People v. Roberts
| Decision Date | 20 August 2021 |
| Docket Number | C081843 |
| Citation | 283 Cal.Rptr.3d 357,68 Cal.App.5th 64 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Ryan Douglas ROBERTS, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Certified for Partial Publication.*
Patricia J. Ulibarri, San Diego, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Kamala D. Harris and Xavier Becerra, Attorneys General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Julie A. Hokans, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Clara M. Levers, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Thirteen-year-old Jessica F.-H. was brutally murdered in a Sacramento County park. Her murder went unsolved until defendant's DNA was linked to her belt buckle and cigarette butts found at the scene. Defendant's DNA had been collected after an unrelated felony arrest more than a year after Jessica's murder. Although that arrest was supported by probable cause, he was not formally charged in that matter. Based primarily on the DNA evidence, a jury found defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. The jury also found true an enhancement allegation that defendant personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a knife. Defendant was sentenced to an aggregate term of 26 years to life.
In this case, we address the issue of whether using a DNA sample taken from a defendant who is validly arrested for a felony on probable cause but never formally charged, violates the defendant's federal or state constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure or his state constitutional right to privacy. In the published portion of this opinion, we conclude defendant's federal right protecting him against unreasonable search and seizure was not violated. Like the United State Supreme Court, we see this situation as no different than taking fingerprints and photographs of someone arrested on probable cause. And like fingerprints and photographs, once validly obtained, the later use of that evidence in the investigation of another crime is not constitutionally prohibited. We further hold that defendant's state constitutional rights were not violated, but even if they were, the Truth-in-Evidence provision of Proposition 8 prohibits suppression of the DNA evidence in a criminal trial.
In addition to (1) defendant's search and seizure and privacy claims concerning the DNA evidence, defendant also asserts (2) the trial court prejudicially erred in restricting the scope of his gang expert's testimony; (3) the trial court prejudicially erred in precluding the defense from presenting certain demonstrative evidence; (4) the trial court denied defendant due process by refusing to give his proposed pinpoint jury instruction on third party culpability; (5) the cumulative effect of the trial court's errors warrants reversal; (6) the trial court erred in denying defendant's motion for a new trial premised on newly discovered evidence; and (7) the trial court erred in concluding a juror did not commit prejudicial misconduct related to statements made on Twitter during the trial. As to the last claim, defendant requests that we perform an independent in camera review of the juror's Twitter account records, which we have done.
We affirm.
Jessica1 lived with her mother and her maternal grandmother. She attended a school, which was adjacent to Rosemont Community Park (the park) where she was killed.
On Monday, March 5, 2012, Jessica and her mother got into an argument and, at approximately 5:45 or 6:00 p.m., Jessica left the apartment. She took a pack of Camel cigarettes with her. Later, at 6:29 p.m., Jessica is seen in a surveillance video, walking near the west side of the park, smoking a cigarette.
At approximately 6:00 p.m., a little league team finished practice at the park and the coach locked the dugouts by placing a chain and lock on the dugout entrances. He did not remember seeing anyone else at the park when he left other than his assistant coach and that coach's son.
On that same evening, defendant met up at the park with his friend, J.M. and J.M.’s son and daughter, eleven-year-old M.K. and nine-year-old M.A. According to M.K., defendant arrived at the park on his skateboard.2 While at the park, J.M. and defendant smoked cigarettes defendant furnished, Marlboro Smooth menthols.
J.M., M.K. and M.A. all remembered seeing Jessica, whom they did not know, in the park. J.M. first observed Jessica sitting alone at a picnic table smoking. He then saw her go to the swings. M.K. and M.A. saw Jessica on the swings, alone, smoking a cigarette. M.A. remembered defendant sitting on a swing talking to Jessica for approximately 10 minutes. J.M. testified that, at one point, he asked Jessica what she was doing there, because it was getting late. According to J.M., Jessica responded that she did not feel like going home yet.
Before leaving the park, J.M. asked Jessica if she was sure she was okay and/or encouraged her to go home because it was getting late. Jessica responded that she would be fine and that she just had an argument with her mother and was not ready to go home yet. J.M. told Jessica to be safe and he and his kids left. According to M.A., they left at 7:00 or 8:00 p.m.; according to J.M., they left when it was getting dark. Defendant left at the same time, but by a different route. Jessica remained on the swings, alone.
During the evening, a nearby resident was outside of her house when she heard the sound of a girl screaming in the park. She characterized the scream as different from the sounds she would typically hear coming from the park, because it "was just a lone scream" rather than screaming accompanied by laughter or other screams. After the scream, she heard what sounded like two male voices coming from the area of the baseball diamond. The resident testified that three or four minutes later, she heard "a car take off from the park ... just screaming down the street really, really fast." When asked if she recalled telling officers that she heard the scream between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m., she responded, "[t]hat sounds right."
Another resident testified that, between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m., she heard "a bad scream" that "sounded really bad, like from a horror movie." The scream came from an area of the park near a baseball diamond. She had heard screams coming from the park before, "but not like that."
On the following morning, Tuesday, March 6, 2012, a woman went to the park to collect bottles and cans. She looked into a dugout at one of the baseball fields and saw what she initially thought to be a person sleeping. After taking another look, she realized "the person didn't look like they were alive" because the person "was kind of blue." She called 911.
Kenneth Clark, a Sheriff's detective who responded to the scene, observed Jessica's lifeless body in the dugout. Clark observed a number of Camel cigarette butts on the ground in the area of the dugout, which were consistent with a Camel cigarette package he observed near Jessica.
The day after they were in the park with defendant and saw Jessica, M.K. heard J.M. talking on the phone to defendant. J.M. said to defendant, "That girl from last night, she is on the news." Defendant came over later in the day.
While at J.M.’s residence, J.M. and defendant watched a news story reporting the discovery of Jessica's body in the park. J.M. was shocked and found himself wishing he had done more to encourage her to leave. He testified defendant was just as shocked. But defendant did not mention returning to the park or that he went to the dugout area that night.
Salvador C. was also friends with defendant. Salvador heard a news report about a girl's body having been found in the park. He called J.M. and told him about the report. J.M. and defendant later went to Salvador's apartment. Both J.M. and defendant indicated they had been at the park the prior night with J.M.’s kids and that they had met Jessica. They both discussed the substance of the brief exchanges they had with her. Both J.M. and defendant said they then left the park and went to their respective homes. Defendant did not mention that he had gone back to the park after initially leaving, that he met up with Jessica, or that he smoked or shared cigarettes with her. Nor did defendant mention he had been in the baseball area of the park that night.
M.K. and M.A. both testified they had previously seen defendant in possession of a knife. M.K. testified that defendant actually showed J.M. a folding knife while they were at the park that evening. M.K. also saw defendant with a folding knife two days after the killing. J.M. testified that defendant owned a tactical folding knife that he would sometimes have with him, but that defendant did not have the knife with him on the evening when they saw Jessica.
Salvador had previously seen defendant in possession of knives. He knew defendant to have three or four knives. Any time defendant got a new knife, he would show it to Salvador. At times, defendant would have his knives on his person. According to Salvador, most of the knives defendant had were folding knives. One was a folding tactical knife like "the military might use." Salvador testified that defendant would have a knife clipped onto his pants "maybe every other time I seen him."
Dr. Gregory Reiber, an expert in forensic pathology, performed the autopsy on Jessica. She was four feet ten inches tall and weighed 87 pounds.
Reiber testified Jessica sustained two stab wounds, one to the right front side of her neck and the other on the right side back of the neck. The wound on the front right side was slightly more than an inch long on the surface of the skin, slightly less than one...
To continue reading
Request your trial