People v. Wein, Cr. 6130

CourtUnited States State Supreme Court (California)
Citation50 Cal.2d 383,326 P.2d 457
Decision Date27 May 1958
Docket NumberCr. 6130
PartiesThe PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Edward Simon WEIN, Defendant and Appellant.

Russell E. Parsons, Beverly Hills, and Henry E. Kappler, Los Angeles, for appellant.

Louis Licht, Los Angeles, as amicus curiae on behalf of appellant.

Edmund G. Brown, Atty. Gen., Elizabeth Miller, Ray R. Goldie and Joe Yasaki, Deputy Attys. Gen., for respondent.

SPENCE, Justice.

Defendant was charged by information with three counts of robbery (Pen.Code, § 211), six counts of rape (Pen.Code, § 261, subd. 3), six counts of sex perversion (Pen.Code, § 288a), two counts of kidnaping (Pen.Code, § 207), and five counts of kidnaping for the purpose of robbery (Pen.Code, § 209). Defendant initially entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity, but he withdrew the latter plea prior to trial. The jury found defendant guilty on all the counts charged in the information. They further found that in each count charging kidnaping for the purpose of robbery, the person named therein suffered bodily harm, and they fixed the penalty at death; and that in each count charging robbery, the crime was in the first degree. A motion for a new trial was denied. Defendant was sentenced to death on the five counts of kidnaping for the purpose of robbery done with bodily harm, and to the state prison for the term prescribed by law on each of the remaining counts, the last mentioned sentences to run consecutively. This appeal from the judgments of death comes before us automatically. Pen.Code, § 1239, subd. (b). Defendant's present counsel have been substituted for his trial counsel for the purpose of this appeal.

These convictions arose out of separate attacks on eight different women, which attacks occurred over a period of approximately eighteen months. It would serve no useful purpose to relate all the sordid facts surrounding the commission of the several offenses. The evidence concerning the last incident will be set forth in some detail, as it typifies the general pattern which ran through most of the attacks with but slight variations.

On October 30, 1956, the last victim advertised some furniture for sale in several newspapers circulated in the Los Angeles vicinity, giving her telephone number but not her address. She occupied a lower apartment in a house located in the Hollywood hills. At about noon on October 31, 1956, she received a telephone call from a man in response to the advertisement, and she made an appointment for him to see the furniture that afternoon. The man arrived at about 2:30 p. m. and identified himself as the party who had called earlier that day. A friend of the victim was present at her apartment when he arrived. He indicated that he was interested in beds and accompanied the victim into the bedroom to examine them. After seeing and discussing the furniture for 10 to 15 minutes, the man left, saying that he would either call or return after visiting another place. The victim drove her friend home at about 3:30 p. m. and returned to her apartment at about 3:45 p. m.

About five minutes after her return, the man reappeared at the apartment and said that he wanted to measure one of the beds to see if it would fit his living quarters. After measuring the bed, he stated that he would like to call his wife and have her view the furniture. With the victim's permission, he used her telephone, and after dialing a number and apparently getting no response, he hung up.

The man then looked at his watch and told the victim that he had lost his watch stem. She sympathized with him and got down on the floor in the small hall just outside the living room to help him look for it. Being unable to find the stem, she started to get up. The man, who was then behind her, put his arm around her waist and told her to say nothing. She felt something sharp in her back and discovered that it was a knife. He instructed her to lie down and then tied her hands with copper wire.

He then told the victim to find her billfold, and after helping her up, told her that he wanted only money and that he would not hurt her. She could not remember exactly where she had last placed her billfold. With his arms around her and the knife in her back, he forced her against her will and without consent to walk with him to a desk in the living room. This was a distance of approximately 20 to 25 feet. He opened the desk drawer but the billfold was not there. He told the victim to crawl on her knees through the living room to the bedroom, a distance of about 50 feet, and she complied out of fear. She told him to look in the dresser drawers. He found the billfold, and placed it and the $17 or $18 it contained in his pocket.

