The People v. Collins
Decision Date | 11 August 2010 |
Docket Number | No. S058537.,S058537. |
Citation | 232 P.3d 32,49 Cal.4th 175,110 Cal.Rptr.3d 384 |
Parties | The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,v.Scott Forrest COLLINS, Defendant and Appellant. |
Court | California Supreme Court |
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Lynne S. Coffin and Michael J. Hersek, State Public Defenders, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Kent Barkhurst, Deputy Sate Public Defender, for Defendant and Appellant.
Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorney General, Sharlene A. Honnaka and Theresa A. Patterson, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. CORRIGAN, J.
A jury convicted defendant of first degree murder, robbery, and kidnapping for robbery. It found true kidnapping-murder and robbery-murder special circumstances and allegations that defendant personally used a firearm in the commission of the offenses.1 The jury fixed the penalty at death. The trial court granted defendant's motion for a new penalty trial, after which the trial judge recused himself from further proceedings in the case. Upon appeal by the People, the Court of Appeal reversed the trial court's order granting a new penalty trial and reinstated the death penalty. Following reassignment to another trial judge, defendant's automatic application to modify the penalty verdict was denied.2 This appeal is automatic. We affirm the judgment.
Fred Rose worked for a construction business in Lancaster and drove a gray 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass. On January 23, 1992, around 2:00 p.m., Rose told his office manager he was going to lunch. Rose usually ate lunch at one of the fast-food restaurants on Avenue I in Lancaster and often stopped at Bob's Liquor Store afterward for a candy bar. He normally returned to the office within 30 minutes and always phoned the office manager if he was delayed. Rose did not call and never returned.
At 4:05 p.m. that day, Rose's ATM card was used to withdraw $200 from the Northridge branch of the First Interstate Bank. One minute later, another withdrawal was attempted but rejected. Carolyn LeBlanc, sitting in her car outside the bank, saw defendant approach the ATM, hesitate, walk away briefly, and then return. LeBlanc identified defendant from a photographic lineup.
That evening, residents in the area of Clybourn Avenue and Chandler Boulevard in North Hollywood heard gunshots. Clybourn Avenue intersected Chandler Boulevard at a dead-end. Hedges on Chandler obscured railroad tracks that ran parallel to the street. Between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m., John Kirby and Robert Chandler heard two shots about five seconds apart and walked outside. Linda Ryan heard the two shots between 6:20 and 6:30 p.m. and looked out her window. Kirby said the shots came from the direction of Chandler. He saw a car pull away from the curb and all three witnesses saw the car drive west on Chandler with its lights off. Kirby and Ryan believed the car was silver or gray, and both identified a photograph of Rose's Oldsmobile as similar to the car they saw. Chandler tried unsuccessfully to read the car's license plate. He saw the driver in silhouette, but saw no one else in the car.
Around 8:45 p.m., Richard Hamar was jogging east on the railroad tracks along Chandler. He saw Rose, making gurgling sounds, lying next to the tracks. Hamar thought Rose was drunk and did not stop. Rose was still there when Hamar returned 20 minutes later. When Hamar saw that Rose was lying in a pool of blood, he called 911. Firefighters arrived a short time later, followed by paramedics and police. Rose had a gunshot wound to the head and was airlifted to the hospital. The next day he was taken off life support and pronounced dead.
At 9:30 p.m. on the night of the shooting, defendant used Rose's Chevron credit card to buy gas in North Hollywood. The station, on Moorpark Street, was about two miles from the murder scene and .9 miles from defendant's previous residence on Cahuenga Boulevard. Defendant tried to buy beer and produced identification at the clerk's request. However, he abandoned the purchase when the clerk began to write down his identification information. The clerk later identified defendant from a photographic lineup. The police obtained the Chevron credit card receipt.
Los Angeles Police Detective Jesse Castillo arrived at the location of the shooting around 11:00 p.m., after Rose had been taken to the hospital. Castillo searched for weapons and bullets, but found none. There was no trail of blood from the street, which led Castillo to conclude the victim had been shot at the scene rather than shot elsewhere and dragged to the location. Castillo saw shoe prints near the blood pool where the victim had been lying. He noted their location on a chart at trial. To the east of the blood pool were two shoe prints made by the boots of emergency personnel. There were many other overlapping and trampled shoe prints that Castillo “could not make heads or tails out of” except to identify them as belonging to emergency personnel.3 Castillo saw five shoe prints on the west side of the pool of blood. One print had been made by the jogger.
The various shoe prints were photographed. Criminalist Ronald Raquel compared the depicted impressions to the soles of a pair of size 13 Nike Driving Force shoes taken from defendant. Raquel concluded that certain photographs contained impressions matching the pattern of defendant's shoes. Raquel believed the impressions were made by a shoe sized between 12 1/2 and 13 1/2, but could not be more precise because no photograph depicted an entire heel-to-toe impression. As a result, Raquel testified that although he could not be certain, it was his “educated opinion” that defendant's shoes made the impressions.
