People v. Mattson

• Decision Date: 03 May 1990
• Docket Number: No. S004705,S004705
• Citation: 50 Cal.3d 826,789 P.2d 983,268 Cal.Rptr. 802
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 789 P.2d 983 The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Michael Dee MATTSON, Defendant and Appellant. Crim. 25181.

Page 802

268 Cal.Rptr. 802

50 Cal.3d 826, 789 P.2d 983

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Michael Dee MATTSON, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S004705.

Crim. 25181.

Supreme Court of California,

In Bank.

May 3, 1990.

Rehearing Denied July 11, 1990.

Kennard, J., filed concurring opinion.

Mosk and Broussard, JJ., filed dissenting opinions.

Eric S. Multhaup, San Francisco, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Kathy M. Chavez, Berkeley, for defendant and appellant.

John K. Van de Kamp, Atty. Gen., Steve White and Richard B. Iglehart, Chief Asst. Attys. Gen., Edward T. Fogel, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Andrew D. Amerson, Susanne C. Wylie, William T. Harter, Donald E. Denicola and Keith H. Borjon, Deputy Attys. Gen., Los Angeles, for plaintiff and respondent.

EAGLESON, Justice.

On October 22, 1984, this court reversed a judgment of conviction and sentence imposing the death penalty, holding that defendant's confessions to the two murders, related offenses, and unrelated sexual offenses of which he stood convicted had been obtained in violation of article I, section 15 of the California Constitution and therefore were inadmissible under People v. Pettingill (1978) 21 Cal.3d 231, 145 Cal.Rptr. 861, 578 P.2d 108 and People v. Fioritto (1968) 68 Cal.2d 714, 68 Cal.Rptr. 817, 441 P.2d 625. (People v. Mattson (1984) 37 Cal.3d 85, 207 Cal.Rptr. 278, 688 P.2d 887.)

Defendant was retried. At the second trial, a new pretrial hearing was held to determine the admissibility of the confessions, new evidence was presented, and once again the trial court ruled that the confessions were admissible.

After a trial that began on December 10, 1985, the jury convicted defendant of count I, the July 14, 1978, wilful, deliberate, and premeditated murder of Cheryl G. (Pen.Code, §§ 187, 189), ¹ under special circumstances of murder committed during the commission or attempted commission of rape (former § 261, subd. (2)), lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under the age of 14 (§ 288) (former § 190.2, subd. (c)(3)(iii) & (iv)), and multiple murder (former § 190.2, subd. (c)(5)); count II, kidnapping of Cheryl G. (§ 207) with intentional infliction of great bodily injury (§ 12022.7); count III, rape of Cheryl G. with great bodily injury; count IV, lewd conduct with Cheryl G. with great bodily injury; count VI, the September 6, 1978, wilful, deliberate and premeditated first degree murder of Adele C. with special circumstances of murder during the commission or attempted commission of kidnapping and rape, and multiple murder; count VII, kidnapping of Adele C.; count X, the September 10, 1978, kidnapping of Kiz L.; count XI, rape of Kiz L.; count XII, sodomy of Kiz L. (§ 286); and count XIII, oral copulation of Kiz L. (§ 288a).

The penalty trial began on December 26, 1985. The jury returned a verdict of death on each murder count on January 8, 1986, after a day of deliberation. Judgment was pronounced on February 7, 1986, at which time defendant was sentenced to death on each murder count and to the upper term of five years with a three-year enhancement on counts II, III, IV, and VII; to the upper term of five years on counts X, XI, and XII; and to the upper term of three years on count XIII.

This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).)

Defendant's principal contentions are that he was denied his right under article I, section 16 of the California Constitution and the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution to trial by a jury drawn from a representative cross-section of the community, and that the trial court erred in permitting relitigation of the admissibility of, and in admitting, his confessions. He also asserts a double jeopardy claim; error in denying funds requested pursuant to section 987.9; errors in ruling on objections to evidence, arguments and instructions; failure of the People to establish the corpus delicti of certain special circumstances; ineffective assistance by trial counsel who failed to move for severance of, and separate trials on, the three groups of offenses; and error in instructing the jury.

With respect to the penalty trial, defendant claims error in admitting evidence regarding events underlying his prior convictions; error in permitting a witness to be examined on future dangerousness; and error in ruling on the automatic application for modification of the verdict.

We conclude that none of these claims has merit. The judgment will be affirmed in all respects.

I. SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE

A. Guilt Phase.

1. Cheryl G.

Nine-year-old Cheryl G. disappeared from the parking lot of Santa Fe Springs High School in Los Angeles County on July 14, 1978. Cheryl had been swimming with her older sisters who had left her briefly while they went to telephone their mother who was to pick them up. Cheryl was wearing a two-piece swimming suit and a pair of thongs, and carried a towel.

The plant foreman at the high school saw a young Hispanic girl waiting near the gate of the parking lot when he left work at about 3:30 p.m. on that date. He also saw a young man with long, dark hair and a beard. The man, who looked very much like defendant, was sitting in a car within 20 feet of the girl. The car was yellow or orange, had mud streaks on the sides, and Cheryl's body was found on July 15, 1978, in the Legg Lake region of the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area. She was nude. The top of her swimming suit was wrapped around her neck, as were a piece of monofilament fishing line and a "Handy Wipe." Fecal matter was found on the cheeks of her buttocks and the inner side of her thigh. Death was caused by asphyxiation by ligature strangulation and/or suffocation. She had suffered injuries consistent with blows to the head. Her hymen was not intact.

[789 P.2d 993] had brush marks on the passenger side of its top.

Defendant subsequently confessed to investigators that he had picked up a Hispanic girl in the parking lot of the Santa Fe Springs High School, had driven to Legg Lake, had intercourse with the girl in the bushes, and then strangled her with his belt and tied fishing line around her neck. Information about the ligature had not been released to the public by investigators at the time defendant confessed.

2. Adele C.

Sixteen-year-old Adele C. was last seen alive by her mother on September 6, 1978. Adele's mother had dropped her off at 8:30 a.m. on a street corner where Adele was to be picked up by friends who were to give her a ride to her part-time job at a motel on the Pacific Coast Highway. Adele was wearing a white eyelet blouse with straps, a hooded multi-colored sweater, jeans, and blue tennis shoes. She also wore a pukka shell necklace. She did not report to work that day.

Adele's remains were located in a wooded area in Duarte on November 9, 1978, by an officer who followed directions given him by Detective Reed who was then in Nevada. The cause of death could not be determined. The body had a pukka shell necklace, white eyelet blouse, and a blue tennis shoe on it. There was no underwear on the body.

Detective Reed obtained his information about the location of Adele's remains from defendant while interrogating defendant about the Cheryl G. murder. Defendant volunteered information about this killing, stating that he had picked up a 16-year-old girl who was hitchhiking, had taken her to a remote area of Duarte off the Foothill Freeway, had intercourse with her 3 times, and then strangled her.

3. Kiz L.

On September 10, 1978, 15-year-old Kiz L., who lived in Seal Beach (Orange County), missed the bus to Huntington Beach and started hitchhiking. Defendant picked her up, but before reaching the location to which she had told him she was going, made a U-turn, pulled out a knife, and told her to lock the door of the car. Defendant was driving a yellow car. He drove north onto the 605 Freeway where he pulled over and got out, saying he had to urinate. When Kiz left the car, he grabbed her, apologized for scaring her, threw the knife away, and promised to take her home. Instead he drove to an area near Diamond Bar where he forced her to leave the car and walk to a desolate area where he forced her to orally copulate him and raped and sodomized her. He then removed his belt and told her he was going to hang her. Finally, however, he threw the belt away, saying that he could not kill her.

Kiz escaped from defendant's car when he stopped to buy beer. She identified defendant as the person who had kidnapped and assaulted her, and she testified at the trial. Defendant confessed that he had kidnapped, raped, sodomized and orally copulated Kiz, and that he had intended to kill her.

4. Defense Evidence.

Defendant sought to discredit his confessions by establishing that he had falsely confessed to the July 20, 1978, murder of Deanna M. in Riverside County. He introduced evidence that he had been at work at the time of the offense. The prosecution offered evidence in rebuttal tending to show that defendant's confession included details with which only the killer would be familiar. B. Penalty Phase.

The prosecution offered evidence that on September 20, 1978, appellant entered the car of Sonia L. when she returned to her car in the parking lot of the North Las Vegas Community College from an evening class. He demanded money, and drove into the desert where he raped her. She escaped from the car when he returned to the city and stopped for gas. Defendant was convicted of the kidnapping, robbery, and rape of Sonia L. in January 1979.

Evidence of the August 1, 1971, kidnapping and rape of Jeanette K. in Oregon was also presented. Jeanette and her younger brother Joe picked up defendant, who was hitchhiking. When they pulled over because defendant said he wanted to get out, defendant forced Joe from the car at knifepoint, and ordered Jeanette to drive on and to pull into a wooded area off the freeway where he raped her.

Mitigating evidence was offered by defendant in the form of expert...