People v. Ramirez

• Decision Date: 14 June 1990
• Docket Number: No. S004698,No. 24738,S004698,24738
• Citation: 50 Cal.3d 1158,270 Cal.Rptr. 286,791 P.2d 965
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 791 P.2d 965 The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Richard Raymond RAMIREZ, Defendant and Appellant. Crim.

Page 286

270 Cal.Rptr. 286

50 Cal.3d 1158, 791 P.2d 965

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Richard Raymond RAMIREZ, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S004698.

Crim. No. 24738.

Supreme Court of California.

June 14, 1990.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 29, 1990.

[791 P.2d 970] [50 Cal.3d 1166] Barry L. Morris, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Oakland, for defendant and appellant.

John K. Van de Kamp, Atty. Gen., Steve White, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen., Harley D. Mayfield, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jay M. Bloom and William A. Wood, Deputy Attys. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.

BROUSSARD, Associate Justice.

Defendant Richard Raymond Ramirez appeals from a judgment of death imposed under the 1978 death penalty law. (Pen.Code, § 190.1 et seq.) ¹ At the initial phase of the trial proceedings, the jury found defendant guilty of first degree murder (§ 189), rape (§ 261), and sodomy (§ 286), and also found true two special circumstances, a rape-murder special circumstance (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(iii)), and a sodomy-murder special circumstance (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(iv)). At the first penalty phase trial, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict and a mistrial was declared. At the second penalty phase trial, the jury returned a sentence of death, and the trial court denied defendant's application to modify the verdict and entered judgment in accordance with the jury's verdict. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).)

I. FACTS

A. GUILT AND SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCE PHASE (1) Prosecution Case

Shortly before 6 a.m. on Monday, November 21, 1983, a local resident discovered the body of Kimberly Gonzalez (Kim) in a narrow walkway located a short distance from the rear parking lot of a bar, Mr. Barry's, in the city of Garden Grove in Orange County. When the body was found, the victim's pants were pulled down around her ankles and her panties were pulled down to her knees; subsequent medical tests found traces of semen in the victim's vaginal and anal areas. A total of 19 stab wounds were found on the victim's hands, forearm, forehead, chin, shoulders and neck; a pathologist testified that a wound to the back of Kim's neck, which severed her spinal cord, was the probable cause of death.

Much of the evidence concerning the events preceding Kim's death was not in dispute. Kim, who was 22 years old at the time of her death, worked as a teller for Bank of America and lived in the City of Norwalk in Los Angeles County with her sister Yvette and Yvette's family. She had relatives who lived in Orange County, however, and she and her good friend, Ramona Sanchez, often went to two bars in Orange County to socialize. Ramona testified that on Saturdays the two often went to a bar named Smitty's, and that on Sundays they usually went to Mr. Barry's; Ramona said that she and Kim went to these places because both bars had dancing, she and Kim knew the regular customers at each locale and they had never had any problems at either place.

On November 19, 1983, the Saturday before her death, Kim mentioned to Ramona that she (Kim) wanted to go to Mr. Barry's on Sunday evening. Ramona told Kim that she already had other plans and could not go with her. Although Ramona testified that she had never known Kim to go to a bar by herself, on this occasion Kim decided to go alone.

On Sunday evening, November 20, Kim borrowed her father's truck from another sister, Paulette, and arrived at Mr. Barry's between 8 and 9 p.m. She parked the truck in a well-lit parking lot in front of a donut shop located in the same shopping center as Mr. Barry's; Ramona testified that she and Kim never parked in the lot behind Mr. Barry's because it was too dark. On her arrival at Mr. Barry's, Kim talked to Pauleno Aldano, a regular customer, who bought Kim a drink; Kim then talked to Phil Palomino, the bar's bouncer, and played a game of pool with him.

In the early part of that same evening, defendant spent a few hours with a small group of friends and relatives at a bar known as My Place. At around 10 or 11 p.m., the group left My Place and went to Mr. Barry's. Defendant drove in his own car, which he parked in the front parking area of Mr. Barry's. On his arrival, defendant's brother Daniel bought defendant a beer--a Budweiser, served in a long-necked bar bottle.

