People v. Miller

Citation78 Cal.Rptr. 449,71 Cal.2d 459,455 P.2d 377
Decision Date26 June 1969
Docket NumberCr. 11998
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court (California)
Parties, 455 P.2d 377 The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Willie Curtis MILLER, Defendant and Appellant.

Lloyd H. Riley, Sacramento, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for defendant and appellant.

Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen., Edsel W. Haws and John Fourt, Deputy Attys. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.

McCOMB, Justice.

A jury found defendant guilty of first degree murder and fixed the penalty at death. This appeal is automatic (Pen.Code, § 1239, subd. (b)).

Facts: About 9:30 Saturday morning, August 12, 1967, defendant, 40 years of age, called at the home of Mrs. Betty Abron. He was drinking a can of 'Colt 45' stout malt and carried a paper sack containing two additional unopened cans of 'Colt 45' stout malt. About 30 minutes after his arrival, he told Mrs. Abron that he would go to the grocery store to get some soda pop for her five children. Jeannine Abron, aged 8, received her mother's consent to accompany defendant to the store. In response to Mrs. Abron's inquiry, defendant said he would bring Jeannine right back. Jeannine collected some empty pop bottles, climbed into the front passenger seat of defendant's 1954 Ford station wagon, and rode away with him about 10 a.m. This was the last time Mrs. Abron saw Jeannine alive. She was wearing a red turtle-neck sweater, white underpants without rips or holes, and blue bermuda shorts, slightly split along the outside seams at the hemline. Her nude, partially decomposed body was found about 7 a.m. the following Wednesday, face down in the shallow water of Dry Creek, at a point adjacent to the intersection of Elkhorn Boulevard and 10th Street in Sacramento, approximately four miles from her home. The head was under the water, and the heels nearly touching the bank of the creek. The body was in a semi-kneeling position, with the legs drawn up. The back and buttocks were out of the water. The arms were in the water, elbows bent. Two branches approximately 13 feet long with considerable foliage and leafy material had been chopped down and placed in a tree above the body, tending to obscure it from observation by light planes taking off and landing on an adjacent north-south airfield runway.

Jeannine's red sweater was hanging in the branches of a tree approximately 15 feet south of the body. Also hanging on a branch below the sweater were her blue bermuda shorts, completely torn across the crotch and along the sides of the legs. Submerged in the water under the shorts were her panties, torn at the crotch. On the bank of Dry Creek above the body there was a matted area of grass, oval in shape, about 6 10 feet in area. Within the trampled grass area an unsmoked Capital's Palma cigar in cellophane wrapping and a 'Ballerina' brand ballpoint pen were found. An empty 'Colt 45' unrusted one-pint can was found in the nearby grass.

Before the body was recovered defendant was arrested on suspicion of murder, and pursuant to a search warrant, his station wagon was towed to the Sacramento County morgue and searched. Two Capital's Palma brand cigars in cellophane wrappings were on the front seat. Defendant had previously purchased Capital's Palma cigars and had four or five of them in his station wagon on Saturday, August 12, 1967. The police also seized a shirt belonging to defendant, which shirt defendant identified as one he had worn on Saturday morning. The shirt pocket was stained with ink. A chemical examination of the ink stain and the ink in the ballpoint pen found near Jeannine's body showed that both inks were of the same type.

An autopsy was performed by a physician and surgeon specializing in pathology on Wednesday afternoon, August 16, about 54 hours after Jeannine was last seen alive. The body was in a bad state of decomposition. In the physician's opinion, the swelling of the body, the discoloration of the skin, and the distortion of the features were due to degenerative processes occurring after death. The left vulva (an area on the left side of the genitalia, outside the body of a female) was more swollen than the right vulva and was discolored differently from the surrounding tissues. These conditions led the pathologist to believe that injury or abrasion had occurred to the left vulva. Because of the decomposition, he was unable to reach a definite medical opinion as to the cause of death, which he estimated to have occurred on the previous Saturday or Sunday.

