People v. Samuels
| Citation | 30 Cal.Rptr.3d 105,36 Cal.4th 96,113 P.3d 1125 |
| Decision Date | 27 June 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. S042278.,S042278. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court (California) |
| Parties | The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Mary Ellen SAMUELS, Defendant and Appellant. |
Joel Levine, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorney General, Sharlene A. Honnaka and Kyle S. Brodie, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Certiorari Denied April 17, 2006. See 126 S.Ct. 1771.
A jury convicted defendant Mary Ellen Samuels of the first degree murders of Robert Samuels and James Bernstein, soliciting the murders of Robert Samuels and James Bernstein, and conspiring to murder Robert Samuels and James Bernstein. (Pen.Code, §§ 187, subd. (a), 653f, subd. (b), 182, subd. (a)(1); hereafter all statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.) The jury found true the financial gain special circumstance as to the murder of Robert Samuels, the multiple-murder special circumstance, and the allegation that a principal in the murder of Robert Samuels had used a firearm. (§§ 190.2, subd. (a)(1), (3), 12022, subd. (a)(1).)
The jury returned a death verdict for each murder. The trial court denied defendant's motions for a new trial and to reduce the penalty verdict. The court imposed a death sentence. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).)
We affirm the judgment in its entirety.
Defendant was married to Robert Samuels. On October 31, 1986, defendant filed for divorce. Even after the divorce proceedings were initiated, defendant and Robert Samuels were cordial, and defendant continued to work in the Subway restaurant she and Robert Samuels owned. However, by November 1988, just before his murder, Robert Samuels was depressed and had a less than friendly relationship with defendant.
On October 31, 1988—approximately two months before he was killed—Robert Samuels went to his divorce attorney, Elizabeth Kaufman, and signed a document seeking changes to his divorce agreement. Robert Samuels wanted to run the Subway restaurant because he was unemployed and felt he would be better at running the business. He also wanted to reduce spousal support payments below the $1,200 per month level because he was no longer able to pay that amount. The modification was never filed because Kaufman was waiting for Robert Samuels to complete a portion of the paperwork.
Beginning in 1987, defendant solicited people to murder Robert Samuels on numerous occasions.
Anne Hambly, defendant's friend, testified defendant told her that after several attempts to find someone to kill Robert Samuels had failed, defendant was able to get James Bernstein to agree to commit the murder. Bernstein was dating defendant's daughter, Nicole Samuels. Bernstein was apparently angered when defendant told him that Robert Samuels had abused Nicole. A month before Robert Samuels was murdered, Bernstein said he wanted Samuels "taken care of permanently" because he was a child molester and batterer. He asked his employer, Charles Mandel, if he knew anyone who could "take care of it." Mandel provided Bernstein with the phone number of Mike Silva. Also, during November and December 1988, Bernstein asked a friend who owned a gun shop if he could get some weapons.
On December 7, 1988, defendant told Anne Hambly that Robert Samuels was dead and that she planned to "discover" his body in two days. On December 8, 1988, Nicole Samuels called her friend, David Navarro, and said "it's done" in reference to Robert Samuels's murder.
On December 9, 1988, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call from Robert Samuels's home. Robert Samuels was found dead. He had been dead for over 12 hours and was killed by a shotgun blast fired into his head from close range. Samuels also suffered a blunt force trauma to his head that was a contributing factor to his death.
Defendant and Nicole Samuels were present when the police arrived. Defendant and Nicole worked to make it appear that there had been a struggle in the house. Defendant told the police she discovered Robert Samuels's body while dropping off the family's dog. Defendant sought to bolster this story by leaving messages on Samuels's answering machine regarding her plans to drop off the dog.
Anne Hambly testified that she also went to Robert Samuels's house the night he was found dead. Referring to the murder of Robert Samuels, defendant told Hambly that she could not believe that "it had finally happened" and that she had given Bernstein money six months earlier to arrange the killing. Defendant feared being caught and was also afraid to speak because she thought the police had "bugged" her car, purse, and home.
