidated and thought it was best just to get rid of the vehicle. In a handwritten statement attached to the probation report, she expressed "regret that nothing I could have done could have prevented the crimes from taking place."

At the trial in this case, she admitted she was untruthful in the probation interview and had been present at both killings. She testified her lawyer had advised her in the prior case to limit her "discussion of what happened" with the probation department "to only the circumstances regarding what I pled to, which was that my car was exchanged with another car," because her lawyer "thought it was in my best interest not to discuss any of the details, the facts of the case that I told her, what she told me."

While awaiting sentencing, Linville wrote to an acquaintance that she had "pled guilty quick, fast, [and] in a hurry" to the accessory charge, that at her next court appearance the prosecution would either refile the murder charges against her or she would be sentenced, and that "[i]f I get sentenced they won't be able to refile later." On February 1, 2008, Linville was sentenced to the upper term of three years for the accessory charge, and received a total prison term of three years and eight months. When asked the factual basis for the plea, the prosecutor referred the court principally to the...