Mrs. Lillian Hayer, who resided on 'G' Street in a southeasterly direction across the Rio Linda High School athletic field from the place where Jeannine's body was found, testified that sometime between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m. on Saturday she observed that an old two-toned station wagon had been driven into the shrubbery along the bank of Dry Creek. The station wagon was identified by Mrs. Hayer as 'the same one' as the station wagon pictured in photographic exhibits of defendant's car. She marked the place the station wagon had been parked on an enlarged aerial photograph of the scene. This same place was identified by two prosecution witnesses as the spot where they discovered Jeannine's body. Mrs. Hayer's son also observed a light colored 1954 or 1955 Ford station wagon parked at that point on Dry Creek at approximately noon on Saturday. Mrs. Hayer observed the station wagon leaving the area some time prior to 1:10 p.m. Saturday, driven by a 'dark-complected' man.

Mr. Royden E. Hayer (Lillian Hayer's husband) who operated an airport adjacent to the Hayer residence on 'G' Street, was working in a building at the airport when he heard a shrill cry, like a child's frightened scream, about 11:15 a.m. on Saturday. He went outside to see if he could locate the source of the scream. He looked around but was unable to see anyone and returned to his work.

At noon on Saturday, Jerry Leikauf was working on a friend's car parked on 10th Street easterly across the Rio Linda High School athletic field from the point in Dry Creek where the body of the victim was discovered. He observed a Ford station wagon of the same make and model as defendant's parked near Dry Creek across the athletic field. Between 12:30 and 1 o'clock Saturday afternoon, he saw the station wagon leave the area, driven by a Negro with dark complexion.

Shortly after 11:15 Saturday night, Jeannine's mother located defendant asleep in his station wagon parked in front of his apartment about four or five blocks from the Abron residence. She asked defendant if he knew where Jeannine was and he answered, 'I left her standing on your front porch.' Mrs. Abron replied, 'No, you didn't.' Defendant said, 'When I left your house, she was standing on your front porch.' Mrs. Abron told him that her neighbors had seen defendant leave the Abron residence with Jeannine, to which he replied, 'Well, I'm going to talk to them,' and drove off.

About 2:10 Sunday morning, Sacramento police officers met Mrs. Abron in front of defendant's apartment and asked defendant if he knew where Jeannine was. He answered that he didn't know where she was and said she hadn't left with him in his car. He said that the last time he had seen her she had been standing on the Abron porch. He denied that he had been at the Abron residence on Saturday morning, said he had visited another house on the same street and had seen Jeannine playing with other children around his station wagon, but she had not been in his car that morning. In the presence of the officers, Mrs. Abron began arguing with defendant, who said he was sorry that anything had happened to the little girl, but that he hadn't seen her.

At the trial, defendant told a different story. He testified that on the Saturday morning in question he had driven Jeannine in his 1954 Ford station wagon from the Abron house to the Safeway market parking lot about four or five blocks from the Abron residence. Jeannine was last seen by defendant, according to his testimony, as she walked toward the front entrance to the Safeway store. He stated that Jeannine was left at the parking lot because it never occurred to him that she didn't know her way back home. He denied having any conversation with Mrs. Abron about his going to the store to buy soda pop for the Abron children. His testimony was that he agreed to drop Jeannine off at the store; that nothing was said to him about bringing her home; and that he did not agree to do so.

Defendant identified a number of the People's exhibits as photographs of the 1954 Ford station wagon, California license DQK 765, owned by him in August 1967. The station wagon is painted in two colors. The area above the rain gutter, and below the mid-body chrome strip, is painted a blue-green color; the area above the mid-body chrome strip and below the rain gutter is painted white.

Prior to moving to Sacramento in May 1967, defendant had lived in Bakersfield after his release from prison, and at the penalty trial the prosecution introduced evidence of an offense committed there. Felicia Nunley, 13 years of age, testified that on Sunday morning April 2, 1967, when she was home with her brother and sisters while her mother was at work, she saw defendant, known to her as Willie Curtis, talking with her grandmother, who lived across the street. After her grandmother drove away in her car, defendant started walking away from the house until her grandmother's car turned the corner. He then came back to the Nunley residence and told Felicia he had left a pocket novel there. She said she didn't know where it was and offered to telephone her mother for the information. Defendant answered, 'No, that's all right, I'll call her.' He then asked permission to use the bathroom. In the meantime Felicia prepared her breakfast and took it into her mother's bedroom to watch television. Defendant entered the bedroom and asked Felicia if she was afraid of him. He put...

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