People v. Stanley, S022224.

• Decision Date: 24 August 2006
• Docket Number: No. S022224.,S022224.
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Darren Cornelius STANLEY, Defendant and Appellant.

47 Cal.Rptr.3d 420

39 Cal.4th 913

140 P.3d 736

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Darren Cornelius STANLEY, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S022224.

Supreme Court of California.

August 24, 2006.

Appeal from the Superior Court of Alameda County, No. 103289, Alfred A. Delucchi, Judge.

Richard L. Rubin, Oakland, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, David P. Druliner, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Ronald A. Bass, Assistant Attorney

General, René A. Chacón and Juliet B. Haley, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

BAXTER, J.

[140 P.3d 919]

A jury convicted defendant Darren Cornelius Stanley of the first degree murder of Rudy Rubalcava (Pen.Code, § 187)¹ (count I), the attempted murder of Mitchell Fakoury (§§ 664, 187) (count IV), and the robberies of Joseph Sieder, Joseph Coggiano, Mitchell Fakoury, Joshua Adelaja, John Cheatam, and James Dollison (§§ 211, 212.5, subd. (b)) (counts II, III, V, VI, VII, and IX). A robbery-murder special circumstance was found true (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(i)), and defendant was found to have personally used a deadly weapon (knife) in the commission of the murder, attempted murder, and six of the robberies. (§ 12022, subd. (b).) Defendant admitted allegations that he had suffered six prior felony convictions for residential burglary for which he had served a separate prison sentence. (§ 667, subd. (a).)

After a penalty trial the jury returned a verdict of death. The trial court denied the automatic motion to modify penalty (§ 190.4, subd. (e)) and imposed the sentence of death. Defendant also received a 27-year aggregate prison sentence for the noncapital offenses of which he was convicted. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239.) We affirm the convictions and judgment of death but order defendant's determinate sentence reduced by two years.

I. FACTS

A. Guilt Phase

1. Prosecution evidence

Defendant committed the murder, attempted murder, and six robberies of which he was convicted during a crime spree in Oakland that began on December 24, 1988, and ended with his arrest on January 12, 1989.

Robbery of Joseph Sieder (Count II)

On the afternoon of December 24, 1988, Joseph Sieder was robbed by defendant in the elevator of an apartment building at 725 Market Street in Oakland. Defendant entered the elevator while a second, taller Black man stood in the doorway. Defendant told Sieder, "Give me your mother-fucking money. I have a gun. Give me your money." When Sieder refused, defendant struck him in the face with a heavy blunt object, causing him to lose consciousness. When Sieder regained consciousness he was lying on the elevator floor, bleeding profusely, with his wallet, credit cards, and $550 cash

[140 P.3d 920]

missing from his torn pants pocket. He was transported to Kaiser Hospital where his facial wounds were stitched closed. Several weeks later, Sieder attended a live lineup and identified defendant as his assailant with "90 percent" certainty. At trial, Sieder also tentatively identified a photograph of defendant's cousin, Clifford Williams, as the second, taller Black man who stood in the elevator doorway during the attack. Sieder's wallet and credit cards were later recovered during the execution of a search warrant, in connection with the Rubalcava murder, at defendant's cousin Cynthia Williams's Oakland apartment where defendant had stayed.

Robbery of Joseph Coggiano (Count III)

On the evening of December 27, 1988, Joseph Coggiano, a businessman, was robbed by defendant in the rest room of a service station on Castro Street in Oakland where he had stopped for gas. Two Black men entered the rest room. Coggiano testified defendant resembled the shorter of the two men, and he identified a photograph of defendant's cousin, Clifford Williams, as resembling the taller man. Defendant punched Coggiano in the face, causing him to fall to the floor, and demanded his money. Coggiano removed everything from his pockets; approximately $35-$70 was taken by defendant as Williams stood at the door. The gas station attendant came to Coggiano's assistance, pulling one of the men off of him. When Coggiano found himself alone in the rest room he locked himself in until the police arrived. Coggiano positively identified defendant as his assailant at a photographic lineup and again at a live lineup. Clifford Williams testified at trial that he and "Roger Hayes," an alias defendant was using at that time, robbed Coggiano on the evening in question.

