People v. Diaz

276 Cal. App. 2d 547, 81 Cal. Rptr. 16, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 1838
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 29, 1969
DocketCrim. 548
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 276 Cal. App. 2d 547 (People v. Diaz) 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. Diaz, 276 Cal. App. 2d 547, 81 Cal. Rptr. 16, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 1838 (Cal. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

pealed from their judgments of conviction, each having been *549 found guilty after a jury trial on two counts of armed robbery, and on six counts of kidnaping for the purpose of robbery. (Pen. Code, §§ 211a, 969c, 3024 and 209.) The appeal of Arenas has been dismissed.

The trial court in its abstract of judgment found that Diaz was armed with a deadly weapon at the time of commission of each of the robberies within the meaning of Penal Code sections 969c and 3024. The jury found, “We find the charge of being armed with a deadly weapon, to wit, a gun, in Count Seven of the information, to be true,” after finding him guilty of armed robbery under section 211a of the Penal Code on March 3, 1967,- and made similar findings in regard to the robbery on April 22,1967.

Throughout these proceedings the defendant, John Diaz, has been known as Sam Paul Redbear.

The two robberies occurred at the J. C. Penney Company stores, one in Selma on March 3, 1967, and the other in Sanger on April 22, 1967. In each instance, the appellant purported to make a purchase after which he and Arenas at gunpoint forced store attaches to deliver money to them from the cash register and safe, and at gunpoint herded them to a restroom or lounge where they were bound with string and scarves, some being forced to lie on the floor.

Diaz first contends that he was denied due process of law by being tried jointly with his codefendant Arenas. This contention cannot be sustained. Diaz and Arenas were joint actors in the robberies and kidnapings, and were jointly charged therewith. Pursuant to Penal Code section 1098, such codefendants are compelled to stand trial together, in the absence of an order of the court otherwise. Thus, the order of the trial court consolidating the cases for trial was superfluous. There was no motion to sever the trials. Even if the opposition to granting the order for consolidation were to be considered to be a, motion for severance of the causes, no abuse of discretion was. shown. (People v. Lopez, 60 Cal.2d 223, 253 [32 Cal.Rptr. 424, 384 P.2d 16].) Joint trials are eminently proper where, as here, the underlying charges depend upon mutual action, common facts or common evidence. (People v. Alvarado, 255 Cal.App.2d 285, 288-289 [62 Cal. Rptr. 891].)

This is not a situation where the consolidated trial related to separate and unrelated offenses (cf. People v. Chambers, 231 Cal.App.2d 23 [41 Cal.Rptr. 551]) nor a situation embracing such problems of constitutional dimension as were *550 involved in People v. Aranda, 63 Cal.2d 518, 530-531 [47 Cal. Rptr. 353, 407 P.2d 265].

The testimony Diaz alluded to did not concern their joint participation in the holdups, but consisted of the admissions by Arenas of his prior felony convictions before the jury. Allegedly, when Arenas admitted what a bad man hé was, this influenced the jury against Diaz, on the principle that “birds of a feather flock together.” But certified copies of the records of Arenas’ convictions were displayed to the jury, without any objection on the part of counsel for Diaz. The direct evidence of the individual commission by Diaz of each of the felonies charged against him renders fantastic any claim that his guilt arose only because the blackness of Arenas rubbed off on him. If they were “birds of a feather,” it was indeed because they “flocked together” in the holdups in question.

When evidence was presented that, after arrest, Arenas “flew the coop,” the court carefully admonished the jury that this escape had nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of defendant Diaz, and was only to be considered in relation to the charges against Arenas, that any evidence admitted against one defendant but denied admission against the other could not be considered against that other (CALJTO No. 39 Rev.). Under the circumstances here, it is manifest that such instructions cured any error claimed to exist by failure to separate the trials. (People v. Smith, 185 Cal.App.2d 638, 644 [8 Cal.Rptr. 581].)

Finally, Diaz contends that a- new trial must be. ordered on the ground that he was subjected to scrutiny and identification at two lineups at which he coneededly was not represented by counsel, relying upon United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218 [18 L.Ed.2d 1149, 87 S.Ct. 1926], In that decision, the United States Supreme Court held that a defendant’s right to presence of counsel in a criminal case extended to all critical proceedings leading to trial, of which a police lineup is one. The object of this judicial extension of the constitutional right to counsel to the police lineup is to guard against improper, “suggestive” influences that might materially affect the reliability of the identification made by the witnesses at this critical stage of the criminal proceedings. A defendant’s lawyer is needed, not necessarily to give legal advice but to observe; to be able to reconstruct at the time of trial any unfairness that occurred at the lineup, so that the accused may not be deprived of his “only opportunity mean *551 ingfully to attack the credibility of the witness’ courtroom identification” (United States v. Wade, supra, p. 232. [18 L.Ed.2d 1160]).

Thus, both Diaz and his counsel should have been notified of any impending lineup. Counsel’s presence was a requisite to valid conduct of any such lineup, unless defendant made an intelligent waiver of counsel. (United States v. Wade, supra, 388 U.S. 218, 237 [18 L.Ed.2d 1149,1162-1163].) Otherwise, in-court identification of the witnesses who identified the accused at the lineup, unrepresented by his counsel, is subject to exclusion. However, such in-court evidence is not to be excluded without giving the People ‘ ‘ the opportunity to establish by clear and convincing evidence that the in-court identifications were based upon observations of the suspect other than the lineup, identification.” (United States v. Wade, supra, p. 240 [18 L.Ed.2d 1164-1165].) Or, instead, an identification must be made by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary “taint. ’ ’

Near the end of this trial, outside of the presence of the jury, the court was presented a transcript of certain statements made by Diaz or Sam Paul Redbear on July 17,1967, at the county jail. It was stipulated that if a qualified reporter, Earl Christiansen, were present he would testify that the questions and answers given in the transcript were the questions and answers given at the time they were taken down by him. The transcribed statements are as follows:

“A. Yes.
‘ ‘ Q. This is Mr. Christiansen. He is a court reporter and he is taking down everything that is said. And my name is Mr. Baxter, with the District Attorney’s Office.
“A.

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Bluebook (online)
276 Cal. App. 2d 547, 81 Cal. Rptr. 16, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 1838, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-diaz-calctapp-1969.