People v. Standifer
| Decision Date | 23 April 1974 |
| Docket Number | 24951,Cr. 23790 |
| Citation | 38 Cal.App.3d 733,113 Cal.Rptr. 653 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. James Edward STANDIFER and Maurice Bernard Nicholas, Defendants and Appellants. In re James STANDIFER and Maurice Nicholas, Petitioners on Habeas Corpus. |
Sharon E. Giannetta, Fresno, for defendant and appellant James Edward Standifer.
John J. Schimmenti, El Segundo, for defendant and appellant Maurice Bernard Nicholas.
Evelle J. Younger, Atty. Gen., Jack R. Winkler, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen., Crim. Div., S. Clark Moore, Asst. Atty. Gen., Norman H. Sokolow, Deputy Atty. Gen., and Howard J. Schwab, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.
Appellant-petitioners (appellants), James Edward Standifer (Standifer) and Maurice Bernard Nicholas (Nicholas) appeal from judgments following a jury trial by which they were respectively found guilty of murder in the second degree and murder in the first degree. (Pen.Code, § 189). Pending their appeal appellants petitioned the Supreme Court for writ of habeas corpus and by order of March 7, 1974, of said court, the petition was transferred to and filed in this court as Crim. 24951. The appeal and the petition are treated herein separately.
On the evening of November 20, 1972, Ruth Chisom, her common law husband Leonard Harris, Pamela Palmer, her boyfriend Edward Green, J., (victim), and Michael Faulk, were socializing at the residence of Palmer on East 46th Street in Los Angeles. The Palmer residence is in the rear of another dwelling and is set back approximately 90 feet from 46th Street. Nicholas, a brother of Palmer, lived part of the time at her residence and part of the time at the residence on 43rd Street of another sister, Janice Burns. At approximately 10:00 p.m. appellants, without knocking, walked into the Palmer residence. Leonard Harris was asleep on Ruth Chisom's lap, the victim Green was lying across a couch in another part of the front room, and Faulk and Palmer were in the bedroom talking. Standifer walked across the front room to the doorway of the kitchen and stood there. Nicholas strode toward the victim, kicked his foot, and ordered him outside. The victim protested briefly but proceeded to exit as ordered followed closely by Nicholas. As they proceeded outside Chisom noticed Nicholas holding a revolver in the small of his back. She asked Standifer if Nicholas intended to shoot the victim. After the departure of Nicholas and the victim, three shots were heard. Harris awakened by the shots, jumped up. Standifer pointed a .25 automatic pistol at him and ordered him to cool it and sit down; proceeded to search Harris for a weapon and, thinking that Chisom might be armed, dumped the contents of her purse on the couch.
Standifer would not permit any of the persons assembled in the Palmer residence to leave. Within minutes after the shooting, Nicholas returned breathless and excited. He told everyone to put on their coats because they were all going for a ride. Palmer came out of the bedroom and ran for the front door. Nicholas grabbed her as she was halfway out, jerked her back, and ordered her to sit down.
Chisom attempted to speak to Nicholas who refused to talk. She then approached Standifer and both went into the kitchen. She asked Standifer what was the big beef with the victim. He told her that he had heard one of three men who stopped Nicholas and himself before they entered the Palmer residence tell Nicholas that the victim had passed a phony $20 bill to the 'Crypts'; they wanted their money, and asked Nicholas to persuade the victim to come out of the house. He assured Chisom that he and Nicholas had no 'beef' with her or Harris. Meanwhile Harris succeeded in engaging Nicholas in conversation and Nicholas stated that the victim had passed a phony $20 bill to the 'Crypts' and as soon as the victim returned everyone could go home. Later Chisom stated to Nicholas , and she also told him that she knew he had shot Edward (the victim). Nicholas made no answer. Shortly thereafter Chisom got sick and walked toward the bathroom. Standifer intercepted her and told her she could use it but not to close the door. At approximately 1:00 a.m. Nicholas left. No one else was permitted to leave. Standifer, with the phone in his lap which he would not permit anyone to use, stayed until 7:00 a.m. He then left and the others followed.