A number of witnesses testified that Daniel and defendant had met Kim and Ramona at Mr. Barry's a week or two before November 20. On that earlier occasion, Kim and Ramona had been playing pool when Daniel and defendant approached them, struck up a brief conversation and then left shortly thereafter. On November 20, Kim and defendant met again at Mr. Barry's, and a number of patrons observed the two talking, drinking, dancing and briefly kissing in the bar. Several witnesses testified that Kim had quite a bit to drink during the evening, although there was a dispute in the evidence over whether she had been "cut off" from additional drinks or had just been cautioned by a bouncer.

By 1 a.m., a number of patrons had left Mr. Barry's but defendant and Kim were still together in the bar, sitting at a table near the jukebox that was close to the rear door. Shortly after 1 a.m., defendant and Kim left the bar by the rear door, which led to a rear parking lot. As he was leaving, defendant was seen carrying a long-necked bottle of Budweiser beer. Neither defendant nor Kim returned to the bar.

One end of the walkway in which Kim's body was found the next morning is located across from the rear parking area of Mr. Barry's. The remaining patrons in Mr. Barry's left the bar when it closed at 2 a.m. By that time, defendant's car--which had been parked in front of Mr. Barry's--was gone. The bartender testified that she did not notice anything unusual when she left by the rear door about 2:20 or 2:30 a.m.

There were no eyewitnesses to the crime, but from the location of the stab wounds on Kim's hands and the displaced shrubbery in the vicinity of the body, the prosecution theorized that Kim had attempted to defend herself from her knife-wielding assailant but had been overpowered, thrown to the ground, raped, sodomized and then killed through repeated stabbings. An employee of the coroner's office estimated the time of death as 3 a.m., plus or minus one or perhaps two hours; laboratory tests placed Kim's blood-alcohol level at the time of death at approximately .17 percent.

According to the prosecution, aside from the fact that defendant was the last person seen with Kim as they left the bar's rear door, the key piece of evidence tying defendant to the killing was a long-necked Budweiser beer bottle, with defendant's fingerprints, found by the police in the walkway, about 30 feet from Kim's body. The expert witness who examined the bottle testified that she was able to positively identify two of the ten fingerprints found on the bottle as defendant's, and that the remaining prints were consistent with defendant's fingerprints but were not clear enough to identify positively; she also testified that none of the prints found on the bottle matched the fingerprints of the victim.

The prosecution also presented several expert witnesses who testified (1) that defendant, a "non-secreter," fell within the 60 percent of the male population who could have produced the semen found on the victim, and (2) that the poncho which defendant wore on the night of the killing contained several small spots that appeared to be blood, but could not be identified as of a particular blood type or even as human blood. On cross-examination, the witnesses acknowledged that no pubic hairs consistent with defendant's pubic hairs were found on the victim, no fibers from defendant's clothes were found under the victim's fingernails or on her clothing, and that no evidence of blood was found in defendant's car.

(2) Defense Case

Defendant testified in his own defense and, with respect to the preliminary events, gave a similar account to that described by the prosecution witnesses. He acknowledged that on the night in question he went to Mr. Barry's with a group of relatives and friends. He testified that sometime after he arrived at the bar, Kim approached him and asked if he wanted to dance; he stated that she seemed to be a little high at that time. They danced for a few minutes, talked for a while, and then danced again for several minutes; while they were dancing the second time, he kissed her. They sat down at a table and talked and kissed a few more times. He stated that at one point he had tried to give Kim some money to buy a drink for her, but she told him that she had been cut off by one of the bouncers and that he would have to get it for her. He estimated that the two sat together at a table in the rear of the bar for forty-five minutes to an hour.

Defendant testified that about 10 minutes before he left the bar he told Kim that he would soon be leaving, and that she offered to walk him out. According to defendant, they went out the back door rather than the front because, after he turned around to tell his sister he was leaving, Kim was already heading out the back door and he simply followed her; he stated that, as far as he was concerned, when they left the bar he was not interested in pursuing any further sexual activity with Kim.

Defendant testified that when they got outside they kissed again briefly and then walked around the building to his car in the front parking lot of the bar. Defendant stated that he was carrying a bottle of beer at the time, and that he was feeling "kind of drunk" when he got to his car and gave the bottle, which was still about half full, to Kim. He said when he last saw Kim she was walking back towards the front door of the bar. He denied entering the walkway in which Kim's body was found and denied sexually assaulting or killing Kim.

Defendant testified that he drove directly from Mr. Barry's to the home of his girlfriend, Norma Avila, who was pregnant with his baby. Defendant...