People v. Moon

• Decision Date: 18 August 2005
• Docket Number: No. S021054.,S021054.
• Citation: 32 Cal.Rptr.3d 894,117 P.3d 591
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Richard Russell MOON, Defendant and Appellant.

117 P.3d 591

32 Cal.Rptr.3d 894

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v.Richard Russell MOON, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S021054.

Supreme Court of California.

August 18, 2005.

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Lynne S. Coffin and Michael J. Hersek, State Public Defenders, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Barry P. Helft and Craig Buckser, Deputy State Public Defenders, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorney General, John R. Gorey and Jason C. Tran Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

WERDEGAR, J.

A jury in Los Angeles County Superior Court convicted Richard Russell Moon in 1991 of the first degree murders of Rose and Melitta Greig(Pen.Code, § 187; all further statutory references are to this code unless otherwise indicated) and one count of unlawful driving or taking a vehicle (Veh.Code, § 10851, subd. (a)).The jury also sustained special circumstance allegations of multiple murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)) and that defendant had murdered Rose Greig while lying in wait (id.,subd. (a)(15)).In addition, the jury sustained allegations that defendant had personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, to wit, a log, when committing the murders.(§ 12022, subd. (b).)On February 15, 1991, the jury set the penalty at death under the 1978 death penalty law.(§ 190.1 et seq.)This appeal is automatic.(§ 1239, subd. (b).)We affirm.

I.GUILT PHASE

A.Facts

Robert Greig lived in Walnut with his wife, Rose, and his 22-year-old daughter, Melitta.On June 15, 1990, he returned home from work and found no one at home.He did not think this odd because his father-in-law was ill and he assumed his wife was attending to him.After taking a shower, he noticed half a dollar bill in the trash.He decided to put the half bill in a drawer where he kept some money for his business.He normally kept around $100 in the drawer, made up of stacks of 25 $1 bills bound with a paper clip.He also kept no more than $50 in rolled coins in the drawer.He discovered the drawer was empty.He then checked another desk drawer where his wife kept between $20 and $100 in household money, along with a small cache of 50-cent coins; it too was empty.Further investigation revealed that a check from his daughter's checkbook was unaccounted for.

Thinking his daughter might have used the check to buy a plane ticket to San Francisco, he went to the garage to see if her car was missing.He noticed the bumper of his wife's car had dried blood on it; when he opened the trunk, he discovered his daughter's lifeless body inside.After calling 911, he returned to the car and discovered his wife's body was also in the car trunk.Melitta's car, a 1989 silver-gray Volkswagen Cabriolet convertible, was missing.Greig later discovered his wife's checkbook was also missing a check.

Defendant had been Melitta Greig's boyfriend when they were both 17 or 18 years old and during that period had been a frequent visitor to the Greig house.Robert Greig had not seen defendant in more than a year before the murders.

Elsa Linares worked with Rose Greig at St. Martha's Catholic Church.At 12:15 p.m. on the day of the murders, Rose Greig received a short telephone call that made her unhappy.She told Linares she was going home but that she would be back.

Terry de la Paz had been defendant's girlfriend, but by the time of the crimes they were no longer romantically involved.Around 2:00 p.m. on the day of the murders, defendant appeared at her home unannounced and asked her about some tickets to a Phil Collins concert they had discussed.She told him she had already given them away.She noticed he had a cut on his right hand and red spots on his shoes.He drove a gray Volkswagen convertible.

Later that evening, defendant's softball team had a series of playoff games scheduled.When Marcos Urrutia, one of defendant's teammates, arrived at the field around 6:20 p.m., he found defendant already there, warming up.Urrutia did not notice anything different about defendant, but defendant told him he would not be able to play on the team anymore.Dennis Soiffer played for one of the opposing teams that evening.He was defendant's friend and had lent him some equipment that night when defendant said he had been locked out of his apartment.Soiffer noticed a gray Volkswagen Cabriolet convertible without license plates in the parking lot.

Priscilla Candellari had rented defendant an apartment earlier that week but changed the lock on the apartment when defendant failed to pay any rent.The day after the murders, defendant returned to the apartment sometime around midday to retrieve his belongings.

