People v. Medina

• Decision Date: 29 August 1974
• Docket Number: Cr. 23869
• Citation: People v. Medina, 41 Cal.App.3d 438, 116 Cal.Rptr. 133 (Cal. App. 1974)
• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Fred Mendez MEDINA and Danny Wayne Townsend, Defendants and Appellants.

Page 133

116 Cal.Rptr. 133

41 Cal.App.3d 438

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Fred Mendez MEDINA and Danny Wayne Townsend, Defendants and Appellants.

Cr. 23869.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 3, California.

Aug. 29, 1974.

Hearing Denied Oct. 30, 1974.

David E. Kenner, Van Nuys, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for defendant and appellant Medina.

Alan R. Baum, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for defendant and appellant Townsend.

Evelle J. Younger, Atty. Gen., Jack R. Winkler, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen.--Crim. Div., S. Clark Moore, Asst. Atty. Gen., Norman H. Sokolow and Howard J. Schwab, Deputy Attys. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.

POTTER, Associate Justice.

Defendants, Fred Mendez Medina and Danny Wayne Townsend, were charged by information filed on June 28, 1972, with two counts of murder. (Pen.Code, § 187.) The information alleged that defendants, on or about April 8, 1972, with malice aforethought, murdered Dori Ann Haines (count I) and Cheryl Ann Monticello (count II). Both defendants pleaded not guilty. They were tried together before a jury. The jury was impaneled on February 1, 1973, and trial continued for 25 days. On the fifth day of deliberation, the jury returned verdicts finding both defendants guilty on each count of murder in the first degree. The matter was then continued until May 10, 1973, at which time defendants' motions for a new trial were denied. The court also denied defendants' motions requesting the court to commit them to the California Youth Authority or refer them to the Director of Corrections pursuant to Penal Code section 1202b. Thereupon, both defendants were sentenced to state prison on each count for the term prescribed by law (life in prison), with the execution of sentence on count II for each defendant stayed until such time as each defendant is paroled on count I, at which time the sentence on count II is to go into effect. Both defendants appeal from the judgments of conviction.

The facts of this case are not very pleasant. As related by the prosecution witnesses, they are a shocking commentary upon the degree of degenerate conduct which can result from juvenile drug abuse, and the tragic consequences thereof. Midday on April 8, 1972, defendants Fred Mendez Medina, aged 20, and Danny Wayne Townsend, aged 18, together with their friend Edwin E. Vaughn, aged 18, Lisa Beth Gleitsman, a girl friend of Townsend, aged 17, and Virginia Lou Walton, a girl friend of Medina, aged 15, left the residence of Vaughn's brother-in-law, a ranch in the foothills west of the Chatsworth Reservoir in the west end of the San Fernando Valley, to go the the beach. They were all in a blue 1954 Chevy pickup truck with white fenders owned by defendant Medina. They stopped to get gas for the truck at Zody's on the corner of Roscoe and Topanga Canyon Boulevards. At the gas station they picked up two hitchhikers, Dori Ann Haines and Cheryl Ann Monticello, ages 15 and 16, respectively. The seven then drove in the truck over Topanga Canyon to a beach somewhere north of Malibu. After about an hour at the beach they all returned to the San Fernando Valley via Malibu Canyon and then drove up Woolsey Canyon Road or, as it is locally known, 'Rocketdyne Road,' in Woolsey Canyon in the hills west of the Chatsworth Reservoir. They parked the truck at a remote and isolated site off a dirt road about a quarter of a mile from Rocketdyne Road. Sometime later, about the time it was beginning to get dark, the two defendants, Vaughn, Gleitsman and Walton left the area in the truck, and returned to the residence of Ann Todd at the Fountain of the World in Box Canyon, where both defendants were then residing. Dori and Cheryl, however, never left the site alive.

On April 17, 1972, three young men, while shooting tin cans near the site, off Rocketdyne Road where defendant Medina's truck had been parked, found what appeared to be human remains covered with brush. The body was later identified as that of Dori. The body of Cheryl, also covered with brush and debris, was found on April 21, 1972, by two women who were hiking in the same area.

As shown by the testimony of Dr. Eugene Carpenter, the pathologist who performed autopsies on each of the victims, both died as a result of multiple stab wounds to the heart with a knife or knives. Dori was stabbed around 50 times. Most of the wounds were made by a single-edged 'hunting' knife, although several wounds had been made by a double-edged knife. Cheryl suffered approximately 35 stab wounds, all of which were made by a single-edged knife. Both victims had severe basal skull fractures and their throats had been cut. Dori had, in addition suffered a nonfatal blow with a blunt instrument to the forehead. In addition to his testimony concerning the wounds, Dr. Carpenter testified that both the victims had consumed, shortly before their death, a quantity of barbiturates--specifically, pentobarbital sodium or, as it is referred to on the street, 'Yellows.'

