People v. Cantu

161 Cal. App. 3d 259, 207 Cal. Rptr. 460, 1984 Cal. App. LEXIS 2655
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 25, 1984
DocketCrim. 6324
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 161 Cal. App. 3d 259 (People v. Cantu) 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
People v. Cantu, 161 Cal. App. 3d 259, 207 Cal. Rptr. 460, 1984 Cal. App. LEXIS 2655 (Cal. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

[Opinion certified for partial publication. 1 ]

*262 Counsel Barry F. Nix, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. John K. Van de Kamp, Attorney General, James T. McNally, Eddie T. Keller and Ruth M. Saavedra, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Opinion

ARDAIZ, J. *

Statement of Facts

Early in the morning of December 2, 1980, appellant and a companion named Paul Soto broke into a camper located behind a house in Bakersfield. Once inside the camper, appellant and his companion threatened the two occupants of the camper with guns and demanded their money. A fight broke out between appellant and one of the occupants of the camper, Jose Martinez. Appellant hit Jose with the gun and knocked him out. At this point, Pedro Martinez, Jose’s brother who had been in the house adjacent to the camper, heard the commotion and came out to the camper to investigate. However, as Pedro entered the camper he was shot in the abdomen by appellant. Appellant and his companion then fled the scene of the crime. As a result of the gunshot wound, Pedro Martinez died.

Jerome Angelo Chavez testified at trial that he had known appellant for approximately 10 years. Between 7 and 8 o’clock on the morning of December 3, 1980, appellant visited Chavez at Chavez’ house in Bakersfield. Appellant told Chavez that the night before he, Paul Soto and Gregorio Franco had gone to a farm labor camp to rob wetbacks. Appellant told Chavez that Gregorio was driving the car and that he and Paul had gone to the rear of a house where two men were sleeping in a room. While they were attempting to force the men to turn over their money, another man came to the door and started a fight with them. To prevent the man from fighting with them, and because the man had hit appellant’s leg with a pipe, appellant turned around and shot him.

When appellant was arrested, he was given his Miranda rights by Sergeant Joe Orman of the Kern County Sheriff’s Department and asked to *263 waive them. When appellant refused to waive his rights, Sergeant Orman took appellant to the booking station and began the booking process. At some point during the booking process, appellant indicated to Sergeant Or-man that he would like to speak to him alone. Sergeant Orman took appellant to a room down the hall where they could speak privately. Upon entering the room, appellant said, “We were over there, but I didn’t shoot him, Paul did.” Appellant also told Sergeant Orman that he would be willing to testify against Paul Soto in exchange for a guarantee of a one-year maximum sentence in the county jail.

While appellant was an inmate in the Kern County jail, he became acquainted with a fellow inmate named Wayne Blackwell. At a preliminary hearing, Blackwell testified that appellant told Blackwell about the crime that he had committed, including the fact that during the course of the robbery he had shot a man in the stomach. Appellant also told Blackwell that a person he had confided in about the crime had apparently decided to turn state’s evidence against him. Appellant asked Blackwell to kill the witness, Jerome “Bo-Bo” Chavez, and in return appellant promised to kill one of Blackwell’s enemies in the future. Blackwell testified that appellant drew a map detailing the way to Chavez’ house from the Kern County jail. Prior to and at the trial, however, Blackwell could not be located. After a hearing on the prosecution’s efforts to locate him, the trial court allowed Blackwell’s preliminary hearing testimony to be presented to the jury.

Daniel Thompson was also an inmate in the Kern County jail who became acquainted with appellant during his tenure there. Thompson testified that appellant told him that Paul Soto had gone with appellant to a trailer to rob some illegal aliens. Appellant also told Thompson that he had shot someone during the course of the robbery. In addition, Thompson also testified that appellant told him he had arranged for a fellow inmate to kill the witness in his case who was turning state’s evidence.

Appellant was charged by information on January 15, 1981, with murder in the first degree in violation of Penal Code section 187. The first count also alleged that the murder occurred while appellant was attempting to commit a robbery in violation of Penal Code section 211, within the meaning of Penal Code section 190.2, subdivision (a)(17)(i). A firearm-use allegation in violation of Penal Code section 12022.5 was also contained in the first count.

Counts II and III charged appellant with attempted robbery and included firearm-use allegations. Count IV charged appellant with burglary and a firearm-use allegation in connection with the burglary.

*264 On April 17, 1981, another information was filed against appellant charging him with solicitation of murder in violation of Penal Code section 653f. The two cases were ordered consolidated.

On June 1, 1981, appellant filed a motion challenging the jury selection process. After receiving evidence on the motion to dismiss the jury panel, the court denied the motion.

Subsequently, the district attorney made a motion to have the court rule that the People had exercised due diligence in attempting to locate a witness named Wayne Blackwell. The court made the finding requested by the district attorney.

On September 14, 1981, jury selection began and, ultimately, appellant was convicted on all counts alleged. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

Discussion

I

Appellant contends that the trial court erred in refusing to find that he had presented a prima facie case in support of his allegation that Hispanics were underrepresented in Kern County jury pools in violation of his constitutional right to have a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community.

In support of his motion, appellant presented the testimony of Dr. Terry Newell, a psychologist who is an expert in statistics. Dr. Newell testified that 17.76 percent of the population of Kern County were Hispanics age 18 and older. This figure represented an estimate derived by Dr. Newell from statistics taken from the 1970 and 1980 United States census.

Dr. Newell also testified that approximately 8.3 percent of the jurors in Kern County jury pools were Hispanic. This figure was based upon surveys conducted by Dr. Newell from October 1980 through February 1981 and in May 1981. 2 The surveys were conducted among both those who were merely summoned for jury duty and those who actually appeared for jury duty.

Based upon the statistics compiled by Dr. Newell, there is a 9.46 percent difference between the percentage of Hispanics in Kern County and the *265 percentage of Hispanics on Kern County jury pools. According to Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
161 Cal. App. 3d 259, 207 Cal. Rptr. 460, 1984 Cal. App. LEXIS 2655, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-cantu-calctapp-1984.