People v. Steger, Cr. 21709
| Decision Date | 27 March 1975 |
| Docket Number | Cr. 21709 |
| Citation | 120 Cal.Rptr. 466,46 Cal.App.3d 568 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Cheryl Lynn STEGER, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Volney F. Morin and James B. Rives, Los Angeles, for defendant and appellant.
Evelle J. Younger, Atty. Gen., Jack R. Winkler, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen., S. Clark Moore, Asst. Atty. Gen., Howard J. Schwab and Jack T. Kerry, Deputy Attys. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.
A jury found Cheryl L. Steger guilty of first degree murder in the death of Kristen Steger, the three year old daughter by a former marriage of Ralph Steger, defendant's husband. Ralph was jointly charged and tried with defendant. The jury found him guilty of the lesser offense of violating Penal Code section 273a(2). Only defendant Cheryl appeals from the judgment.
On July 30, 1971, at 9:33 p. m., a rescue ambulance of the Los Angeles Fire Department was dispatched to 16232 Malden Street. Fireman Gates and his partner were met by the sister of the defendant Cheryl Steger and were informed that there was a child in the house who was having difficulty breathing.
Fireman Gates found Kristen, the victim, lying on a couch in a bedroom with codefendant Ralph Steger giving the child mouth to mouth resuscitation. Fireman Gates in searching for signs of life shined his flashlight into the child's eyes and established the fact that there was full pupil dilation. He had been taught in his rescue training that this was an unfavorable sign. He picked up the child and drove her to Valley Emergency Hospital accompanied by the defendant and codefendant. Prior to departure he alerted the hospital and enroute attempted mechanical resuscitation and closed chest cardiac massage with no response from the child.
The defendant and codefendant who identified the child as Kristen Steger and themselves as her parents held brief conversation with Fireman Gates during the seven minute ride to the hospital. When Gates asked 'what happened' the defendant replied, The defendant also stated that the child had been out of her sight not longer than five minutes.
When asked about bruises which the fireman noted on the child's head, defendant responded, 'She fell today.' When asked about bruises on the child's legs, she replied 'She fell there, too, playing.'
Nurse Rosemary Colasardo, a registered nurse of some twenty-five years experience with eight years in emergency first aid saw the child on her arrival at the hospital at 9:47 p. m. She ordered that the police be notified on seeing the extent of injuries to the child's body. Nurse Colosardo testified that 'There wasn't two inches of her body that didn's have black and blue marks.' She was of the opinion from the stiffness of the body that the child had been dead for several hours. The emergency room doctor, Frederick Condo who examined the child on arrival, detected no vital signs and determined from the fact that rigor mortis set in during his examination at around 11:00 p. m. that the death had occurred at some time between 4:00 and 6:00 p. m. He testified that rigor mortis occurs anywhere from six to ten hours after death.
Dr. Condo also noted a large laceration on the child's chin of at least several days duration and a depressed skull fracture. He also observed post mortem lividity or blood pooling on the victim's body. He, too, ordered that the police be advised because of the condition of the child.
The autopsy surgeon Generoso Villano determined that the cause of death was a subdural hemorrhage in the soft brain tissues, one of massive proportions occurring possibly within twenty-four hours of death but more probably within twelve hours. He also noted a deep laceration of the chin, multiple contusions in the face, hemorrhaging in the intestines, liver and adrenals and generalized hematoma associated with bruising over much of the body.
He testified that much of the damage to the internal organs must have been caused by heavy blows rather than from mere falls and from their nature must have caused severe pain and suffering to the child. He also stated that the type of injuries were of the serious traumatic nature commonly encountered when children are involved in automobile accidents.
Two other physicians contributed their observations that the variety of injuries and varying ages of injuries indicated that the child was subjected to repeated trauma not associated with either self-inflicted injuries or mere childhood falls. For example, a green stick fracture of Kristen's arm was at least ten days old prior to its being noted by x-ray examination. This same fracture had been noted by nurses on Kristen's arrival at the Valley Hospital as a 'puffiness of the arm'. One of these physicians opined that the injuries suffered by Kristen were consistent with the battered child syndrome.
The defendant made two lengthy statements to the investigating officers. The first, given after full 'Miranda warning,' by the officer occurred at 1:00 a. m. on July 31. The defendant initially revealed that she had only been married to her codefendant for some few days but had been living with him for some months prior thereto.
Defendant, in her statement, denied any severe beating of the child and variously attributed the head injury to Kristen having been struck by a playground swing seat or from having fallen from her bike. She admitted to striking the child on the buttocks and occasionally on the face and back. She claimed, however, that Kristen bruised easily.
She related that on the night of Kristen's death that she had struck Kristen on the bottom because of a toilet training accident and then at Kristen's request had put her to bed shortly before seven o'clock because Kristen complained of her leg hurting. Defendant maintained the child refused dinner and remained in bed. Defendant stated she checked on her every few minutes. At about 9:00 p. m., defendant went into the bedroom to talk to Kristen and discovered Kristen was not breathing whereupon she called her husband. Defendant claimed the child's deep chin laceration came about as a result of the child's tripping on the patio doorway and she stated that other than spankings for discipline purposes, neither she nor her husband struck the child any heavy blows.
Following her statement and during the same day, defendant approached a female jailer and spontaneously stated,
Sergeant Melton who had taken the original statement was called. Sergeant Melton obtained a written statement in which defendant admitted that Kristen had been annoying her for the past week and she had spanked her. She also admitted hitting her six or seven times on the back with her fist, striking her with a belt, knocking her to the floor twice so as to cause the child's head to collide with a wall on one of the occasions.
While testifying on her own behalf defendant admitted striking the child with a sandal type shoe, a belt and poking the child in the sternum area with her pointed and rigid finger. She admitted responsibility for all the injuries to Kristen except those caused by the child's falls.
Certain photographs of the defendant's hands showing them to be swollen, puffy and discolored near the knuckles were admitted into evidence. These were explained by defendant as having occurred in accidents while cleaning the house.
Ralph Steger related in his testimony and in two extrajudicial statements that he had brought Kristen and her sister Tracy to California from Kansas where they had been residing with his ex-wife about a month before Kristen's death. She was in apparent good health at the time when he received the child from his ex-wife and had only a few bruises on her knees and a healed scar on her nose.
He was aware that defendant disciplined Kristen at times by administering spankings and slaps on the buttocks and face but was never aware that the child was being mistreated. He had, however, noted bruises on the child's body at a swimming pool a week prior to the death and had been told by defendant of a head injury to Kristen from a fall from a tricycle shortly after her arrival in California. He was not aware of any permanent or major damage to the child. In brief, his testimony mirrored that of defendant's to the effect that the child was disciplined by frequent slappings and spankings with a slipper or shoe sole but never to the extent of having been beaten. He reiterated frequently the theme of the defendant that the child was difficult to handle, clumsy in her movements, fell often and that she bruised easily.
Ralph Steger last saw the child alive on the night preceding the day of her death. He left the house on Friday, July 30, without seeing Kristen and on his return home at 9:00 to 9:15 p. m. that night, he was told by defendant that Kristen was put to bed for discipline and not to see her. He believed that he heard Kristen making sounds in the bedroom but heeded defendant's admonition not to approach the child. Within a few minutes of his arrival defendant went to the bedroom and emerged with her report that all was not well with Kristen. He then went to his daughter and attempted resuscitation.
Defendant first urges error in the admissibility of her incriminating statements. She contends that the confessions and admissions were inadmissible because of lack of voluntariness, lack of informed waiver of her right to remain silent and improper inducement by the interrogating officers.
It is our duty as the reviewing court to determine independently from the...
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