On May 6, 1972, Vaughn, having heard from his sister that the investigating officer had called and desired to talk to him, called and arranged an appointment with him. On that date he gave a statement to the officer implicating both defendants and Gleitsman and Walton. On May 9, 1972, both defendants were arrested, as were Gleitsman and Walton.

From May 6 through May 15, 1972, discussions were conducted between Vaughn and the prosecutor which culminated in his giving a tape recorded statement on May 15, 1972, on the basis of which he was, on June 14, 1972, granted immunity from prosecution pursuant to the provisions of section 1324 of the Penal Code. Like discussions occurred between the prosecutors and Gleitsman and Walton after their arrest which produced tape recorded statements from each of them on May 10, 1972 and, on the basis of these statements, orders granting immunity pursuant to section 1324 of the Penal Code were made on May 11, 1972.

Virtually all of the direct evidence of what occurred between the time Dori and Cheryl joined the others in the truck at Zody's and the time of their deaths was contained in the testimony of the three witnesses to whom immunity was granted--Vaughn, Gleitsman and Walton. No one of these witnesses claimed to have seen and to have recalled all of the events occurring during this time span. There are some inconsistencies between their three versions of the facts they did recall, and in some respects it is almost certain that the whole truth was not told by two of them. Nonetheless, if credence is given to a composite of the consistent and not inherently unbelievable portions of this testimony, it is possible for a trier of fact to make a reasonable determination of essentially what happened. The following version of the facts is the most likely result of such process.

Both of the defendants and Vaughn, Gleitsman and Walton were together at a party the night before the day of the murders. The party was at the ranch of Vaughn's brother-in-law, and various barbiturates were consumed by those in attendance. The following morning they all got together again at the ranch and left in defendant Medina's pickup truck to go to the beach. They stopped at Zody's for gasoline and while there, or upon leaving, they picked up Dori and Cheryl who were hitchhiking. The entire party, including the hitchhikers, consumed more barbiturates (i.e. 'yellows') either at the gas station or during a subsequent stop between there and the beach. Upon reaching the beach Dori and Cheryl were furnished and consumed additional barbiturates. Also at the beach there was a pairing off of Vaughn with Cheryl and defendant Townsend with Dori. Upon observing defendant Townsend showing sexual interest in Dori, Gleitsman, who considered herself his girl friend, returned to the truck in a fit of jealousy and took two barbiturates (in addition to the two she had had earlier in the day). The bag in which the pills were kept was then taken from her by defendant Medina, who feared she might overdose.

The party then left the beach in the truck. Defendant Medina was driving and Gleitsman and Walton were in the cab with him. Defendant Townsend and Dori were in the bed of the truck, as were Vaughn and Cheryl. When Gleitsman observed Townsend kissing Dori, she smashed the window in the back of the cab with her fist.

Defendant Medina's driving became so erratic that Walton asked him to let Vaughn drive. As Vaughn took the wheel, defendant Medina asked him about a place where they could 'finish' the party. They drove without incident to the remote site on the dirt road off Rocketdyne Road where the truck was parked on a level clearing or turnout beside the road. The turnout was at a higher elevation than the adjoining portion of the road and it was bordered on the side away from the road by an elevated outcropping of very large boulders. A path ran around one end of the outcropping to a lower elevation beyond. It was then about 2:00 p.m. When the truck was parked both defendants and Gleitsman, Walton and Dori got out of truck and left Vaughn in it with Cheryl. Vaughn and Cheryl talked for a while; then he had intercourse with Cheryl which he claimed was consensual, though he described her as intoxicated at the time.

While Vaughn and Cheryl were in the truck, defendant Medina and Dori, accompanied by both Gleitsman and Walton, proceeded out of view of a flat space among the boulders. Defendant Medina told Dori to 'give him head' (orally copulate him). When she asked why, he said because he wanted her to. When Dori declined, Gleitsman and Walton first made fun of her and then, when she started to cry, she was struck by one of the girls and the other took a swing at her but missed, and both girls told her to do what defendant Medina said. Dori then commenced complying with their demands, and both Gleitsman and Walton wandered off. They returned several minutes later and Walton...