People v. Stanley

• Decision Date: 06 July 1995
• Docket Number: No. 23532,No. S004605,S004605,23532
• Citation: 10 Cal.4th 764,42 Cal.Rptr.2d 543,897 P.2d 481
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 897 P.2d 481, 95 Daily Journal D.A.R. 9004 The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Gerald Frank STANLEY, Defendant and Appellant. Crim.

Page 543

42 Cal.Rptr.2d 543

10 Cal.4th 764, 897 P.2d 481, 95 Daily Journal D.A.R. 9004

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Gerald Frank STANLEY, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S004605.

Crim. No. 23532.

Supreme Court of California,

In Bank.

July 6, 1995.

As Modifed on Denial of Rehearing

Sept. 13, 1995.

Richard J. Petersen, Ukiah, Michael Satris, Bolinas, and Frank E. Hagie, Jr., under appointments by the Supreme Court, San Francisco, for defendant and appellant.

John K. Van de Kamp and Daniel E. Lungren, Attys. Gen., Steve White and George Williamson, Chief Asst. Attys. Gen., Robert R. Anderson, Asst. Atty. Gen., James T. McNally, Edmund D. McMurray, Thomas Y. Shigemoto, Ward A. Campbell, W. Scott Thorpe and Ruth M. Saavedra, Deputy Attys. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.

WERDEGAR, Justice.

A jury convicted Gerald Frank Stanley of the first degree murder of Cindy Rogers Stanley (Pen.Code, §§ 187, 189) ¹ (count I), arson of an inhabited dwelling (§ 451) (count II) and burglary of an inhabited trailer coach (§ 459) (count III). The jury also found that defendant personally used a firearm in the commission of the murder. (§ 12022.5.) The jury found true the special circumstance allegations that defendant committed the murder while lying in wait (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(15)) and for the purpose of preventing the victim's testimony as a witness in a criminal proceeding (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(10)). In a separate proceeding the jury also found true the special circumstance allegation that defendant had previously been convicted of second degree murder. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(2).) Pursuant to the parties' waiver of jury trial, the court found true the allegation that defendant had served a prior prison term and had not remained free of prison custody for five years without commission of another felony offense resulting in a conviction. (§ 667.5, subd. (b).) Following a competency trial (§ 1369) at which the jury found defendant mentally competent, the jury returned a verdict of death; the court entered judgment accordingly. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).)

We affirm the judgment.

I. FACTS

A. Guilt Phase

Defendant met the victim, Cindy Rogers, on July 3, 1980, at the fairgrounds in Hayfork, Trinity County. He was introduced to Cindy by Gary Wells, a friend of defendant's brother John. Defendant was a professional hunting guide. At the time, he was on parole and trying to gain custody of his two children by his second wife, whom he had murdered in 1975. ² On July 7, 1980, he and Cindy were married in Reno. On their return to California the next day, the pair went to Lake County where Cindy's parents, the Spatigs, owned and operated the Spatig motel-resort in Nice, near Clear Lake.

On July 16 defendant allegedly committed three felony offenses against Cindy, the nature of which were kept from the jury. ³ On July 18 defendant burned down Cindy's house in Lucerne, Lake County. On July 20 he burned her car.

On July 20 Cindy filed felony charges against defendant for the July 16 offenses; based on the charges, a parole violation warrant issued for defendant's arrest.

From July 20 to August 11, the day of her death, Cindy stayed away from defendant. On July 20 she and her entire family spent the night in a motel in Ukiah. Thereafter Cindy stayed variously with a long time friend and co-worker, Stan Simpson, a new friend, Patrick Pounden, and her parents at their resort. On the evening of August 11, 1980, defendant, armed with a high-powered scope rifle, positioned himself behind a tree across the road from the Spatig resort. Just before 10 p.m., Cindy, her father Frank Spatig, and Simpson moved their lawn chairs from a patio area where they had been seated to a more open location near the resort swimming pool facing Highway 20. Cindy's son was playing in the pool. Shortly after the three seated themselves by the pool, Frank Spatig got up and turned on the pool area lights. As Spatig sat down again, defendant shot Cindy through the heart; she died almost instantly. Defendant then fled.

On August 12, defendant burglarized a mobile home. On August 13 he was arrested at the house he shared with his mother in Anderson, Shasta County.

