People v. Tully

Decision Date30 July 2012
Docket NumberNo. S030402.,S030402.
Citation54 Cal.4th 952,2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 10421,282 P.3d 173,12 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 8486,145 Cal.Rptr.3d 146
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
PartiesThe PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Richard Christopher TULLY, Defendant and Appellant.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

James S. Thomson, Berkeley, under appointment by the Supreme Court; Thomson & Stetler, Saor E. Stetler, Mill Valley; and Jolie Lipsig, Sacramento, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer and Kamala D. Harris, Attorneys General, Mary Jo Graves, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Assistant Attorney General, Ronald S. Matthias and Margo J. Yu, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

BAXTER, J.

[282 P.3d 199]

An amended information charged defendant Richard Christopher Tully with the 1986 murder of Shirley Olsson (Pen.Code, § 187) and assault with intent to commit rape ( id., § 1203.065, subd. (b)). 1 the information also alleged a special circumstance tHAT THE MURDER was committed in the commission of a burglary and, as to both counts, that defendant used a dangerous and deadly weapon, to wit: a knife. ( §§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17) (vii), 12022, subd. (b).) 2

Shirley Olsson, a 59–year–old nurse at the Livermore Veterans Administration medical center, was brutally murdered sometime in the night or early morning hours of July 24 to 25, 1986. A coworker went to her residence and discovered Olsson's nude body in her bed; she had been stabbed 23 times. A bloody knife and Olsson's purse were found on the golf course that abutted her house. The screen to her bathroom window was found in a neighbor's backyard. The blood on the knife was the victim's. Several months later, a fingerprint and palm print on the knife were matched to defendant. Defendant, who had lived two houses down from Olsson's residence, admitted to police he had been at the victim's house the night she was murdered and had had sex with her, but claimed the murder was committed by another man.

A jury convicted defendant as charged and found true the special circumstance and weapon allegations. It then returned a verdict of death, which the trial court declined to modify. This appeal is automatic. We affirm the judgment.

I. FACTSA. Guilt Phase

1. Prosecution evidence
a. Shirley (Sandy) Olsson's murder and the ensuing investigation3

In July 1986, Sandy Olsson worked as a registered nurse at the Veterans Administration medical center in Livermore. Her specialty

[282 P.3d 200]

was ostomony—caring for people who had colostomies—and she also worked as a charge or supervising nurse. Typically, she worked Monday through Friday, arriving sometime between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. and leaving at 4:00 p.m. Olsson was 59 years old and divorced with two adult children, a daughter, Sandra Walters, and a son, Elbert “Tripp” Walters III. For much of the year she lived alone at 1556 Hollyhock Street, except from October through March when her father, Clifford Sandberg, came from Kansas and stayed with her. Olsson's residence backed up against the Springtown Golf Course.

The portrait of Olsson that emerged from the testimony of various witnesses was of a person of fairly set habits. When she arrived home from work, she locked the front door with a chain lock. After changing her top, she poured herself a glass of Coca–Cola and added a little bourbon to it. When her father visited, he and Olsson ate dinner together and watched television. She usually rejected his suggestions that they do something in the evenings because she was tired from work. Instead, she went into her bedroom with her drink to read her mail, magazines, and the newspaper. Olsson's daughter testified that Olsson went to bed sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. She first went through her house and made sure all the windows and doors were locked. Olsson was a modest woman who slept in a pair of men's flannel pajamas.

Olsson's father testified that during his annual visits to his daughter, she never had any male visitors. Her social life apparently consisted of occasionally going out to dinner with work friends.

On Thursday, July 24, 1986, Olsson arrived for work at the Veterans Administration medical center at 7:00 a.m. and left at around 4:00 p.m. She walked to her car with another nurse, Deborah Gifford. Gifford testified that Olsson was in a good mood because she was flying to Topeka that weekend for a family celebration of her father's 85th birthday. Olsson's across-the-street neighbor, Elden Freeman, saw her arrive home sometime between 4:15 and 4:45 p.m. From his living room, Freeman saw Olsson leave her den at about 8:00 p.m. and then turn off the light in the room at about 10:00 p.m. At that point, there were no other lights on at her house that he could see.

At about 4:00 a.m., Linda Rocke, who lived in a house on the opposite side of the golf course from Olsson, was awakened by her dog's barking. She took the dog outside to keep it from waking the rest of her family. In her backyard, Rocke found what looked like a small bathroom screen. It had not been in her backyard earlier.