Around 6:50 p.m. the day after the murder, police located Melitta's missing car, parked at a local motel.Both license plates had been removed, but police confirmed it was her automobile by checking the vehicle identification number.Defendant was registered at the motel but was not present.Police searched his motel room and found a gym bag with rolls of coins, stacks of 25 $1 bills bound with paper clips, nine or 10 half-dollar coins, and the two missing checks.One check was made out to defendant for $1,000 and purportedly signed by Melitta Greig; the memo line of the check said "loan pay back."Defendant later admitted he had forged the check.

That evening around 8:30 or 9:00, defendant called a former girlfriend, Cameron Wood, and asked her to pick him up in front of a local grocery store.She agreed.Once in the car, defendant told her he needed to go to Seattle, Washington, to help his father, who was in trouble with the police.She agreed to loan him some money and drive him to the Fullerton Amtrak station.Finding the train to Seattle booked, she bought him a train ticket to Union Station in Los Angeles, where he could transfer to a bus that would take him as far as Bakersfield or Fresno.When Wood returned home, she learned that police had been in contact with her mother and were looking for defendant.She told the police defendant would be waiting for a bus at Union Station.Police arrested defendant there.He had purchased two books to read on his trip; their titles were Thou Shalt Not Kill and Dial M for Murder.

Police searched the Greig's garage and found a log with blood on it.Another bloody log was found in the car trunk with the victims.In addition, police found a ball peen hammer that was determined to have been used by the killer.Defendant's fingerprints were on the rear of the car in which the bodies were found.

The medical examiner determined Melitta Greig died from multiple head and neck injuries.She had a two-and-one-half-inch laceration to her head, and her face had been crushed by a log.Her wounds were also consistent with having been struck several times with the ball peen hammer.Rose Greig bore similar wounds; in addition, she had been strangled.The injuries to her neck indicated she was strangled by the application of a board or other rigid object being pressed on her neck with great force.

The parties stipulated that defendant had recently attempted to buy a car from a dealer, but his check had been dishonored for insufficient funds.In addition, in June or July, 1989, defendant had borrowed $5,000 from Mary Giordano, Rose Greig's mother and Melitta Greig's grandmother, because a bank had attempted to repossess his car.He had repaid only $200 of the loan and had given Giordano a check that was dishonored for insufficient funds.Nevertheless, defendant often visited Giordano, even after he broke up with her granddaughter, Melitta.In fact, defendant had dinner in her home the night before the murders.

Defendant confessed to the police that he had killed both victims, and a tape recording of his confession was played for the jury.He also testified at trial and admitted the killings.He said he loved Melitta, but she did not want to be his girlfriend.He went to her house on June 15, 1990, in order to borrow a biology book to use for a class.His knocking woke her up; she pointed him to a bookcase and went back upstairs to sleep.When he could not find the book, he waited in the house and watched television until she woke again.It was during this time that he stole the money and the checks.He had not been intending to steal when he first came to the house.When Melitta came back downstairs sometime later and he told her he could not find the book, she said she probably had sold it.When she noticed he had stolen the money, she became angry.He left the house but returned a few minutes later, entering the unlocked door without knocking.Melitta, still angry, called him a "lying cheat," and said that he would "never amount to anything" and that she had called her mother"and she's on the way home."Defendant pushed her to get her attention, but she fell down the stairs.She appeared to be going in and out of consciousness.He then choked her with his hands, though he did not know why he did so.He hit her with the log but did not recall hitting her with the hammer.

Defendant then heard Melitta's mother arrive.He stayed down in the garage while Rose Greig went upstairs to the bedrooms, calling her daughter's name.Defendant went up to the living room while Rose came down to the kitchen.When he met her at the top of the stairs, she asked him what had happened.Instead of responding, he pushed her down the stairs.He then choked her but denied hitting her with the log or the hammer.He could not explain the wounds on her body that were consistent with having been struck with the log and the hammer.

After the murders, defendant went to Terry de la Paz's house to ask her about the concert tickets.He was going to talk to her about what had happened but changed his mind.He checked into the motel in the afternoon and played in the softball games...