People v. Watson

• Decision Date: 08 May 2008
• Docket Number: No. S024471.,S024471.
• Citation: 182 P.3d 543,43 Cal.4th 652,76 Cal.Rptr.3d 208
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Paul Gregory WATSON, Defendant and Appellant.

182 P.3d 543

43 Cal.4th 652

76 Cal.Rptr.3d 208

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Paul Gregory WATSON, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S024471.

Supreme Court of California.

May 8, 2008.

Lynn S. Coffin and Michael J. Hersek, State Public Defenders, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Peter R. Silten, Deputy State Public Defender, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, David P. Druliner and Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Carol Wendelin Pollack and Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorneys General, William T. Harter, Susan Lee Frierson, April S. Rylaarsdam, John R. Gorey and Nancy G. James, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

MORENO, J.

Defendant Paul Gregory Watson was convicted of two counts of first degree murder (Pen.Code, § 187, subd. (a))¹ with multiple-murder special-circumstance findings (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)). The jury found that defendant was armed with and personally used a firearm in the commission of the offense. (§§ 12022, subd. (a), 12022.5, subd. (a).) At the penalty phase, the jury returned a verdict of death.

The trial court denied defendant's automatic application to modify the verdict (§ 190.4, subd. (e)) and sentenced defendant to death. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment.

I. FACTS

A. Guilt Phase

1. Prosecution's Case

a. The Shooting

During early 1989 in Compton, California, the Atlantic Drive Crips were "at war" with the Santana Block Crips. On the afternoon of Sunday, April 2, 1989, a large group of people were passing the day at Compton's Kelly Park.² The individuals in the park that day included members of the Atlantic Drive Crips and their allies, the Kelly Park Crips and the In Hood Crips. By early evening, between 100 and 150 people, most of whom were barbecuing, listening to music, and playing basketball, remained in the park.

That evening, Timothy Martin was talking with a friend in front of the Alondra Apartments when he noticed a white Cadillac, followed by another vehicle, traveling westbound on Alondra Boulevard toward Castlegate Avenue. The vehicles aroused his suspicion because there were "too many people in both cars." He was also alarmed because he believed the occupants to be members of the Santana Block Crips. Martin rode his bicycle to the park to alert his brother to the potential danger.

After talking to his brother, Martin rode to his house on Castlegate Avenue, south of Caldwell Street. While Martin stood in his driveway talking to another friend, he saw the same white Cadillac stop at the corner of Castlegate Avenue and Caldwell Street. The front passenger, whom Martin identified as defendant in a photo lineup and at trial, was seated on the door rail, holding an AK-47 rifle over the roof of the car and aiming at Martin. The Cadillac then continued toward the park, and five or six seconds later Martin heard about 20 gunshots. A reluctant witness, Martin had received threats to his life from unidentified persons if he testified.

Terry Fennell, who was associated with the Kelly Park Crips, was in the park playing basketball about 6:00 that evening. After finishing a game, he walked to his car on Butler Avenue to get a towel. As he returned to the park, he noticed Tammy Eldridge and Ava Williams sitting in a black Toyota Celica parked in front of the Compton Police Department substation on the north side of Caldwell Street, with their three young children in the car. Eldridge and Williams were talking with Earl Solomon, a member of the Atlantic Drive Crips. A white Cadillac with three occupants was traveling westbound on Caldwell Street; Fennell recognized the Cadillac as belonging to defendant. When Fennell reached the sidewalk on the north side of Caldwell Street, 20 feet from the Cadillac, he saw an AK-47, held by defendant, come out of the window. Defendant leaned out of the front passenger window of the Cadillac and shot into the park. Fennell ducked behind a parked car and continued to watch defendant. The Cadillac passed Eldridge's Celica; defendant turned back toward the Celica and continued shooting, hitting Solomon in the head. Fennell could not remember if any cars were following the Cadillac.

Fennell was standing about 35 to 40 feet from Solomon when Solomon was shot. He went directly to Solomon's body while Eldridge started her car and drove away down Butler Avenue. Fennell was the first to arrive at Solomon's side, and left immediately after confirming he was dead. Fennell later returned to the scene and spoke with police.

Fennell had been convicted of taking a vehicle and receiving stolen property. Fennell's friends in the neighborhood stopped talking with him because they did not want him to come forward and testify. He and his family ultimately were forced to move away from the neighborhood.