Olsson failed to appear at work the next morning, July 25. This was unusual because Olsson was described as “very reliable” by her colleague Maxine Gatten. When Olsson failed to appear by 7:25 a.m., Gatten called her residence but did not get an answer. Later, she again unsuccessfully tried to reach Olsson by phone. She discussed the matter with other nurses; they worried that Olsson might be sick, because she had complained about chest pains. Eventually, Gatten left the matter of Olsson's absence to another nurse, Barbara Green.

Green and Olsson had a close relationship. They shared an office and frequently ate lunch together. Olsson brought her lunch to work in a paper sack that she kept in her purse. Her lunch sometimes included fruit, like grapes. Green was aware that Olsson was flying to Kansas the next day for her father's birthday. When, at about 8:45 a.m., Gatten told Green that Olsson had not reported for work, Green became [v]ery concerned.” After she, too, failed to reach Olsson by phone, Green drove to Olsson's residence. Green found Olsson's car parked in the driveway and the newspaper in front of her house. She went to the front door, rang the bell, knocked, and called Olsson's name, but did not receive a response. She looked in through a glass panel at the front of the house; there was no movement inside.

Green went around to the back where the house abutted the golf course. The windows and the sliding door were locked. However, she noticed the bathroom window was open. She could not reach it on her own, so she pulled a wooden plant stand beneath it and

[282 P.3d 201]

climbed onto the stand. She was still unable to see through the window. Eventually, Green enlisted the help of Olsson's neighbor, Freeman.

Freeman knew Olsson well enough that she would ask him to water her plants and watch her house when she was on vacation. He had been expecting Olsson to bring him the key to her house so he could take care of it while she was in Kansas. As of Friday morning, the day before she was leaving, she had not done so. Green went to Freeman's house and, after explaining that she had been trying to reach Olsson, asked to use the phone. Green called 911. When there was no response from the 911 call, she and Freeman returned to Olsson's house. With Freeman's help, she managed to get high enough to see through the bathroom window. In the bathroom mirror, she saw Olsson's reflection. Olsson was lying naked on her stomach across her bed; there was a puddle of blood on the floor beneath her head. Green “knew that [she] had to get in as soon as [she] could because [she] had to stop the bleeding.” Freeman returned to his house and got a ladder. Using the ladder, Green entered the house through the bathroom window. Freeman went around to the front door and waited.

Green went to her friend's side. She saw “slits” on Sandy Olsson's back, “blood dripping down her face,” and “her left eye was bulging out of her head.” Her bedclothes were crumpled beneath her. She touched Olsson's body; it was cold. She left the bedroom to find a phone to call 911. As she left the bedroom, she saw a framed photograph had fallen from the wall to the floor while another photograph, still on the wall, was crooked and broken. She was unable to find the phone and went to the front door. She saw that a chain lock had been broken; two of the screws that attached to a plate on the door were hanging from the chain. She opened the door and let Freeman in. She told him she could not find the phone. Freeman told her the phone was in the shape of a Coca–Cola bottle and where she would find it. Green called 911 and told the operator that Olsson had been murdered. Before long, a police officer arrived. He asked Green if Olsson was dead. Green tried unsuccessfully to get a pulse. She told the officer that Olsson was dead. At some point, Green left the house and went to Freeman's residence.

Sergeant Scott Robertson of the Livermore Police Department was put in charge of the investigation. He arrived at the house at about 9:45 a.m. He conferred with other officers already at the crime scene and then walked though the house. There were some green grapes on the living room carpet. He observed signs of a struggle in the front entryway, where he saw a framed photograph that had apparently fallen to the floor and two photographs on the wall that were slightly askew. Just inside the master bedroom he saw another photograph that had fallen from the wall. He also observed signs of a forced entry into the house in the form of the broken slide chain latch on the front door.

In Olsson's bedroom, he observed blood splatters on the closet door and a smear of blood on a light switch. He examined Olsson's body and saw wounds he believed were consistent with a forced entry into the house. There were bruises on Olsson's forehead and lips that seemed to be consistent with the edge of a door....

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  • People v. Tully, S030402.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court (California)
    • July 30, 2012
    ...54 Cal.4th 952282 P.3d 173145 Cal.Rptr.3d 14612 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 84862012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 10,421The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,v.Richard Christopher TULLY, Defendant and Appellant.No. S030402.Supreme Court of CaliforniaJuly 30, [145 Cal.Rptr.3d 176]James S. Thomson, Berkeley,......

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