People v. Burns

196 Cal. App. 3d 1440, 242 Cal. Rptr. 573, 1987 Cal. App. LEXIS 2434
California Court of Appeal·Decided December 16, 1987·No. B016545·Published·Cited by 31 cases

Opinion

Opinion

GEORGE, J.

—Appellant was convicted, following a jury trial, of four counts of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187) with a finding of a multiple-murder special circumstance based on the foregoing convictions (Pen. Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(3)). In accordance with the jury’s determination at the penalty phase of the trial, the court, after , denying appellant’s motion for new trial, sentenced appellant to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Appellant challenges his conviction on the following grounds: (1) the trial court erred in instructing the jury that an accomplice must be shown to have shared the intent of the perpetrator of the offense; (2) his Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the admission in evidence of a letter seized by a deputy sheriff who observed appellant passing it to his confederate Tiequon Cox while both were inmates in the county jail, and additionally the trial court erred in not excluding the letter as unduly *1444 prejudicial under Evidence Code section 352; (3) his right to counsel was violated by the admission in evidence of testimony of another inmate relating statements made by appellant at the jail, and additionally the trial court erred in not excluding this testimony as inherently unreliable; and (4) the trial court erred in not instructing the jury sua sponte (a) that in order to convict they were required to agree whether appellant entered the premises where the murders were committed or instead remained inside the vehicle parked in the vicinity of the premises and (b) that in the event the jury found appellant to have been intoxicated at the time of the offenses, it should consider this circumstance in determining whether appellant had the ability to harbor malice aforethought. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the judgment.

Facts

On the morning of August 31, 1984, Ebora Alexander, her daughter Dietria Alexander, and two of Ebora Alexander’s visiting grandchildren, Damani Gamer (age 13 years) and Damon Bonner (age 8 years), were shot to death in the Alexander home located in the City of Los Angeles. There was evidence indicating that appellant, Tiequon Cox, and Darryl Williams committed the murders out of a desire to retaliate for a shooting that had resulted from the robbery of a dmg dealer; however, appellant and his companions went to the wrong house and thus killed the Alexander family instead of their intended victims. The following evidence implicated appellant in the commission of the murders.

On the day in question, Ida Moore and Lisa Brown were at Ms. Moore’s house when Darryl Williams arrived with appellant. The women had known Williams for some time and were acquainted with appellant. Williams asked Ms. Moore to take him in her van to “pick up some money from this girl.” She agreed but told Williams she needed to get gas. Williams made a telephone call and then, at Williams’s direction, appellant left the house but returned a short time later accompanied by Cox.

Williams and Cox went into the kitchen to talk and then reappeared and announced that they were ready to go. They entered the van with Ms. Moore driving, Ms. Brown in the passenger seat, and Williams, Cox and appellant in the back. They first went to appellant’s house, which was right around the comer, to get money for gas but appellant was unsuccessful. Ms. Moore then said she had one or two dollars, and they all proceeded to a gas station, where appellant pumped the gas and Ms. Moore paid for it.

When they left the gas station, Williams told Ms. Moore where to drive, and they looked for a certain address which had been written on a piece of a *1445 paper bag. On the way, Ms. Brown heard one of the men in the back of the van say they were going to kill everyone in the house. She did not know which one of the three made that statement.

When they found the address, Williams directed Ms. Moore to park the van down the street but leave the engine running. Williams and Cox got out but, according to the testimony of Ms. Moore and Ms. Brown, Williams directed appellant to remain in the van and appellant did so. Williams was holding a handgun and Cox was holding a rifle wrapped in a blue jacket. This rifle was later identified as an Ml, .30 caliber, carbine semi-automatic weapon, a gun used by paratroopers in combat. Neither woman had seen anyone carrying a weapon or any other object prior to this time. As Williams and Cox walked away, Ms. Moore asked appellant what they were going to do. Appellant replied they were going to ‘“shoot it up.’”

Williams and Cox entered the Alexander home and shot to death Ebora Alexander, her daughter, and two of her grandsons. Another young grandson, Ivan, escaped by hiding in a closet. The remaining person in the house, Ebora’s son Neal, awoke when he heard someone call his name. He ran to his sister’s room, where he saw a man holding a rifle. They wrestled until Neal was struck by something, got up, and ran out of the house.

Williams returned to the van followed by Cox, who was still holding the rifle but no longer had the blue jacket that had covered it. Both men told Ms. Moore to “drive fast.” Cox added, “ T just blew the bitch’s head off".’ ” The men, including appellant, directed Ms. Moore where to drive. She stopped the van when she was told to, and all three men exited. The two women drove back to Ms. Moore’s house.

About 9 a.m., Ms. Brown, at Williams’s request, brought him his car. She then observed Williams hand Cox the rifle, which he put in the trunk. Ms. Brown and Cox drove to an apartment complex, where Cox wrapped the rifle in another jacket, went into the building, and returned without the weapon.

About a month later a police officer saw 17-year-old James Kennedy standing in the courtyard of that apartment building holding the rifle. The weapon, which was loaded, was seized and Kennedy was arrested. Kennedy testified that he had received it from Cox, and ballistics tests confirmed that some of the bullets found in the Alexander home had been fired from this rifle. Cox’s palm print was found in the house.

A woman who lived across the street from the Alexanders heard the shooting and saw a person who “looked like” Williams leave the house, *1446 followed a short time later by a person carrying a rifle whom she positively identified as Cox. Another young woman who lived across the street confirmed the identification of Cox as the man with the rifle.

Cox was arrested, and a news story was broadcast concerning his arraignment. Appellant, watching a television report of the court appearance, told Linda Lewis that he did not have to worry about his fingerprints being found in the house because he did not touch anything. He added that he did not have to worry about Cox “snitching” on him “[b]ecause he knew his homeboy wouldn’t do him like that.” Appellant then went outside and discussed the crime with a group of people. He said that Cox was “just like a time bomb that exploded and when he entered the house he just started shooting everybody everywhere.” He explained they were involved in a dispute arising from the robbery of a drug dealer but by mistake went to the wrong house. When someone asked appellant how he felt about killing the children, he responded, “ ‘That’s just something that just happened.’ ”

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People v. Burns, 196 Cal. App. 3d 1440, 242 Cal. Rptr. 573, 1987 Cal. App. LEXIS 2434 (Cal. Ct. App. 1987).

196 Cal. App. 3d 1440 (People v. Burns) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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