People v. Veamatahau

• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: Margulies, J.
• Citation: People v. Veamatahau, 233 Cal.Rptr.3d 724, 24 Cal.App.5th 68 (Cal. App. 2018)
• Decision Date: 31 May 2018
• Docket Number: A150689
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Joseph VEAMATAHAU, Defendant and Appellant.

24 Cal.App.5th 68

233 Cal.Rptr.3d 724

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.Joseph VEAMATAHAU, Defendant and Appellant.

A150689

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 1, California.

Filed May 31, 2018

Certified for Partial Publication.^*

Avatar Legal, Cynthia M. Jones, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Jeffrey M. Laurence, Assistant Attorney General, Eric D. Share and Huy T. Luong, Deputy Attorneys General for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Margulies, J.

After a jury trial, defendant was convicted of, among other things, two misdemeanor counts of possession of personal identifying information and possession of a controlled substance, alprazolam (Xanax). On appeal, he argues the trial court erroneously denied his motion to dismiss both charges under Penal Code section 1118.1. He further contends his controlled substance possession conviction must be reversed because the prosecution's expert conveyed inadmissible, case-specific hearsay to the jury.

In the published portion of this opinion, we conclude the prosecution's expert's testimony that he relied on a database to determine the contents of the pills found on defendant's person was not case-specific hearsay under state law. We affirm the judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

On November 19, 2015, the district attorney filed an information charging defendant with six felonies and three misdemeanors.¹ As relevant to this appeal, defendant was charged with misdemeanor possession of personal identifying information ( Pen. Code,² § 530.5, subd. (c)(1) ; count 7) and misdemeanor possession of alprazolam (Xanax) ( Health & Saf. Code, § 11375, subd. (b)(2) ; count 8).

On June 6, 2015, police sergeant Clint Simmont pulled defendant over in his vehicle for making a right turn from a stop sign without signaling. Sergeant Simmont searched defendant and his car. He found a cellophane wrapper containing 10 pills in defendant's coin pocket, and 5 personal checks in his back pocket. Officers also found cocaine base in the pocket of the driver's door. Defendant was arrested and transported to the police station.

At the police station, defendant provided a statement to Sergeant Simmont, which was played for the jury at trial. In his statement, defendant said he takes four or five of the "Xanibar" pills found on his person every day, "[u]ntil [he] feel[s] good." As to the checks found in his back pocket, defendant said he found them on the sidewalk and was going to "see what [he] could do with 'em." He said he would try to cash them, but he doubted it would work because his name was not on them. Defendant said he did not know who signed the back of the checks, and he "found 'em like that."

After trial, a jury found defendant guilty on four felony counts and counts 7 and 8. The trial court suspended imposition of sentence on defendant's felony counts and placed him on three years of formal probation with one year of local custody. The court imposed concurrent 90-day jail terms for counts 7 and 8.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Possession of Personal Identifying

Information^**

B. Possession of Alprazolam

Defendant challenges his conviction for possession of alprazolam on two grounds: first, he contends the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction because there was no evidence the pills he possessed were not counterfeit, and second, he argues the prosecution's expert impermissibly conveyed case-specific facts to the jury about the chemical composition of the pills discovered on his person. We address the latter contention first in the published portion of this opinion.

1. Factual Background

At trial, Scott Rienhardt, a forensic laboratory criminalist at the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, testified regarding the forensic examination of suspected controlled substances found on defendant's person and in his car, including the pills located in his pocket. Rienhardt stated: "[W]ith pharmaceuticals, we just identify the tablet based on its logo. And we don't do chemical testing on those unless requested." Rienhardt testified the rectangular tablets found in the cellophane wrapper "contain[ed] alprazolam. The generic name is Xanax."⁵ He identified their contents by "[u]sing a database that [he] searched against with [sic ] the logos that were on the tablets." He said such a search was the generally accepted method of testing for that substance in the scientific community, and the results of his test were valid and unexceptional.