At trial, the prosecution introduced evidence showing defendant collected on several insurance policies after Robert Samuels's death. The total amount of these policies was in excess of $240,000. In addition, the prosecution introduced evidence that a sandwich shop owned by Robert Samuels and defendant was sold in early 1989, and defendant kept the proceeds of approximately $70,000. Additional evidence introduced by the prosecution showing how defendant benefited from Robert Samuels's death included: (1) defendant kept a car owned by Robert Samuels; (2) she received approximately $6,000 in uncashed payroll checks of Robert Samuels; and (3) she refinanced the family home after Robert Samuels's death, thereby gaining possession of an additional $160,000.
Defendant began to live a lavish lifestyle after Robert Samuels died. In addition, defendant made several incriminating statements after his death. For example, when asked by Anne Hambly who Mike Silva was, defendant told Hambly that Silva was hired by Bernstein to kill Robert Samuels. Defendant also told a friend, Marsha Hutchinson, that if she were not careful in her divorce proceedings, then Hutchinson's husband might decide to put a hit on her. Defendant also spoke and acted in a manner that led Bernstein's older brother and sister-in-law to believe that defendant had Robert Samuels killed.
James Bernstein also made incriminating statements after Robert Samuels's death. He told his employer, Charles Mandel, that Robert Samuels's murder had been taken care of and that he received money from defendant to pay Silva for his part in the crime.
On June 27, 1989, James Bernstein was killed. The circumstances leading to his murder are as follows: David Navarro and James Bernstein met in February 1989. Navarro testified he met Bernstein through Nicole Samuels, who was a friend of Navarro's girlfriend.
Navarro and Bernstein became friends and they sold drugs together until Bernstein disappeared in June 1989. Bernstein and Navarro were together once when Bernstein received a page, called the number he had been sent, and then went to meet Mike Silva. Bernstein referred to Silva as the "hit man."
Navarro made an anonymous call to the police and provided them with the phone number Bernstein received via the page and Mike Silva's name. Navarro also provided the names of defendant and Bernstein to the police. Los Angeles Police Officer John Birrer received Navarro's call on May 1, 1989. After Navarro provided this information, the police served search warrants. Police searched Bernstein's apartment on May 16, 1989, in connection with the murder of Robert Samuels. The police also searched the victim's house.
In late May or early June 1989, Bernstein told a friend, Rennie Goldberg, he was feeling remorseful and frightened of being caught. He wanted to confess his involvement in Robert Samuels's murder. By June 1989, Bernstein had become so afraid that he wanted to move out of the area. By the end of June 1989, Bernstein was ready to go to the police and admit what he knew. He told Navarro that he and Mike Silva had killed Robert Samuels and that defendant had paid them for it. He repeatedly said that defendant had solicited him to murder Robert Samuels. Bernstein stated that defendant wanted Robert Samuels killed for insurance money, and that one person had been paid but did not do the job so she approached Bernstein to see if he would do it. On June 26, 1989, Bernstein told his older brother that he was frightened and that he was the only person who could "burn Mary Ellen."
After Robert Samuels's murder, defendant told Anne Hambly that she wanted Bernstein killed because she thought he would go to the police and disclose her involvement in the murder. In March or April of 1989, Anne Hambly introduced Paul Gaul to defendant. Gaul was Hambly's live-in boyfriend. Hambly believed Gaul could help defendant with her trouble with Bernstein. Defendant and Gaul had several conversations about Robert Samuels's death. In the first conversation, defendant mentioned she received insurance money from Robert Samuels's death and that Bernstein was blackmailing her for her involvement in the murder. In the second conversation, defendant repeated the substance of the first conversation and added that she wanted Robert Samuels killed because he had abused Nicole and she wanted insurance money. During a third conversation, defendant mentioned a failed attempt to kill Robert Samuels. Defendant also said that she had paid for Robert Samuels's murder, but that the murder was done sloppily and that she had not expected it to be done in her house with blood everywhere.
Even in their first conversation, Gaul came to believe that defendant wanted his help in killing Bernstein. Gaul testified that it was not until a later conversation that defendant expressly asked Gaul for help. She told Gaul that she wanted Bernstein killed because he was...
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