People v. Price

• Decision Date: 30 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. A104440.,No. A101668.,A101668.,A104440.
• Citation: People v. Price, 15 Cal.Rptr.3d 229, 120 Cal.App.4th 224 (Cal. App. 2004)
• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Steven Lloyd PRICE, Defendant and Appellant.

15 Cal.Rptr.3d 229

120 Cal.App.4th 224

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Steven Lloyd PRICE, Defendant and Appellant.

No. A101668.

No. A104440.

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 4.

June 30, 2004.

Certified for Partial Publication.^*

Review Denied October 13, 2004.

Richard J. Krech, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, Oakland, for appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Assistant Attorney General, Christina Vom Saal, and Gregg E. Zywicke, Deputy Attorneys General, for respondent.

REARDON, J.

A jury convicted appellant Steven Price of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse and assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury. (Pen.Code,¹ §§ 245, subd. (a)(1), 273.5, subds. (a), (e).) He was given a suspended prison sentence and was granted probation for a term of five years. (Case No. A101668.)² Within a year, his probation was revoked and he was sentenced to three years in state prison. (Case No. A104440.)³ In this consolidated appeal, Steven contends that (1) the admission of a hearsay statement made by his spouse to a police officer violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him; (2) his trial counsel's failure to object to a second hearsay statement made by his spouse to another police officer constituted ineffective assistance of counsel; (3) the admission of expert testimony regarding strangulation as a possible cause of death was improper and prejudicial; and (4) the admission of evidence of a prior incident of domestic violence denied him due process. For their part, the People challenge (5) the sentence imposed as legally unauthorized. We reverse and remand for resentencing, but otherwise affirm the judgments.

I. FACTS

A. The Incident

On July 21, 2002, Antioch police received a 911 call from a local residence. Shortly before 6:00 a.m., Antioch Police Officer Santiago Martinez went there to investigate. He knocked several times and had his dispatcher place a call inside the home. Three or four minutes after his arrival, Jamilah Price opened the door. She was breathing hard, kept cracking her knuckles and spoke in a very low voice. Jamilah⁴ had a small cut over her right eye and two long scratches on one side of her neck. The scratches were as long as three inches running from back to front; the skin was pink and red as if the layer above had been scratched off. She also had a very small bloodstain on the collar of her shirt. Jamilah seemed to have been crying; she also seemed nervous and very frightened.

Officer Martinez assumed from these circumstances that something was wrong — that Jamilah was the victim of domestic violence. He told her that the police had received a 911 call. Having observed her demeanor, he asked if she was okay. He asked if she wanted medical treatment, but she declined. Jamilah told him that everything was okay and denied calling 911. He did not believe that nothing was wrong. Officer Martinez asked if she was alone and she said that she was there with her two children; she told Officer Martinez that she did not need him. She allowed him to enter the home to determine whether the two children were okay. As he walked around the house, he noticed that Jamilah seemed to be placing her body in a manner that blocked him from some areas of the house. She still spoke in a low voice and still seemed very frightened, although she kept repeating that everything was okay.

Officer Martinez found the children in bed. One child feigned being asleep, raising a suspicion that something was not right. The covers on the bed were draped down and when Officer Martinez looked under the bed, he found appellant Steven Price hiding there. He was lying close to the wall on his stomach. Two or three times, Officer Martinez asked him to come out from under the bed, but Steven acted as if he could not hear or did not know the officer addressed him. Steven did not come out from under the bed; Officer Martinez and another officer had to pull him out.

Steven was uncooperative, struggling a little with police. He repeatedly said "I didn't do nothing" and told police to leave him alone. The officers took Steven outside and handcuffed him. Walking behind him, Officer Martinez noticed that a palm-sized part of the back of Steven's shirt was soaked with fresh blood. On further investigation, the officers learned that he had a one-inch wide puncture wound in his back. An ambulance was summoned and Steven was taken to a hospital. Jamilah was also offered medical attention again, but she again refused.

About 30 minutes after police arrived at the Price residence, Jamilah gave a statement to Officer Martinez about what had happened. She had been upset with Steven for borrowing her car and failing to return it until three days later. During his absence, she had poured bleach into his fish tank, killing his fish. When he returned home, he was very upset about this. They began to argue and Jamilah went into their bedroom to get out of earshot of her children.