The man then pushed the victim to the floor and said, 'Now I have got the money, how about some sex?' He then removed the clothing from the lower portions of her body, exposed his private parts, and forced her to engage in an act of oral copulation (Pen.Code, § 288a) while he brandished a knife. Thereafter, and without her consent, he indulged in an act of sexual intercourse.

The telephone then rang and the occupants of the upstairs apartment started to walk around. The man said that he was going to leave. He made the victim lie on the floor on her stomach, tied her legs with her hose, and shoved her undergarments into her mouth. He then picked up a towel and ripped it, using the larger portion to wipe the floor, drawers and door knobs. He tied the other part of the towel around her mouth and covered her head with another towel. After he had left, she struggled and was able to free her hands and feet. She then summoned the police.

The seven other incidents reflect in varying degrees the same techniques and show a consistent pattern of operations used by the perpetrator of these crimes. In each case, either rentals of living quarters or sales of personal property had been advertised in the newspapers. In all but one, he gained entrance on the pretext that he was answering the advertisement. He would often use some ruse to survey the premises for other occupants, such as asking to wash his hands in the bathroom, viewing the items for sale, or making a telephone call. In several instances, he left after finding some impediment to his scheme, later returning at a more opportune time. In some, he pretended to call his wife or girl friend to have her join in the selection. He feigned that he had dropped a watch stem in six cases and a watch crystal in another. He grabbed the victims from behind and threatened them with a knife. Their hands were tied with copper wire in several cases, and their legs were bound with their own stockings. In many ways, the methods that he employed in forcing the victims to part with their money and, in most instances, to submit to his lustful desires were strikingly similar. Of course, all the similarities did not appear in every case. The sexual molestations varied in degree and did not occur at all in one case. During one attack, the assailant and another man were present. Nevertheless, there can be little doubt that the same man committed all of the numerous crimes charged.

Defendant was connected with these offenses in several ways. Seven of the victims positively identified him as their assailant. The eighth said he looked like the same man. Beyond these identifications, there were four other phases of the evidence corroborating the victims. First, a man transacting business with one of the victims clearly identified defendant as the person who was with her the night before she was molested. Second, a car which defendant had borrowed from a friend was seen parked in the driveway of the residence of one of the victims by two witnesses who recognized the vehicle by the lettered part of the California license plate and the somewhat unique brand of tires on it. Third, defendant was identified as the man who answered an advertisement for the sale of a used kitchen range and who left a check in payment. A handwriting expert testified that defendant was the person who wrote the check. There was no attack involved in the last mentioned incident. Fourth, expert witnesses testified that a fragmentary fingerprint found on a water glass, used by the assailant at the home of one of the victims, was the fingerprint of defendant.

Defendant denied that he had committed any of the offenses. Witnesses were called to testify to his good reputation. He also presented testimony indicating that he was at other locations during the time that three of the offenses had been committed.

Conduct of Prosecuting Attorney During Voir Dire Examination.

Defendant contends that the deputy district attorney was overly zealous in questioning the prospective jurors. He primarily objects to the examination of the jurors about their opinions on capital punishment and to the discussion of their responsibility for imposing the death penalty if warranted by the facts of the case. However, a prosecutor in a case where the death penalty may be imposed clearly has the right to ascertain the views of the potential jurors (see People v. Hoyt, 20 Cal.2d 306, 318, 125 P.2d 29; People v. Rollins, 179 Cal. 793, 795-796, 179 P. 209) so that he can intelligently exercise his challenges against those whose consciences would preclude them from imposing this penalty. See Pen.Code, § 1074, subd. 8; People v. Riser, 47 Cal.2d 566, 573-576, 305 P.2d 1.

Defendant also deems portions of the prosecutor's explanation of the law applicable to the case to have been prejudicial. However, the prosecutor properly used such explanation as a basis for hypothetical questions to determine whether the jurors would follow the instructions of the court (Kramm v. Stockton Electric R. Co., 22 Cal.App. 737, 746-747, 136 P. 523) and to ascertain their state of mind on the issues...

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