Robbery and attempted murder of Mitchell Fakoury (Counts IV, V)

On the afternoon of January 7, 1989, defendant robbed and repeatedly stabbed elderly Mitchell Fakoury, who survived the attack. Mr. Fakoury was sitting in the front passenger seat of his vehicle reading a newspaper while parked in front of his clothing store on 7th Street in Oakland. A man whom he identified in court as defendant approached and asked him for the time. Within seconds defendant started waving a knife around Fakoury's neck, stating, "I'm going to kill you." Fakoury replied, "No need for that. What do you want to kill me for?" Defendant slashed Fakoury's neck, pushed him down flat on his back on the front seat and started tearing at his pants in an effort to get at his wallet in his rear pants pocket. At some point during the attack defendant stabbed Fakoury in the neck and stomach. After defendant fled with the wallet Fakoury got out of his vehicle and, seeing his clothes soaked in blood, realized the extent of his injuries. Fakoury identified People's exhibit No. 2—the knife later recovered in connection with the

[140 P.3d 921]

Rubalcava stabbing murder—as "look[ing] pretty well like the knife" defendant used to stab him. Although he did not know "types of knives" very well, Fakoury knew defendant's knife was a "big folding knife with a little sort of knob on it."

Two young girls saw Fakoury's assailant drop a wallet on the ground as he ran from the scene. One summoned her mother, who looked inside the wallet and recognized Fakoury's picture as that of a local merchant. They ran around the corner, found Fakoury lying bleeding on the pavement, attempted to stop the flow of blood from his neck with towels, and summoned police. Fakoury was rushed to Highland Hospital. Dr. Badger, the surgeon who attended to him, testified his neck wounds were three inches to four inches deep, penetrating the muscles below his jaw, cutting through many branches of the carotid artery, and severing his jugular vein in half. Fakoury also suffered stab wounds to his stomach and right flank as well as permanent facial injuries which were evident at trial.

Murder of Rudy Rubalcava (Count I)

On January 8, 1989, at approximately 3:45 a.m, defendant robbed and fatally stabbed Rudy Rubalcava while he was pumping gas at the Shell station on 7th and Market Streets in Oakland. The murder occurred approximately 12 hours after the robbery and attempted murder of Fakoury, and only several blocks distance from the scene of those earlier crimes. Four witnesses observed Rubalcava's murder. Defendant's brother, Isaac Stanley, and Golden Garner and Norma Moss, both of whom knew defendant from the neighborhood, all witnessed the incident and positively identified defendant as Rubalcava's assailant. Gas station attendant Tosha Dunson, the principal witness for the defense, testified defendant was not the man she had seen rob Rubalcava.

Isaac Stanley was sitting on a bus stop bench drinking beer across the street from the Shell station and observed his brother walk over to the station and become engaged in "a tussle" with Rubalcava.² Issac observed defendant punching and swinging his arm at Rubalcava while he was down on the ground, striking the victim "at least three or four times" in the head and chest. Isaac heard Rubalcava yelling, "Help this guy is trying to rob me." Afterwards, defendant ran into the apartment building at 1050 Market Street where Isaac had been staying, in apartment No. 307, and where defendant had spent several nights. Isaac followed defendant into the building and the two spent about 20 minutes in the apartment. Defendant's hand was bleeding

[140 P.3d 922]

and wrapped in a bandanna; he told Isaac he had cut himself. Defendant was angry at Isaac for not helping him. Defendant changed his clothes before leaving the apartment. On cross-examination, Isaac admitted giving a somewhat different account of the incident to police when he was taken in for questioning about the murder, and several months thereafter, when he spoke with a defense investigator. Isaac claimed he had been drinking and was under the influence on both occasions.

Golden Garner worked as a maintenance man for the buildings at 1050 7th Street, where Isaac Stanley had an apartment, and 725 Market Street, where he (Garner) shared an eighth floor apartment with Norma Moss overlooking the Shell station.³ Garner knew defendant and Isaac Stanley from the neighborhood. He had seen both brothers in the lobby of his building on Market Street at various times, and had experienced "a little difficulty" with them and their cousin, Clifford Williams, in the past. Garner knew defendant as "D," and testified defendant has a distinct, deep "froggie" voice. He described Isaac Stanley as having a "turned eye."

At 3:45 a.m., Moss awoke Garner after seeing two men struggling at the Shell station through their window. Garner went to the window and witnessed defendant struggling with another man, whom he thought may have been of Chinese descent. The man was yelling, "Help, I'm being robbed," and defendant appeared to be dragging him on the ground as he (defendant) tried to get away. Garner also saw Isaac Stanley sitting on a bench at the bus stop across the street. After defendant fled on foot, several persons appeared at the gas station and tried to assist Rubalcava. Garner testified that Moss telephoned the police anonymously to report the...