Jamilah told police that Steven followed her into the bedroom and pushed her onto the bed.⁵ Seeing a taser nearby, she grabbed for it, but Steven slapped it out of her hands. He then slapped her, straddled her, pinned her down and — placing two hands around her throat — began strangling her. Jamilah feared she would lose consciousness. Spying a knife on the nightstand, she took it and began swinging and stabbing at Steven in an attempt to get him off of her. He continued choking her and then stopped, apparently out of breath. Officer Martinez collected a taser and two small knives from the bedroom as evidence.

B. Pretrial Matters

In October 2002, Steven Price was by information charged with inflicting corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition to his spouse Jamilah, who was the mother of his children. The information alleged a prior misdemeanor conviction for the same offense. It also charged Steven with assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury. (See §§ 245, subd. (a)(1), 273.5, subds. (a), (e).) Steven pled not guilty to these charges.

Before trial, the trial court ruled that it would permit the prosecution to offer character evidence of a 2001 incident of domestic violence that led to a guilty plea and misdemeanor conviction for inflicting corporal injury on a spouse. (See Evid.Code, § 1109.) Outside the presence of the jury, Steven admitted the prior conviction. (See § 273.5, subd. (e)(1).) The charge that was read to the jury at the start of trial did not include any mention of the prior conviction.

C. Trial Evidence of the July 2002 Incident

Jamilah did not want Steven prosecuted. When she was called to testify for the People at trial, she declined to answer most substantive questions relating to the July 2002 incident. She admitted that on July 21, 2002, she was living with Steven and her two children in the Antioch home. That night, she was upset with Steven because he had been gone for several days. She refused to talk about what happened after he returned home that morning.

Outside of the presence of the jury, Jamilah's counsel informed the trial court that she would decline to answer further questions on Fifth Amendment grounds. Even if she were offered immunity from prosecution or were held in contempt, Jamilah would decline to answer these questions. The People sought to have her declared to be an unavailable witness. (See Evid.Code, § 240.) Jamilah was not questioned further about the July 2002 incident.

Officer Martinez testified about the events of July 2002 — what he observed and what Jamilah told him at their home on the night of the incident. The jury saw a photograph of Steven's back injury, but no photographs were taken of Jamilah. A doctor later described Steven's wound as a two and one-half inch deep laceration requiring two stitches.

Antioch Police Officer Matt Ernst also testified about statements that Jamilah made to him on July 22, 2002. He told the jury that he telephoned her the day after the incident to clarify some information she gave to Officer Martinez on July 21. When Ernst reviewed the statement that Jamilah gave to Martinez, she told him that Steven had pinned her down on the bed with his body, had held her down and had choked her with both hands. Fearing that he would choke her until she was unconscious, she grabbed a nearby knife and flailed at him with it in order to get him to release her. She stabbed him, although she told Ernst that she did not intend to do so. She did not want him to be arrested or prosecuted — she later sent a letter saying as much. On the telephone, Ernst offered her information about obtaining a restraining order, but Jamilah did not want one.

D. Evidence of Prior Domestic Violence

Jamilah testified about a domestic violence incident that occurred on January 11, 2001. She returned home after work, having asked Steven to leave their home. She was angry to discover that he was still there. They argued and fought. Jamilah grabbed a fingernail file. At some point, she was pushed down onto the ground. She did not recall whether Steven held her on the ground by her throat or whether she hit her head. Jamilah did not remember any more until the police and an ambulance were at the house. She had suffered a head injury, which was bleeding.⁶ She did not remember telling police that Steven had grabbed her by the throat or that he slammed her head against a speaker box. The police may have given her information about obtaining a restraining order, but she did not ask for one. She did not remember telling a hospital nurse that she tripped and fell. She denied being afraid of Steven and told the jury that she did not want him arrested or prosecuted — she just wanted him to leave.

Jamilah's mother — Jacqueline Thomas — also told the jury about the January 2001 incident. On that day, she drove her daughter home after work. Steven and their two...