People v. Dominick

182 Cal. App. 3d 1174, 227 Cal. Rptr. 849, 1986 Cal. App. LEXIS 1777
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 30, 1986
DocketB003318
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 182 Cal. App. 3d 1174 (People v. Dominick) 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. Dominick, 182 Cal. App. 3d 1174, 227 Cal. Rptr. 849, 1986 Cal. App. LEXIS 1777 (Cal. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

Opinion

BOREN, J. *

Introduction

In this consolidated appeal, defendants Michael James Dominick, Steven Michael Romero and Clifton J. Shedelbower raise numerous challenges to the judgments in which each received a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole. We affirm the convictions.

Procedural History

After a severance was granted as to defendant Shedelbower, defendants Dominick and Romero were tried by separate juries in a joint trial. Thereafter Shedelbower waived jury and his case was submitted on various transcripts, including the transcript of the codefendants’ trial.

All three defendants were convicted of the first degree murder of Danny H. with special circumstances (witness killing and killing while engaged in flight from commission of rape and other felony crimes) (count I). They were also each convicted of kidnapping (count II), rape (count IV), and oral copulation in concert (count VI). In addition, Dominick was convicted of sodomy (count V) and Romero and Shedelbower were convicted of the attempted murder of Kim M. (count VII), who was the sex crimes victim. Great bodily injury allegations were found true as to Romero and Shedel *1183 bower on the kidnapping and as to Romero alone on the attempted murder. On that latter charge, Romero was also found to have used a knife. Dominick had not been charged with the attempted murder, and Romero and Shedelbower were acquitted of sodomy. Defendants were also acquitted on various other enhancements allegations.

Each defendant was sentenced to state prison for life without the possibility of parole which sentences were consecutive to determinate sentences of 32 years as to Dominick, 31 years and 8 months as to Romero, and 29 years and 4 months as to Shedelbower.

Facts

In the early morning hours of Sunday, November 29, 1981, Kim M., 18 years old, and her 16-year-old friend, Danny H., the murder victim, drove in Kim’s Datsun station wagon to a mountaintop location overlooking both the San Fernando Valley and the Saugus/Newhall area. In the vicinity were radar testing facilities operated by ITT Gilfillan Corporation (hereinafter ITT). These facilities had formerly been part of a Nike missile base and included a main facility designated as the Upper Loop Canyon site and another facility containing missile silos at a nearby site called Lower Loop Canyon. ITT employed 24-hour uniformed security guards who made rounds of the facilities in a white van. They operated from a guard house at the main ITT facility.

Kim and Danny parked near the main facility about 3 a.m. and within a few minutes a white van pulled diagonally in front of the station wagon. A man wearing a dark jacket with a fur collar and a badge whom Kim later identified as Romero approached the station wagon and told the couple they were trespassing. After Romero obtained identification from the two, a second man came toward them with a flashlight and asked if they had any weapons. This man wore a green jacket with green pants and spoke with a southern accent. Although Kim testified that Dominick was this man in green, other evidence at the trials showed that he was in fact Shedelbower. According to Dominick’s sister, both Dominick and Shedelbower had left her home for the ITT mountaintop facilities very early on that Sunday morning. Shedelbower, who had a southern accent, was then wearing green clothing. 1 Dominick was wearing dark clothing including his fur-collared security guard jacket.

Romero told Kim and Danny to follow him so that he could check them out on “the main computer” to insure they were not spies. The couple then *1184 followed the white van down to the lower facility with the missile silos where one of the defendants unlocked a gate so the vehicles could be parked inside the fenced compound. A third man, Dominick, whom Kim had not noticed until then, led Danny inside a nearby building. Dominick was dressed in a dark fur-collared security jacket similar to Romero’s but displayed no badge.

Shedelbower and Romero, using a flashlight, then led Kim down into what was later determined to be an empty missile silo. As she was being led down some cement stairs, Kim hesitated, and Romero swung a three-foot long white pole or pipe at her. In fear she descended the remaining stairs, arriving in a large room with a cement floor. Her glasses were removed and she was made to undress. Shedelbower then fondled her and forced her to orally copulate him, after which he raped her.

Shedelbower told Romero to “try her out,” made degrading remarks to the victim, and taunted her because Kim, who until then had been a virgin, was now bleeding from her genitals. Romero then raped Kim and forced her to orally copulate him.

At about this time, Dominick appeared in the silo and he too forced the victim to orally copulate him. Then he raped her and, following that, turned Kim on her stomach and sodomized her.

Shortly, Shedelbower told Kim she had 30 seconds to get dressed. She was taken outside and placed in the rear of the white van. A few minutes later Shedelbower removed her and placed her in her station wagon. At this time Kim noticed Danny with his head and arms stuck through a ladder leaning against the building he had entered earlier. She could not tell if Danny was tied to the ladder. Romero was standing near him.

Danny was then brought to the station wagon. He was bleeding from the nose and slumped over the steering wheel. Moments later he was made to sit on Kim’s lap in the front passenger seat while Shedelbower drove the station wagon down the mountainside with the van leading the way. After approximately 10 or 15 minutes, Shedelbower honked the horn and the van and station wagon stopped. Shedelbower led Danny to the front of the van and Kim heard Romero tell him to “lie down on the ground.” Kim saw Romero make striking motions with what appeared to be the white pole she had seen earlier and heard the noise of Danny being struck. Shedelbower, in the meanwhile, was standing beside Kim as she stood near the Datsun on the roadway. She turned her head away from Danny and Shedelbower asked her what she was thinking about. She replied that it was really cold out and they were going to kill her.

*1185 Shortly Romero came toward her holding the white pole and stated, “Now its your turn.” Shedelbower got behind her and after taking hold of her by her arms, pulled her head back by her hair. As Romero swung the white pole at her in an apparent attempt to “hit [her] throat,” she turned her head and screamed and a blow was struck to the right side of her face. At that moment, Kim somehow managed to break free and fell off the roadway part way down the mountainside.

She heard a voice say, “What did you let her go for?” and another voice replied, “She broke free.” She heard someone say that they had to find her and then heard someone yell the name “Mike.” Testimony at trial indicated that Romero used the first name of Steve, that Shedelbower used the first name of Cliff, and that Dominick used the first name of Michael or Mike.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
182 Cal. App. 3d 1174, 227 Cal. Rptr. 849, 1986 Cal. App. LEXIS 1777, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-dominick-calctapp-1986.