People v. Mejia-Lenares

• Citation: 38 Cal.Rptr.3d 404,135 Cal.App.4th 1437
• Decision Date: 26 January 2006
• Docket Number: No. F045355.,F045355.
• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Jose Luis MEJIA-LENARES, Defendant and Appellant.

38 Cal.Rptr.3d 404

135 Cal.App.4th 1437

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Jose Luis MEJIA-LENARES, Defendant and Appellant.

No. F045355.

Court of Appeal, Fifth District, California.

January 26, 2006.

Certified for Partial Publication.^*

Janet J. Gray, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Mary Jo Graves, Assistant Attorney General, Clayton S. Tanaka and Paul A. Bernardino, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

ARDAIZ, P.J.

INTRODUCTION

On April 21, 2003, an information was filed in Kern County Superior Court, charging appellant Jose Luis Mejia-Lenares with murder involving the use of a knife. (Pen.Code,¹ §§ 187, subd. (a), 12022, subd. (b)(1).) A jury subsequently acquitted him of first degree murder, but convicted him of second degree murder and found the knife use allegation to be true. The jury further found him to have been sane at the time he committed the offense. He was sentenced to prison for 15 years to life, enhanced by one year for the knife use, and filed a timely notice of appeal.

In the published portion of this opinion, we hold that so-called imperfect self-defense cannot be based on delusion alone; hence, the trial court did not err in rejecting appellant's requested modification of CALJIC No. 8.73.1. In the unpublished portion of the opinion, we reject appellant's claims of evidentiary error. Accordingly, for the reasons which follow, we affirm the judgment.

FACTS^**

DISCUSSION

I IMPERFECT SELF-DEFENSE BASED ON DELUSION

As described at length in the statement of facts, ante, appellant presented evidence that he fatally stabbed Howard out of fear that Howard was transforming into the devil and wanted to kill him. Appellant conceded that he just imagined Howard was turning into the devil, but presented evidence that he was diagnosed near the time of the homicide as suffering from major depression with psychotic features, including delusions.

The trial court instructed the jury on first and second degree murder, as well as manslaughter based on sudden quarrel or heat of passion, or on the actual but unreasonable belief in the need to defend oneself against imminent peril to life or great bodily injury. The court also instructed in the language of CALJIC No. 8.73.1 (evidence of hallucination may be considered in determining degree of murder), to wit: "A hallucination is a perception that has no objective reality. If the evidence establishes that the perpetrator of an unlawful killing suffered from a hallucination which contributed as a cause of the homicide, you should consider that evidence solely on the issue of whether the perpetrator killed with or without deliberation and premeditation." Based on this court's opinion in People v. Padilla (2002) 103 Cal.App.4th 675, 126 Cal.Rptr.2d 889 (Padilla), the trial court refused appellant's requested modification, which would have instructed jurors also to consider evidence of hallucination on the issue of whether the perpetrator "killed in the actual but unreasonable belief in the necessity to defend oneself against imminent peril to life or great bodily injury."¹²

Appellant now says the evidence was sufficient to permit the jury to find that, although a reasonable person would not have perceived the circumstances as life-threatening, appellant, because of his mental disease, actually but unreasonably believed Howard was threatening his life and so he needed to defend himself by using lethal force. Accordingly, the argument runs, the trial court erred by refusing the requested modification, and this refusal to instruct on appellant's theory of defense violated his state and federal constitutional rights, and constituted prejudicial error because no other instruction explained the relationship between appellant's mental disorder and unreasonable self-defense.

Appellant acknowledges that in Padilla, supra, 103 Cal.App.4th at page 679, 126 Cal.Rptr.2d 889, this court held: "Failing the objective test, [a defendant's] hallucination cannot as a matter of law negate malice so as to mitigate murder to voluntary manslaughter — whether on a `sudden quarrel or heat of passion' theory of statutory voluntary manslaughter [citations] or on a `diminished actuality' theory of nonstatutory voluntary manslaughter [citations]. [Citations.]" (Fns. omitted.) He points out, however, that the opinion dealt solely with manslaughter based on sudden quarrel or heat of passion, as Padilla expressly disavowed a defense of imperfect self-defense both at trial and on appeal. (Id. at p. 678, fn. 3, 126 Cal.Rptr.2d 889.) He urges us to find that Padilla's holding does not apply within the context now before us. As we will explain, we conclude that imperfect self-defense cannot be based on delusion alone.¹³

"California statutes have long separated criminal homicide into two classes, the greater offense of murder and the lesser included offense of manslaughter. The distinguishing feature is that murder includes, but manslaughter lacks, the element of malice. [Citations.] [¶] Malice exists, if at all, only when an unlawful homicide was committed with the `intention unlawfully to take away the life of a fellow creature' [citation], or with awareness of the danger and a conscious disregard for life [citations]." (People v. Rios (2000) 23 Cal.4th 450, 460, 97 Cal.Rptr.2d 512, 2 P.3d 1066, fn. omitted.)

