People v. Waidla

• Decision Date: 06 April 2000
• Docket Number: No. S020161.,S020161.
• Citation: 996 P.2d 46,22 Cal.4th 690,94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Tauno WAIDLA, Defendant and Appellant.

94 Cal.Rptr.2d 396

22 Cal.4th 690

996 P.2d 46

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Tauno WAIDLA, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S020161.

Supreme Court of California.

April 6, 2000.

Rehearing Denied June 14, 2000.

Certiorari Denied November 27, 2000.

Eric S. Multhaup, Mill Valley, and Tara Mulay, under appointments by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.

Daniel E. Lungren and Bill Lockyer, Attorneys General, George Williamson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Carol Wendelin Pollack, Assistant Attorney General, Susan Lee Frierson, Lance E. Winters and Michael C. Keller, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Certiorari Denied November 27, 2000. See 121 S.Ct. 580.

MOSK, J.

This cause involves an appeal, which is automatic, from a judgment including a sentence of death against Tauno Waidla. A separate cause involves a similar appeal from a similar judgment against Peter Sakarias. (People v. Sakarias (2000) 22 Cal.4th 596, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152.)¹

I. Procedural History

On November 28, 1988, on behalf of the People of the State of California, the District Attorney of the County of Los Angeles presented an information to the superior court thereof against Waidla and Sakarias, accusing them of various felonies committed during the preceding summer. As subsequently illuminated by the evidence, the information — which was pleaded, according to custom, in the conjunctive (In re Bushman (1970) 1 Cal.3d 767, 775, 83 Cal.Rptr. 375, 463 P.2d 727) — is to the following effect.

In count 1, the district attorney charged that Waidla and Sakarias murdered Viivi Piirisild in the home that she shared with her husband Avo Piirisild in North Hollywood. To make them subject to the penalty of death, he alleged that they committed the murder under the special circumstances of felony-murder robbery and felony-murder burglary. To enhance any noncapital sentence that they might receive, he alleged that, in committing the murder, they personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon in the form of a knife. For the same purpose, he similarly alleged that, in committing the murder, they personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon in the form of a hatchet. In count 2, he charged that, in the same incident, they robbed her at home. Among his allegations were separate ones for sentence enhancement against both men, one for personal use of a deadly and dangerous weapon in the form of a knife, the other for personal use of a deadly and dangerous weapon in the form of a hatchet. In count 3, he charged that, also in the same incident, they burglarized the home. Here, as above, his allegations included separate ones for sentence enhancement against both men, one for personal use of a deadly and dangerous weapon in the form of a knife, the other for personal use of a deadly and dangerous weapon in the form of a hatchet. In count i, he charged that, in an earlier incident, they burglarized a cabin that the Piirisilds owned in Crestline in San Bernardino County. In count 5, he charged that they fraudulently obtained telephone services. In count 6, he charged that they concealed, sold, and withheld stolen property that they took from the cabin. In count 7, he charged that Sakarias alone committed grand theft by taking an automotive vehicle.

Waidla and Sakarias (see People v. Sakarias, supra, 22 Cal.4th at p. 609, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152) each pleaded not guilty to the charges, and denied the allegations.

Subsequently, the superior court found that Sakarias was not mentally competent to stand trial, and suspended criminal proceedings against him alone. (See People v. Sakarias, supra, 22 Cal.4th at p. 616, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152.) It severed Waidla's and Sakarias's cases, and allowed Waidla's to go forward.

Trial of Waidla was by jury. After the guilt phase, by its verdicts and findings, the jury found him guilty of the following felonies under the following special and other circumstances: murder in the first degree against Viivi, under the felony-murder-robbery and felony-murder-burglary special circumstances, with the personal use of a deadly and dangerous weapon in the form of a hatchet but not a knife; robbery in the first degree against her, again with the personal use of a deadly and dangerous weapon in the form of a hatchet but not a knife; burglary in the first degree as to the Piirisilds' home, yet again with the personal use of a deadly and dangerous weapon in the form of a hatchet but not a knife; burglary in the first degree as to their cabin; fraudulently obtaining telephone services; and sale of stolen property. After the penalty phase, by its verdict, it fixed the punishment for Viivi's murder at death instead of a term of imprisonment for life without possibility of parole.