The evidence against defendant was circumstantial. Briefly stated, the prosecution evidence showed defendant was concerned he would not obtain custody of his children if Cindy pressed the criminal charges against him. Sometime in the latter part of July, defendant's mother, Mrs. Stanley, called Cindy's mother, Bobbie Spatig, to ask her to convince Cindy to drop the charges against defendant. On July 20 defendant made an anonymous telephone call to Sergeant Adkins of the Shasta County Sheriff's office in which he reported he had met Gary Wells at the Harbor Bar in Clear Lake a few days earlier, they had been drinking heavily, and Wells had told him he was going to kill Jerry Stanley and Cindy Stanley, because Cindy had been his girlfriend and Jerry Stanley had married her after knowing her only a few days. On August 4 defendant's mother, Mrs. Stanley, rented a silver-gray Camaro for defendant at his request, because the other vehicles to which he had access were known to law enforcement and he was unwilling to turn himself in on the parole violation at that time. On the day of the shooting defendant was seen at the Island Park Cafe in Lake County and, about 4 p.m. the same day, in nearby Williams in Colusa County.

After the shooting, witnesses near the site from which the shot was fired saw a man running past their home, carrying a gun and wearing what appeared to be a jacket. He disappeared into the darkness. Shortly after, they saw a car start to move, its lights and engine off. After the headlights were turned on and the engine started, the car turned left onto Highway 20 east toward Lucerne and the Harbor Bar. The murder weapon, a Browning rifle with a Redfield scope, subsequently was found about 18 to 20 feet out in the lake off the Harbor Bar. The rifle had been purchased by Edna Stanley.

About 10:50 or 10:55 p.m., a car traveling east on Highway 20 approached a police roadblock. The car pulled to the side of the road for a second or two and then made a U-turn and proceeded westbound in the direction from which it had come. Police officers gave chase. They noticed a cloud of dust floating across the highway from a private driveway, indicating someone had turned up the driveway at a high speed. Following the trail, the officers found the Camaro abandoned behind a residence where it had come to a skidding stop due to a log blocking the driveway.

During the early morning hours of August 12, defendant broke into a mobile home on the Spartan Ranch, 9 to 10 miles from where the Camaro was abandoned. Later that day he walked to Highway 20, where he hitched a ride with the Pauls, a couple returning from a camping trip in Fort Bragg. The Pauls dropped defendant off in Anderson. The next day, after the Stanley house was surrounded by police, defendant surrendered.

A search of the Camaro yielded, among other things, a loaded rifle, an empty rifle case, binoculars out of their case, a corduroy jacket, a knit cap, a ski mask, and a spiral notebook containing a letter in defendant's handwriting to his parole agent, John Ransom. Defendant's fingerprints were found on the car trunk and the notebook. The dome light, intact and working when the car was rented, had been removed from the ceiling of the car, thus preventing a light from going on when the car door was opened. An excerpt from the letter to Ransom read in part as follows: "John, when you read this I will be dead! Better this way as my life and everything I fought for has been destroyed. My fight for my kids I can never win now."

A search of defendant's room in the Stanley residence in Anderson yielded Winchester 30.06 150-grain ammunition consistent with the spent cartridge in the chamber of the Browning rifle and with the lead taken from Cindy's body, as well as a photograph of defendant holding the Browning rifle. A spent 30.06 cartridge was found in the living room. The evidence also showed that the Browning had been carried in the empty rifle case found in the Camaro.

While in custody, defendant, at his request, spoke with Sergeant Coulter. Defendant told Coulter that the evening of the murder he was with two people named Gary and Linda, who were involved in drug deals in Lake County. He went with them to the Harbor Bar, where he waited in the car while they made some phone calls. He then drove them east on Highway 20. When they approached the roadblock, Gary told defendant to turn around. As they got to the dirt driveway, Gary told him to stop, whereupon Gary and Linda jumped out into the brush while defendant continued up the driveway. At trial defendant admitted the entire story was a lie.

Defendant testified in his own defense. He denied killing Cindy. He stated he was on the telephone talking to his mother at the time of the murder. Mrs. Stanley corroborated his testimony. Defendant's theory was that Cindy had been killed either by his brother, John Stanley, or by Gary Wells or Mike Saylor, but most likely by Wells. Wells had introduced Cindy to defendant and allegedly was jealous that Cindy had married him. Wells also supposedly was concerned about a conversation overheard by Cindy that implicated John Stanley, Saylor and himself in a robbery they had committed. Neither Wells nor Saylor had a verifiable alibi for the evening of the murder.

B. Penalty Phase

In the penalty phase the prosecution presented evidence of the circumstances surrounding defendant's 1975 murder of his second wife, Kathleen (Kathy) Rhiley Stanley. The prosecution also presented evidence of uncharged offenses committed by defendant involving violence or threats of violence. Finally, the prosecution presented evidence that, one day before he killed his wife Cindy, defendant murdered Cheryl Renee Wright. In mitigation, defend...