People v. Brawley

461 P.2d 361, 1 Cal. 3d 277, 82 Cal. Rptr. 161, 1969 Cal. LEXIS 208
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 21, 1969
DocketCrim. 10838
StatusPublished
Cited by101 cases

This text of 461 P.2d 361 (People v. Brawley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Brawley, 461 P.2d 361, 1 Cal. 3d 277, 82 Cal. Rptr. 161, 1969 Cal. LEXIS 208 (Cal. 1969).

Opinions

Opinion

BURKE, J.

An indictment was filed charging Kenneth Brawley and Larry Baker with the murder and robbery of Edwin Brewer. A jury found both defendants guilty of first degree murder and first degree robbery and fixed their penalty at death for the murder. The jury also found that Brawley but not Baker was armed with a deadly weapon at the time of the robbery. Motions for a new trial and for reduction of the death penalty were denied, and defendants’ automatic appeal is now before us (Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b)).

Defendants attack the judgments on various grounds hereafter discussed. We have concluded that the judgments as to guilt should be affirmed but that under the compulsion of Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510 [20 L.Ed.2d 776, 88 S.Ct. 1770], the death penalties must be set aside because the jury was chosen by excluding veniremen for cause on a basis that was not permissible under Witherspoon. It is therefore necessary that defendants be remanded to the trial court for a new trial limited to the issue of penalty for the murder.

About 3 a.m. on July 23, 1966, the body of Edwin Brewer, a 35-year-old cabdriver, was discovered by the police near his cab behind an apartment house in National City. The police were called by a resident of the apartment house, who found the cab in his parking space about 12:30 a.m. and upon seeing the cab still there a little over an hour later looked inside it and saw a knife and blood.

[284]*284Decedent worked a 5 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. shift for a cab company and reported for work at his usual time on Friday, July 22. His friend, Mrs. Concetta Floridi, testified that she last saw him about 8:45 p.m. on July 22 when he brought her a few groceries. Evidence was introduced of prior statements by her placing the time she last saw him around an hour later. The last entry in his “trip sheet” showed that he picked up two passengers at 9 p.m., and the space for the time of the completion of the trip was blank.

The autopsy surgeon testified that the cause of the victim’s death was multiple stab wounds of the chest, lungs and heart, and thoracic hemorrhages; that there were 18 lacerations, many of which were in the back; and that all of the lacerations “could” have been inflicted by the knife found in the cab: A'chemical examination revealed that blood on the knife blade was type O human blood, the same type as that of the decedent.

Fingerprints and a palm print on the cab were identified as those of Brawley, and there was blood “in the fingerprint area” of one of the fingerprints. A footprint a few inches from the victim’s body was made by a shoe having the same shape and length of sole and heel as that of a shoe belonging to Brawley, and a witness testified that Brawley was wearing such shoes on the afternoon of July 22.

Brawley and Baker were confined in the disciplinary barracks of the United States Naval Station in San Diego immediately before the time decedent was killed. During the morning of July 21, Brawley asked Stephen Glaze, a sailor confined at the barracks, if he knew where some wire and gloves could be found. (This will be referred to as the first statement.) Glaze replied that he did not but later that same morning upon finding some wire gave it to Brawley and asked what he wanted it for. Brawley answered that “they” were going to choke and kill a cabdriver and take his money; that Brawley and two other men planned to go “AWOL” the following Saturday •but “they” decided to go Friday after the 4:45 muster because “they” did not want one member to go along; that “they” were going to go downtown and catch a cab and, after killing the driver and taking his money, go east to Brawley’s home. Glaze first testified that during this conversation Brawley did not inform him who the other men were, then testified that he did not remember whether Brawley mentioned Baker’s name, and thereafter stated that he recalled it was during the conversation Brawley mentioned Baker’s name in connection with going “AWOL.” At the same conversation Brawley told Glaze that he would consider “taking [Glaze] along if [Glaze] wanted to go AWOL with them.” (The statements at the second conversation will be referred to as the second statement.) When Glaze gave the wire to Brawley, Brawley displayed two pairs of gloves he had obtained.

In the afternoon of the same day Glaze saw Brawley take a knife from the [285]*285commissary and heard him say, “This would be better than the wire. We could stab him, slit his throat.” (This will be referred to as the third statement.) According to Glaze, the knife Brawley took was the one later found in the cab, and a meat cutter at the commissary testified that the knife found in the cab was one that was missing from the commissary—that he recognized the knife by the way it was sharpened and its general characteristics.

On the evening of July 21 Brawley and Baker were seen talking together at the barracks. Shortly before 4:45 p.m. on July 22 Brawley took the knife and wire from his locker and handed the wire to Baker, and Baker stated, “We won’t need this now.” Brawley also took gloves from his locker, and he and Baker each put a pair under his clothing. Brawley and Baker were seen together heading toward a bus stop at the base after the 4:45 muster on July 22.

One week after the deceased’s body was found Brawley and Baker were arrested together in Illinois. After the arrest an officer took an empty wallet from Baker. Mrs. Floridi identified the wallet as one the decedent carried on the night of his death. She further testified that she had given the wallet to decedent as a gift, that it was an inexpensive one she had purchased at a drugstore, that the distinctive things about the wallet which enabled her to identify it were that it was black and had specified pockets, and that she was “positive” the wallet taken from Baker was the one she gave decedent. The words “buffalo calf” were on the wallet taken from Baker. Mrs. Floridi told an officer that the decedent had a pigskin wallet.

No wallet was found on the decedent’s body nor were there any coins on the body except a silver dollar that was part of a belt. There was $12 in bills in his pocket. Mrs. Floridi testified that he had over $30 in his wallet after paying for their dinner between 7:15 and 8:15 p.m. on July 22. She further testified that he carried a changer in which he kept small change and that a changer found in a yard a few blocks from the cab on the morning of July 23, 1966, was the decedent’s. No changer was near the decedent.

The only defense witness at the guilt trial was a police officer, who was questioned regarding prior statements of prosecution witnesses. The defense arguments at the guilt trial concerned whether the prosecution had proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The court granted the prosecution’s motion that evidence received at the guilt trial be admitted at the penalty trial, and additional evidence was introduced by the prosecution and Brawley.

Asserted Error (1) in Denying Motion for Severance Made on the Ground that the Prosecution Would Introduce Evidence of Brawley’s [286]*286 Statements to Glaze, (2) in Admitting that Evidence, and (3) in Failing to Give on the Court’s Own Motion an Instruction Relating Thereto

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Bluebook (online)
461 P.2d 361, 1 Cal. 3d 277, 82 Cal. Rptr. 161, 1969 Cal. LEXIS 208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-brawley-cal-1969.