A patent and inventions manager for Nike Corporation examined the photographs of the shoe prints from the crime scene. He believed the prints were made by a size 13 shoe, although the size could have ranged from 12 1/2 to 13 1/2. The depicted pattern was used on Nike shoes made between 1988 and 1991.
Detective Castillo testified that the Nike shoe impressions were found at two points west of the body. On direct exam, Castillo described these locations as a “few feet” from the pool of blood. He testified on cross-examination, however, that the Nike impressions were about 15 feet away. A firefighter's shoe print overlapped one of the Nike impressions.4
Dr. William Sherry supervised Rose's autopsy. Rose died from a gunshot wound to the head. The bullet entered the upper right rear of the head and exited through the right forehead. Dr. Sherry opined that the wound was caused by a medium caliber bullet, more likely from a revolver than an automatic. A .38 special is a typical medium caliber bullet.
Defendant's mother, Mary Collins, testified that she and defendant lived in Palmdale. Around 11:00 a.m. on the day of the shooting, she drove defendant to Lancaster, dropping him near Avenue I. In 1986, Mrs. Collins and defendant lived on Cahuenga Boulevard in North Hollywood. Detective Castillo testified that the distance between defendant's former home and the murder scene is 1.2 miles.
Around 11:00 p.m. on the night of the crime, defendant arrived in Bakersfield at the home of Olga and Tony Munoz, where his girlfriend Maria Gutierrez was staying. He spent the night. The next day defendant and Gutierrez bought beer and went to the nearby home of Gutierrez's cousin, Dagoberta Amaya. Other young people began gathering in the backyard during the afternoon. Defendant made several more trips to the market to buy beer, and the drinking continued into the evening. Amaya gave defendant a black hooded jacket to wear.
The events of the evening of January 24, 1992, were related by five witnesses: Amaya, Michael Hernandez, Lorenzo Santana, Sergio Zamora and David Camacho. At the time of trial, nearly two years after the offense, Amaya was 20 years old and on felony probation. Hernandez and Santana were 18 and 16 years old, and incarcerated at the California Youth Authority. Zamora and Camacho were 17 years old and on probation. Hernandez, Zamora, and Santana were Varrio Bakers gang members. Camacho was not a gang member. Amaya was no longer in the gang at the time of trial.
Amaya testified that Rose's Oldsmobile was parked across the street from his house on January 24, 1992. Defendant said he had stolen the car to get to Bakersfield. Defendant showed Amaya a bank card and a Chevron credit card. Amaya recalled the name on the cards as similar to “Fred Jose.” Defendant showed a .38-caliber gun to some of the young men who had come to Amaya's house that afternoon. Santana recalled that Amaya retrieved the gun from beneath some boards while defendant stood next to him. Defendant explained that the gun was “messed up.” Santana overheard defendant brag to Larry Castro “something about the murder and the gun he had.” Santana told police that he also heard defendant tell Castro he “got the guy at a liquor store.” Hernandez heard defendant say that the gun “had a murder rap on it.”
At some point after the gun was displayed, Santana, Hernandez, Castro and a fourth person called “Veterano” left the gathering in the Oldsmobile to commit a burglary. Hernandez saw Castro with a gun, which he assumed was the .38-caliber shown at Amaya's house. The four returned to Amaya's house afterward.
Later that evening, Amaya was drunk. He obtained defendant's gun but did not recall how. He and his girlfriend argued and Amaya put the gun to his head. Defendant grabbed the gun,...
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Table of cases
...3d 69, 211 Cal. Rptr. 102, §17:100 Coleman, People v. (1970) 8 Cal. App. 3d 722, 87 Cal. Rptr. 554, §1:240 Collins, People v. (2010) 49 Cal. 4th 175, 110 Cal. Rptr. 3d 384, §§1:380, 7:120, 7:140, 20:60, 22:70, 22:170, 22:180 Collins, People v. (1986) 42 Cal. 3d 378, 228 Cal. Rptr. 899, §11:......
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Witness examination
...recollection generally, see §7:80. • Questions that confront a witness with prior inconsistent statements. People v. Collins (2010) 49 Cal. 4th 175, 217, 110 Cal. Rptr. 3d 384. • Questions to hostile witnesses. People v. Gonzalez (2021) 12 Cal. 5th 367, 401-402, 287 Cal. Rptr. 3d 2. For hos......
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Objections, motions and related procedures
...matter, when accompanied by a prompt admonition to disregard the evidence, do not cause incurable prejudice. People v. Collins (2010) 49 Cal. 4th 175, 225, 110 Cal. Rptr. 3d 384. But an untimely admonition may be insufficient to cure the prejudice from the admission of evidence, even where ......
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Table of cases
...42 Cal.3d 378, §§5:100.3, 9:28.9, 9:103.5 People v. Collins (2001) 26 Cal. 4th 297, §§9:13, 9:13.1, 9:13.2 People v. Collins (2010) 49 Cal.4th 175, §9:93.7 People v. Conner (1986) 176 Cal.App.3d 716, §10:34.1 People v. Conrad (2008) 145 Cal.App.4th 1175, §6:23 People v. Conterno (1959) 170 ......