The superior court rendered judgment against Waidla accordingly, sentencing him to death for Viivi's murder and also to a term of imprisonment for each of the other felonies, whose execution it stayed, totaling 18 years.

Later, having found that Sakarias had recovered mental competence, the superior court reinstated criminal proceedings. (People v. Sakarias, supra, 22 Cal.4th at p. 617, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152.) Trial was by jury. (See id. at p. 615, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152.) After the guilt phase, the superior court apparently dismissed the charge of grand theft. (See id. at p. 608, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152.) Thereupon, the jury found him guilty of the same felonies, under the same special and apparently other circumstances, as had Waidla's jury with respect to Waidla. (See ibid.) After the penalty phase, it fixed the punishment for Viivi's murder at death. (See id. at pp. 608-609, 94 Cal. Rptr.2d 17, 995 P.2d 152.) The superior court rendered judgment accordingly, sentencing him to death for her murder and also to a term of imprisonment for each of the other felonies, whose execution it stayed, totaling 18 years. (Ibid.)

II. The Facts

At the guilt phase, the People introduced evidence, including a confession that Waidla made to the police, to prove to the jury that he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of all of the felonies charged under all of the special and other circumstances alleged, including first degree murder both on a theory of willful, premeditated, and deliberate murder and also on theories of felony-murder burglary and felony-murder robbery.

Avo and Viivi Piirisild were born in the Baltic state of Estonia. In 1951, they came to the United States. They subsequently married, and had a single child, their daughter Rita. They were active in the Baltic American Freedom League, a volunteer organization whose purposes included securing the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which were then occupied by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. They owned a home in North Hollywood and a cabin in Crestline. By the time pertinent here, Rita had grown to adulthood, left home, and married, taking her husband's surname Hughes, and living with him in the general area.

Around April of 1987, Avo and Viivi met Waidla and Sakarias. It appears that Viivi was then vice-president and secretary of the Baltic American Freedom League, and that Avo had formerly been its president. According to evidence including testimony that he himself would give bearing on his background and character, Waidla was born in Estonia apparently in 1967, and was reared there; he was conscripted into the Soviet Army, an altogether brutal environment, in 1986; he was sent to what was then East Germany for basic training; he ended up in a military hospital; once there, he met Sakarias, himself an Estonian conscript, who was assigned to drive a paramedic vehicle; they decided to desert; they left one night under the cover of darkness; after completing a journey of about three days, they crossed the border into what was then West Germany; apparently together with Sakarias, Waidla asked for, and received, political asylum, and sought, and obtained, permission to go to the United States; also apparently together with Sakarias, Waidla arrived in New York City in January of 1987, to the welcome of the Estonian-American community there, and arrived in due course in Los Angeles in April of 1987, to the welcome of the Estonian-American community there. Both Waidla and Sakarias spoke and understood English. Of the two, Sakarias was more outgoing and outspoken, Waidla less so.

After meeting Avo and Viivi around April of 1987, Waidla and Sakarias moved into an apartment close to their home. Viivi invited them to dinner, and they accepted. Soon thereafter, she arranged for Waidla to interview for a position as a translator with the Voice of America in Washington, D.C.; he went there, something unfortunate apparently happened, and he returned about a week later.

Later in the spring of 1987, at Viivi's suggestion, Avo invited Waidla to move into their home — Viivi had told Avo, "He has no where [sic] to go, so we have to help him." Waidla accepted. He moved in immediately. In the time that followed, Avo and Viivi would take him with them to their cabin. They provided him with room and board; they also saw to his other needs, including clothing, medical care, cigarettes, etc. He got a little bit of money from other sources — for example, he sold to a Canadian newspaper an article that he wrote, and Viivi helped translate, relating to his flight with Sakarias from the Soviet Army to the West; he took some photographs for the Baltic American Freedom League; and he did various odd jobs. He expressed no interest in finding work or in furthering his education; indeed, he expressed an interest in not doing so: Not only did he make no effort on his own behalf, he even frustrated efforts made by others, including Avo and Viivi, as by remaining only a week at a job that they had gotten for him and by refusing to cooperate in obtaining a scholarship that they had attempted to...