People v. Farley

267 Cal. App. 2d 214, 72 Cal. Rptr. 855, 1968 Cal. App. LEXIS 1379
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 7, 1968
DocketCrim. 14506
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 267 Cal. App. 2d 214 (People v. Farley) 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. Farley, 267 Cal. App. 2d 214, 72 Cal. Rptr. 855, 1968 Cal. App. LEXIS 1379 (Cal. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

LILLIE, J.

A jury found defendant guilty of robbery, first degree (§211, Pen. Code). Appeal is taken from the judgment.

Around 9 :20 p.m. on May 19, 1967, a Negro male came into Robert’s Liquor Store, threw down a quarter and asked Abraham Weltman for a pack of gum; Weltman gave him his change and the man left. Several minutes later he returned to the store with another Negro male, identified by Weltman as the defendant, who held a gun in his hand; defendant said to Weltman, “This is it. This is a stickup,” pointed the gun at him and ordered him ‘1 Pull back and open the register. ’ ’ The other man went to the cash register and emptied it placing over $500 in a paper bag.

Mr. Weltman testified that the next time he saw defendant was four days later when he identified him from photographs shown to him by a police officer. Pour days after that he saw defendant in person in a lineup at the station where he identified him as the robber. At the trial Mr. Weltman identified defendant as the man carrying the gun.

The defense was an alibi; defendant testified he was not at Robert’s Liquor Store at the time of the robbery but elsewhere with James Logan and Johnny Orlando. James Logan testified for defendant.

Appellant claims that he was deprived of his constitutional right to a fair lineup procedure because he was not represented by counsel, others in the lineup were taller than he, his potential accusers were hidden from him and he could neither hear nor see them and he was required to participate in a large number of lineups which, coupled with the law of averages, would tend to cause him to be identified in connection with some crime; thus he argues that the in-court identification by Mr. Weltman was inadmissible because there is no *217 clear and convincing evidence that it was based upon an independent source.

The position that he was denied his constitutional rights when he was required to appear at a show-up without the assistance of counsel is not well taken. Since the sbow-up took place several weeks prior to June 12, 1967, the date of the decisions in Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263 [18 L.Ed.2d 1178, 87 S.Ct. 1951] and United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218 [18 L.Ed.2d 1149, 87 S.Ct. 1926], he may not rely on those eases in order to assert a right to counsel grounded in the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments; instead he must demonstrate that the show-up procedure resulted in a denial of due process of law. (People v. Haston, 69 Cal.2d 233, 257 [70 Cal.Rptr. 419, 444 P.2d 91] ; People v. Caruso, 68 Cal.2d 183, 184 [65 Cal.Rptr. 336, 436 P.2d 336] ; People v. Harris, 67 Cal.2d 866, 872 [64 Cal.Rptr. 313, 434 P.2d 609]; People v. Feggans, 67 Cal.2d 444, 448 [62 Cal.Rptr. 419, 432 P.2d 21] ; see also Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 300-301 [18 L.Ed.2d 1199, 1205-1206, 87 S.Ct. 1967].) 1 Our examination of the entire record convinces us that the show-up procedure here comported with due process; and appellant has failed to demonstrate that the lineup was “so unnecsesarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification that he was denied due process of law.” (Stovall v. Denno, supra, 388 U.S. 293, 302 [18 L.Ed.2d 1199, 1206, 87 S.Ct. 1967] ; People v. Harris, 67 Cal.2d 866, 872 [64 Cal.Rptr. 313, 434 P.2d 609].)

Appellant’s claim that he was the shortest suspect in the lineup is predicated not on any of his own testimony but on Mr. Whitman's answer to two questions on cross-examination that the people in the lineup were taller but lie did not remember their height or if anyone was the same size as defendant. Mr. Weltman was the victim, the only eyewitness to the robbery. He first identified defendant from among twelve photographs shown to him by the police. There is no evidence that defendant’s photograph was made any more conspicuous than the others, that police in any manner suggested that he committed the crime, or “that the pictures *218 were used to prime the witness[es] to identify defendant.” (People v. Feggans, 67 Cal.2d 444. 449 [62 Cal.Rptr. 419, 432 P.2d 21].) Nor does it appear that defendant’s height was an issue. As to the lineup, defendant did not testify that the others were taller than he; he complained that ‘ it seemed like” he was in 17 different lineups and he couldn’t see his accuser. We are not prepared to say under the circumstances of this case that the fact that others may have been taller than defendant, standing alone, would constitute unfairness. (See People v. Douglas, 259 Cal.App.2d 694, 697, fn. 7 [66 Cal. Rptr. 492].) Overall, the lineup procedure was standard and nothing demonstrates that it was such as would result in an ‘"irreparable mistaken identification.” Further, the proof is clear and convincing that the in-court identification of defendant by the victim was based on his own observations of defendant during the robbery—at the time he was threatened with the gun and robbed, defendant was standing 11 about 6, 7 feet” from him and he “got a good look at defendant’s face ”; in the courtroom he pointed to defendant as the man who held the gun on him.

To support his contention that the trial judge erred in denying his motion for a new trial because he failed to independently consider the weight of the evidence in passing on the motion, appellant quotes the following statement made by the trial judge: “It just is not my job, not my right, to substitute my evaluation of the credibility of witnesses for that of the jury, unless I feel that the testimony is just—not necessarily inherently improbable but, at least, not believable.” Conveniently ignored by appellant is the balance of that statement 2 which shows that the judge considered the testimony of the witnesses and properly denied the motion for new trial because he could not say that the jury reached the wrong verdict.

Defendant testified that on the night of the robbery he *219 was elsewhere with James Logan and Johnny Orlando.

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Bluebook (online)
267 Cal. App. 2d 214, 72 Cal. Rptr. 855, 1968 Cal. App. LEXIS 1379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-farley-calctapp-1968.