P. v. Parker CA4/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 22, 2013
DocketE054825
StatusUnpublished

This text of P. v. Parker CA4/2 (P. v. Parker CA4/2) 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
P. v. Parker CA4/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Filed 5/22/13 P. v. Parker CA4/2

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, E054825

v. (Super.Ct.No. RIF136528)

LESLIE GENE PARKER, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Helios (Joe) Hernandez,

Judge. Affirmed.

Ronda G. Norris, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and

Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney

General, Julie L. Garland, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and James Dutton and

Meredith S. White, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

In 1985, a team of robbers stole $265,000 from a Riverside bank. One of the

robbers got into a shootout with a security guard. The security guard was shot and died;

the robber was shot and bleeding but managed to flee. In 2007, DNA testing matched the

robber’s blood to defendant Leslie Gene Parker. 1 Defendant was charged with murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)), with a robbery-

murder special circumstance (Pen. Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(17)), a personal firearm use

enhancement (Pen. Code, § 12022.5, subd. (a)), and a prior serious felony conviction

enhancement (Pen. Code, § 667, subd. (a)).

In the guilt phase, the jury found defendant guilty of first degree murder (Pen.

Code, § 189) and found all the charged allegations true.

In the penalty phase, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. The People elected

not to retry the penalty phase. Accordingly, defendant was sentenced to an indeterminate

term of life without the possibility of parole, a determinate term of seven years, and the

usual fines and fees.

Defendant now contends:

1. The trial court erred by admitting evidence that defendant had committed a

previous robbery.

2. The trial court violated the confrontation clause by allowing a pathologist who

was not present at the victim’s autopsy to testify regarding the autopsy report.

We find no prejudicial error. Hence, we will affirm.

I

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The First Interstate Bank branch at Tyler Mall maintained an automated teller

machine (ATM) at the entrance to the mall. There was a night drop behind the ATM,

where merchants could deposit their receipts.

2 Normally, Brinks Security was responsible for picking up the deposits and

transporting them to the bank, about 100 yards away. As of December 1985, however,

Brinks employees were on strike. The bank therefore retained an armed security guard

— Fred Taylor, a retired police officer.

On December 16, 1985, around 9:00 a.m., Taylor and two bank employees —

Robert Steve Parker1 and Donna Coffee — drove over to the ATM to pick up the

deposits and take them back to the bank.

As they got back to their cars with the deposits, a man holding a gun approached

them and yelled something. Both Taylor and the gunman started shooting. When the

shooting stopped, a second man, holding a knife, walked up to the cars and took the

money. The robbers got into a white or silver Datsun or Toyota and drove away. They

netted approximately $265,000.

According to Dr. Joseph Cohen — an expert pathologist, who did not perform the

autopsy but did review the autopsy report — Taylor was hit by two bullets and died as a

result.

On the way to the hospital, Taylor told paramedics that there were two robbers and

that he shot one of them.

Parker described the gunman2 as a White male in his early 20’s, about five feet ten

inches tall, slender, with dark brown hair and a moustache. The gunman was wearing a

1 No relation to defendant. 2 See appendix A, post, pages 19 through 21, a chart summarizing all the descriptions of the robbers.

3 blue plaid shirt, and he had a pock-marked face. Parker told police that the gunman got

into the driver’s side.

Parker described the second man as a White male in his 20’s, five feet ten inches

tall, and slender. He was wearing a gray hoodie. He did not appear to be injured.

Coffee described the gunman as a White male, about 28 years old, five feet ten

inches to six feet tall, with brown hair and a moustache, wearing a blue plaid shirt. He

had “possible” pock marks, pimples, or acne on his face. She believed the gunman got

Using an “Identi-Kit,” Coffee produced a sketch of the gunman. The sketch has

not been transmitted to this court, but defendant concedes that it “resembled” him.

According to eyewitness Lee Ann Salmon, the gunman’s left leg was injured; he

was limping. She described him as in his 20’s, five feet eight inches tall, with black hair

and no facial hair. He was wearing a blue plaid flannel shirt.

Eyewitness Craig Liddicote agreed that the gunman was shot in the leg. Liddicote

described both robbers as White males between five feet ten inches and six feet tall. One

of them may have had a mustache. Also, one of them was wearing a red hoodie.

Eyewitness Theodore Willis testified that the gunman was hit in the leg and the

arm. According to Willis, the gunman got into the passenger side of the car.

Eyewitness Terry Williams saw only the driver of the car; she told the police that

he was wearing a red hoodie.

4 A trail of blood drops led from the shooting scene to the getaway car. They were

Type A. Taylor’s blood was Type O. There were no blood drops by the cars, where the

second man took the money.

Coffee wrote down the license number of the getaway car. What she wrote was

“975 XRW.” At the time, however, she told police that she might be off by one letter or

one number.

Sometime between 8:00 and 10:15 a.m., a silver Datsun B210 with license number

“975 XRF” was left in a parking lot two blocks away from the mall. It had recently been

stolen. There was blood on the passenger seat, as well as both inside and outside the

passenger side door. The blood on the passenger seat was Type A.

In 1986, the case was suspended due to lack of leads. In 2004, the case was

reopened, and the blood on the passenger seat was DNA profiled. In 2007, the DNA

from the blood on the passenger seat was found to match defendant’s DNA.

Defendant had scars on his left leg and left arm. He told his ex-wife that he got

them when he rolled over in a forklift at work. However, he told his girlfriend that he got

them from hopping over a barbed-wire fence. When the police interviewed him, he told

them he had injured his leg in a motorcycle accident. X-rays showed a bullet in

defendant’s left arm and another bullet, along with metallic fragments, in his left leg.

On the date of the crime, defendant was 26 years old. He had brown hair. He was

six feet two inches tall, with a large build.

According to a dermatologist, defendant’s face was not pock-marked, and he

showed no signs of any cosmetic procedure to remove pock marks.

5 According to an expert on eyewitness identifications, if two eyewitnesses

independently remembered a man as having a pock-marked face, it was extremely likely

that their memory was accurate.

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P. v. Parker CA4/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/p-v-parker-ca42-calctapp-2013.