Henry Albert McRuffin, a witness who lived across the street a distance of approximately five houses east of the Palmer residence, testified that at approximately 10:00 p.m. of that day he arrived at his residence and as he got out of his car he heard what sounded like two firecrackers. Concurrently he saw two men, one in chase of the other, running fast out of the driveway across the street. When they reached 46th Street they turned west toward Compton Avenue and, as they traversed a distance of approximately four houses, he heard what sounded like four more shots. Briefly he lost sight of the two men and then saw that the one who had been doing the chasing stopped, paused for a second near a parked Mustang, and proceeded west towards Compton Avenue. Later that evening he observed the victim's body lying in the street in the same area that the other person had paused. The location of the body was approximately 75 yards from the Palmer residence. Subsequent examination disclosed that the victim had been shot once in the back, once in the ear, and that he might have been grazed by two more bullets. The shot in the back severed the spinal cord and would have caused instant paralysis but was nonfatal. The bullet in the ear appeared to have been fired from a distance no greater than six inches and was fatal. Both bullets were fired from a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver.
David J. Lees, a Los Angeles Police Department detective, arrived at the scene at approximately 11:30 p.m. and saw the body in the street within 15 feet of a parked Mustang. In the back seat of the Mustang was a holster for a .38 caliber revolver and a black leather belt. The Mustang belonged to Janice Burns, the other sister of Nicholas who had loaned it to Nicholas earlier that evening. After Nicholas borrowed the Mustang he drove to Century City to pick up Standifer, who had had trouble with his car, at approximately 7:00 p.m. The two men used the Mustang until they arrived at the Palmer residence at approximately 10:00 p.m.
After Nicholas left the Palmer residence at 1:00 a.m. a neighbor to the west of the Palmer residence called the police to report a man prowling in his yard. The police, aware of the homicide, responded immediately. When they arrived they saw Nicholas exiting from the front steps of the house where the prowler had been reported. Nicholas was arrested and searched. In one of his pockets they found a .38 caliber shell casing. The .38 caliber revolver was never found.
When Standifer left the Palmer residence he went to the residence of Eileen Foster. He arrived between 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. He testified he asked her to keep a gun for him. (She later, under circumstances detailed Infra, delivered the weapon to the police.) The gun was a .25 caliber automatic.
Standifer's Version.
Standifer explained his presence in the Palmer residence by the fact that Palmer was a sister of Nicholas and he had visited there on prior occasions with Nicholas, who resided there part of the time, and that Nicholas wanted to change his clothes; he said that before he and Nicholas entered they were met by three persons who had a conversation with Nicholas and he heard one of them tell Nicholas to bring the victim outside. He did tell Chisom after the shots were heard that the guys outside had said that the victim owed the $20 for a phony bill. He didn't know Nicholas intended to order the victim outside; or that Nicholas had any animosity toward the victim; he was a friend of the victim and knew him for 10 years, he said Nicholas 'tapped' Green and ordered him outside; he did not see a gun in Nicholas' hands; he did nothing to encourage the victim to follow Nicholas' order; he did not know Nicholas was a member of the Crypts or that the gang was hostile to the victim and he did not see anything that transpired outside the Palmer residence. He was armed with a .25 automatic when he entered the Palmer residence with Nicholas because he had taken the automatic from his car when he was picked up by Nicholas in Century City; he was afraid it would be stolen if it were left in his car. He remained inside the Palmer residence after Green was escorted outside; after the shots were heard he did quiet and search Harris and Chisom at the point of a .25 automatic because he was excited and thought Harris was rushing him; he did order Ruth Chisom to empty her purse on the couch; he did not search Palmer because he knew her; he denied he held Chisom, Harris and Faulk captive in the house, although he admitted Chisom thought so and he admitted that he permitted no one else to use the phone because he was expecting a call from Wade Foster, and monitored the phone until 7:00 a.m. when he left. He testified that Nicholas, when he reentered the house after the shooting, was excited and breathless and told everyone they could leave because Nicholas wanted Palmer and her child to get somewhere where they would be safe, but it was discovered that Palmer and her child could not leave because the keys to the victim's car were in the victim's pocket. He admitted that he refused to permit Chisom to close the door when she started to use the bathroom.
Nicholas' Version.
Nicholas testified he had two residences, one with his sister from which he borrowed the Mustang, Janice Burns on 43rd Street, and the other with...
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