"Under the doctrine of imperfect self-defense, when the trier of fact finds that a defendant killed another person because the defendant actually, but unreasonably, believed he was in imminent danger of death or great bodily injury, the defendant is deemed to have acted without malice and thus can be convicted of no crime greater than voluntary manslaughter." (In re Christian S. (1994) 7 Cal.4th 768, 771, 30 Cal.Rptr.2d 33, 872 P.2d 574 (Christian S.); see, e.g., People v. Flannel (1979) 25 Cal.3d 668, 674, 160 Cal.Rptr. 84, 603 P.2d 1 (Flannel); People v. Curtis (1994) 30 Cal.App.4th 1337, 1354, 37 Cal.Rptr.2d 304.) In such a situation, unreasonable or imperfect self-defense is not a true defense, but instead is a shorthand description of one form of voluntary manslaughter, a lesser included offense of murder. (People v. Barton (1995) 12 Cal.4th 186, 200-201, 47 Cal.Rptr.2d 569, 906 P.2d 531.) "Accordingly, when a defendant is charged with murder the trial court's duty to instruct sua sponte ... on unreasonable self-defense is the same as its duty to instruct on any other lesser included offense: this duty arises whenever the evidence is such that a jury could reasonably conclude that the defendant killed the victim in the unreasonable but good faith belief in having to act in self-defense." (Id. at p. 201, 47 Cal.Rptr.2d 569, 906 P.2d 531.) Likewise, "[t]he trial court need not give such instructions on request absent substantial evidence to support them. [Citations.]" (People v. Stitely (2005) 35 Cal.4th 514, 551, 26 Cal.Rptr.3d 1, 108 P.3d 182.)

Even if it does not inspire confidence, a defendant's testimony constitutes substantial evidence. (People v. Webster (1991) 54 Cal.3d 411, 443, 285 Cal.Rptr. 31, 814 P.2d 1273; People v. Melton (1988) 44 Cal.3d 713, 746, 244 Cal.Rptr. 867, 750 P.2d 741.) Accordingly, the trial court here instructed on the theory of imperfect self-defense based on appellant's testimony that he saw Howard with a knife at the beginning of the incident. It is unclear whether appellant was hallucinating in that regard. In any event, appellant admitted throwing a rock at Howard's head at that point, then running to the kitchen and grabbing a knife. Although appellant's testimony was not clear concerning whether he then returned to the bedroom (where the incident started) or whether Howard followed him outside, appellant admitted that Howard no longer had a knife when appellant began stabbing him. Throughout the incident, appellant testified, Howard appeared to be the devil. By the end of events, however, Howard was not doing anything to appellant, but the devil was now in appellant. Appellant stabbed Howard because he was afraid Howard was the devil and wanted to kill him.

From the foregoing, it is clear that the evidence offered in support of appellant's claim of imperfect self-defense as to the killing itself (as opposed merely to the onset of events) showed that his alleged belief in the need to defend himself from imminent peril arose solely from his mental delusion that Howard was transforming into the devil and wanted to kill him. The issue thus presented is whether a belief that one is in danger of imminent harm, founded upon a delusion alone, can support a claim of imperfect self-defense so that the trial court should have given appellant's requested modification of CALJIC No. 8.73.1.

California follows the test of insanity laid down in M'Naghten's Case (1843) 8 Eng.Rep. 718, under which the accused must have been "incapable of knowing or understanding the nature and quality of his or her act and of distinguishing right from wrong at the time of the commission of the offense." (§ 25, subd. (b).)¹⁴ It has long been the rule in California that "insanity may not be used as a basis for extending leniency. It is either a complete defense, or none at all. There is no degree of insanity which may be established to affect the degree of crime." (People v. Cordova (1939) 14 Cal.2d 308, 311, 94 P.2d 40.) Thus, "`there is no degree of insanity sufficient to acquit of murder but not of manslaughter.'" (People v. Phillips (1929) 102 Cal.App. 705, 708, 283 P. 821.)

At least in part to "ameliorate the law governing criminal responsibility" prescribed by the M'Naghten rule (People v. Nicolaus (1967) 65 Cal.2d 866, 877, 56 Cal.Rptr. 635, 423 P.2d 787, disapproved on other grounds in People v. Wetmore (1978) 22 Cal.3d 318, 323-325 & fn. 5, 149 Cal.Rptr. 265, 583 P.2d 1308), two separate and independent,...