Two days after defendant's conviction, the California Supreme Court issued its opinion in People v. Sanchez (2016) 63 Cal.4th 665, 686, 204 Cal.Rptr.3d 102, 374 P.3d 320 ( Sanchez ), which held an expert cannot "relate as true case-specific facts asserted in hearsay statements, unless they are independently proven by competent evidence or are covered by a hearsay exception." Defendant contends his conviction must be reversed because Rienhardt's testimony relayed case-specific hearsay to the jury which was improper under Sanchez .⁶

2. Forfeiture

We first address the Attorney General's claim defendant forfeited the issue by failing to object below. We previously rejected a similar argument in People v. Jeffrey G. (2017) 13 Cal.App.5th 501, 507–508, 221 Cal.Rptr.3d 88 ( Jeffrey G. ). There we explained, "Under the law prevailing at the time of defendant's hearing, an expert was permitted to testify relatively freely about the content of hearsay evidence relating to the circumstances at hand, if the evidence constituted a basis for his or her opinion." ( Id. at p. 506, 221 Cal.Rptr.3d 88.) Given the liberal admissibility of such testimony, any hearsay objection most likely would have been overruled. Because reviewing courts " ‘have traditionally excused parties for failing to raise an issue at trial where an objection would have been futile,’ " and because parties are generally not expected to anticipate rulings that significantly change prevailing law, we concluded the defendant had not forfeited his claim. ( Id. at pp. 507–508, 221 Cal.Rptr.3d 88.) As in Jeffrey G., defendant's trial took place before the Sanchez decision, and accordingly, he is not precluded from raising the issue on appeal despite his failure to object below.⁷

3. Sanchez

In Sanchez, our Supreme Court clarified the "traditional" distinction between "an expert's testimony regarding his general knowledge in his field of expertise" and the expert's testimony about "case-specific facts about which the expert has no independent knowledge." ( Sanchez, supra, 63 Cal.4th at p. 676, 204 Cal.Rptr.3d 102, 374 P.3d 320.) The former, while technically hearsay, is admissible, but the latter is not. ( Ibid. ) Turning to the merits of the case before us, we consider whether Rienhardt's expert testimony was inadmissible, case-specific hearsay.

Defendant relies heavily on a factually similar case from a different division of this court, People v. Stamps (2016) 3 Cal.App.5th 988, 207 Cal.Rptr.3d 828 ( Stamps ), to argue for reversal here. In Stamps , the defendant was convicted of possession of drugs in a pill form. At trial, the expert criminalist identified the content of the drugs by visually comparing their appearance to pills on the "Ident-A-Drug" Web site. ( Id. at p. 991, 207 Cal.Rptr.3d 828.) "Based on the shape and color of the pills, their markings and their condition," the expert determined they contained the alleged controlled substances. ( Ibid. ) The Stamps court concluded the expert's testimony about the content of the Ident-A-Drug Web site was case-specific hearsay, and thus, inadmissible under Sanchez . ( Stamps , at p. 997, 207 Cal.Rptr.3d 828.) "We think it undeniable that the chemical composition of the pills Stamps possessed must be considered case specific. Indeed, the Ident-A-Drug hearsay was admitted as proof of the very gravamen of the crime with which she was charged." ( Ibid . )

In this case, as did the expert in Stamps , Rienhardt told the jury he identified the contents of the tablets taken from defendant by comparing their appearance with information in a database. We respectfully disagree with Stamps, however, that the expert's testimony was inadmissible. As we will explain, Rienhardt's testimony comprised two distinct parts. His testimony about the appearance of the pills, though case specific, was not hearsay because it was based on his personal observation. His testimony about the database, while hearsay, was not case specific, but the type of general background information which has always been admissible when related by an expert. Thus, under our reading of Sanchez, both parts of Rienhardt's testimony were admissible.

We begin our analysis with the explanation offered by our high court: "The hearsay rule has traditionally not barred an expert's testimony regarding his general knowledge in his field of expertise. ‘[T]he common law recognized that experts frequently acquired their knowledge from hearsay, and that "to reject a professional physician or mathematician because the fact or some facts to which he testifies are known to him only upon the authority of others would be to ignore the accepted methods of professional work and to insist on ... impossible standards." Thus, the common law accepted that an expert's general knowledge often came from inadmissible evidence.’ [Citations.] Knowledge in a specialized area is what differentiates the expert from a lay witness, and makes his testimony uniquely valuable to the jury in explaining matters ‘beyond the common experience of an ordinary juror.’ [Citations.] As such, an expert's testimony concerning his general knowledge, even if technically hearsay, has not been subject to exclusion on hearsay grounds.

"By contrast, an expert has traditionally been precluded from relating case-specific facts about which the expert has no independent knowledge. Case-specific facts are those relating to the particular events and participants alleged to have...