Gary Lomax, Fennell's brother-in-law, was also playing basketball in the park at the time of the shooting. His back was to Caldwell Street when he heard the gunfire, and he turned to see what was happening. As he ran for cover, Lomax saw two cars traveling westbound on Caldwell Street. Lomax had seen the two cars pass the park 10 to 15 minutes before the shootings. Lomax testified defendant was leaning out of, and trying to sit back down in, the passenger side of one of the cars, holding what appeared to be a gun.

Between 6:00 and 6:35 p.m., Hermetta Harper, a security officer employed by the City of Compton, was inside the police substation at Kelly Park when she heard about 15 to 20 gunshots coming from the area of Castlegate Avenue and Caldwell Street. Although she could not see what was going on outside, she heard the gunfire moving westward along the south side of the park. When the firing stopped, she saw an African-American male lying in front of the substation bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to the head. She approached him and found he had no pulse. By this time, police officers were arriving at the park and Harper returned to the substation to report a homicide.

Brian Owens, an associate of the Atlantic Drive Crips, was also in Kelly Park that day. He saw Eldridge and Williams there in his Toyota Celica, which he had loaned to Eldridge. Hearing gunfire, Owens looked up to see a white Cadillac being driven westbound on Caldwell Street, with a person hanging out of the passenger window. Owens saw the person shoot a rifle into the park, hitting Solomon in the head. He later described the shooter as a light-skinned African-American man wearing a white T-shirt.

After witnessing the shooting, Owens ran to his Chevrolet Cavalier, got in, and chased the Cadillac, armed with a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun. Some cars that had been trailing the Cadillac moved behind Owens's car and opened fire. Owens could not recall whether he ever fired his weapon. He was hit in the left shoulder and the head; at the time of trial a bullet remained in his head and he was blind in his left eye. His memory of that day's events was impaired. He admitted he could not remember anything after seeing Solomon get shot and had filled in the rest of the events by speaking to other individuals.

About 6:15 on the evening of the shootings, Officer Henry Johnson of the Compton Police Department received a radio call directing him to go to Kelly Park. As his partner drove down Alondra Boulevard, Johnson saw a late model Chevrolet Cavalier traveling in the opposite direction, but he did not see anyone in the driver's seat. Johnson instructed his partner to make a U-turn and follow the Cavalier, which went off the road and came to rest in a flowerbed near the corner of Alondra Boulevard and Ward Avenue. Johnson ran to the Cavalier. Inside, an African-American male (Owens) was lying unconscious across the front seats, his arm extended toward the floor near a blue steel .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun that smelled as if it recently had been fired. Johnson saw three large-caliber bullet holes near the driver's door, a large-caliber bullet hole at the left front fender, and a similar hole at the left rear fender. The rear window was broken out, and in the windshield was what appeared to be a bullet exit hole.

Irma Myricks and her daughter Latrice Nick lived near Kelly Park and were at home on the evening of April 2, 1989. They both heard gunshots and looked out their front door to see a white Cadillac traveling westbound on Caldwell Street. Myricks saw someone hanging out of the car's window firing a gun, and then saw Solomon lying on the sidewalk.

Tammy Eldridge testified at trial that she and Williams were sitting in Owens's Celica parked in front of the police substation at Kelly Park while talking with Earl Solomon, who was standing on the sidewalk on the north side of Caldwell Street. As they talked, Eldridge heard gunshots coming from behind her and saw people running and getting down on the ground. Eldridge tried to shield herself and the children from the gunshots. When the shooting stopped, she looked up to see a white Cadillac similar to one she previously had seen defendant driving, followed by a dark blue or black car. A medium-complected African-American man leaned out of the passenger window of the Cadillac with what Eldridge believed to be a rifle in his hands. She then heard more shooting and again ducked for protection. Williams's head fell to Eldridge's knee and, when the firing ceased, Eldridge lifted Williams's head, revealing a large bullet wound to her face and causing one of her eyes to fall out of her head. Eldridge replaced the eye and drove away to get help.

Eldridge stopped her car in front of some houses and rushed the children inside someone's home. Williams was not conscious or moving. Eldridge noticed a bullet hole in the windshield of the Celica.

Alisha Dukes lived near Castlegate Avenue and Adana Street near Kelly Park in Compton. On the evening of the shooting, ...