In Re ELB

172 Cal. App. 3d 780, 218 Cal. Rptr. 429
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 26, 1985
DocketF005265
StatusPublished

This text of 172 Cal. App. 3d 780 (In Re ELB) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re ELB, 172 Cal. App. 3d 780, 218 Cal. Rptr. 429 (Cal. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

172 Cal.App.3d 780 (1985)
218 Cal. Rptr. 429

In re E.L.B., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
E.L.B., Defendant and Appellant.

Docket No. F005265.

Court of Appeals of California, Fifth District.

September 26, 1985.

*782 COUNSEL

Judith K. Kent and Dallas Sacher, under appointments by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

John K. Van de Kamp, Attorney General, Robert D. Marshall and Michael T. Garcia, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

[Opinion certified for partial publication.[*]]

OPINION

HANSON (P.D.), J.

E.L.B., a minor, was found by the juvenile court to have burglarized the home of Paul Pankradz (Pen. Code, § 459). The minor was placed in C.K. Wakefield School, a local reformatory, for 18 months and ordered to pay restitution. Upon completion of the stay in Wakefield, E.L.B. was to be placed in a suitable group home.

I

FACTS

Paul Pankradz was at his place of business, Gramp's Appliances, when R.L.C. came by to ask about his friend, Pankradz' grandson, Lucas, who lived with his grandparents. Pankradz informed R.L.C. that Lucas was out of town for the weekend.

R.L.C. testified he left the store and went into the alley behind the store where appellant and his brother A.B. were waiting. R.L.C. informed the two that Lucas was not home; the three boys decided to go to the Pankradz house. When asked what they intended to do once they reached the house, R.L.C. replied, "Just to get into it," and "I guess take some stuff."

When they arrived they knocked on the door. When no one answered, the boys went around the house to the alley and jumped the fence. Once they were inside the fenced area, they entered the house. (The door usually was unlocked.) R.L.C. testified that while in the house he took a phone and some silverware. Although he was not sure, he thought both appellant and A.B. also took items of property. However, he could not remember if either *783 brother took anything when he left the house. R.L.C. did state that no one had a shotgun or any other large item when each left.

Verlo Jackie Whiteside lived across the street from the Pankradz house. On this same morning, Whiteside was sitting in her house having coffee when she noticed "two black boys and one white boy" stop in her yard. At the hearing, Whiteside identified appellant and his brother A.B. as the two black boys. She saw them cross the street and walk around the fence to the alley behind the house. She then saw figures walking through a breezeway between the house and garage. Approximately 15 minutes later, she saw the "big boy's head" from behind a dumpster in the alley (A.B. was the larger brother). She did not see the other two boys at this time.

Whiteside, soon after the incident, was unable to identify appellant as one of the boys. Pankradz' wife, Grace, took appellant to Whiteside's house and asked her if appellant were one of the boys she saw that day. Whiteside was unable to identify him definitely.

According to Pankradz, among the items taken from the house were a 12-gauge shotgun, a .22 caliber Ruger pistol, a radio, silverware, and a camera.

DISCUSSION

II[*]

Appellant's Request for a New Attorney

.... .... .... .... .... .... .

III

Penal Code Section 1111[2]

(1) The only evidence directly connecting appellant to the burglary of the Pankradz house is the testimony of R.L.C. — an accomplice. In the adult criminal court, under section 1111, a conviction cannot be based upon the testimony of an accomplice unless that testimony is corroborated by other evidence. (§ 1111.) However, in In re Mitchell P. (1978) 22 Cal.3d 946, 949 [151 Cal. Rptr. 330, 587 P.2d 1144], the California Supreme Court held *784 that a finding of wardship pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 does not constitute a conviction within the meaning of section 1111. As a result, mandatory application of section 1111 in juvenile proceedings is not required. (Id., at pp. 952-953.)

Appellant concedes the Mitchell case is directly on point and controlling, and this court is bound by its holding. (See County of Butte v. Superior Court (1960) 178 Cal. App.2d 310, 311 [2 Cal. Rptr. 913].) Appellant notes, however, that changes in case law and in legislation have occurred since the Mitchell opinion was published and therefore urges the Mitchell holding should be reevaluated.

In Mitchell, the majority confronted the critical question whether the underlying purpose of the accomplice corroboration rule permitted different treatment of those persons charged with crimes from the treatment of persons charged with juvenile offenses. The court recognized that accomplice testimony generally is suspect. (In re Mitchell P., supra, 22 Cal.3d at p. 951.) However, under the circumstances, the court considered the problem to be not difficult: "[W]hen a judge rather than a jury is trier of fact it is not unreasonable to assume he is more critical of accomplice testimony and more likely to accord it appropriate weight. Although juries are generally required upon demand by defendant in a criminal proceeding, the state is not constitutionally compelled to provide a jury in juvenile proceedings [citation].... It thus follows there is less reason for application of the arbitrary accomplice corroboration rule in juvenile court proceedings." (Id., at pp. 951-952.) The Mitchell court also indicated that by making distinctions between criminal and juvenile proceedings, the Legislature considered the possible opportunity to rehabilitate a minor outweighed policy arguments supporting the exclusion of evidence not otherwise constitutionally proscribed. (Id., at p. 952.)

The Chief Justice dissented, noting the majority ignored that the Legislature, in enacting section 1111, "went beyond mere suspicion of accomplice testimony. It expressed a more profound and sweeping judgment, `such testimony has been legislatively determined never to be sufficiently trustworthy to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt unless corroborated.'" (22 Cal.3d at p. 956.) The dissent further stated that because a minor's guilt had to be established beyond a reasonable doubt in the juvenile court, the legislative concerns underlying section 1111 applied equally to juvenile proceedings.

The dissent also discussed that the purpose of the juvenile proceeding was to provide protection for the minor from the stigma and consequences society attaches to criminal convictions. However, by not applying the accomplice *785 corroboration rule in juvenile proceedings, the dissent reasoned the majority actually was taking away protection; that the court should look to the consequences of its acts rather than to labels assigned "criminal" or "ward of the court." (22 Cal.3d at p. 959.) Finally, the Chief Justice noted that neither the courts nor the Legislature distinguished between section 1111's application in a jury trial versus a court trial, and that the United States Supreme Court found "`no persuasive distinction'" between a Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 proceeding and a criminal prosecution. (Id., at p. 961; see Breed v. Jones (1975) 421 U.S. 519, 531 [44 L.Ed.2d 346, 356, 95 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
172 Cal. App. 3d 780, 218 Cal. Rptr. 429, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-elb-calctapp-1985.