People v. Gordon

84 Cal. App. 3d 913, 149 Cal. Rptr. 91, 1978 Cal. App. LEXIS 1933
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 18, 1978
DocketCrim. 31295
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 84 Cal. App. 3d 913 (People v. Gordon) 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. Gordon, 84 Cal. App. 3d 913, 149 Cal. Rptr. 91, 1978 Cal. App. LEXIS 1933 (Cal. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

Opinion

JEFFERSON (Bernard), J.

By an amended information defendants Gordon and Boone were charged in count I with burglary, á violation of Penal Code section 459. It was further alleged that defendants intended to and did inflict great bodily injury upon Cheryl, a victim of the burglary, and that defendants used a firearm, a pistol, within the meaning of Penal Code section 12022.5, during the commission of the offense.

In count II defendants were charged with robbery in violation of Penal Code section 211. Great bodily injury and firearm-use allegations were included.

Defendants were charged in count III with the forcible oral copulation of Cheryl, a violation of Penal Code section 288a. It was further alleged that defendants acted in concert while committing this offense.

In count IV, defendants were charged with the rape of Cheryl, a violation of Penal Code section 261, subdivisions 2 and 3. Firearm-use and acting-in-concert allegations were included.

*917 In count V, defendants were charged with forcibly sodomizing Cheryl, a violation of Penal Code section 286, subdivision (d). It was also alleged that defendants acted in concert.

In count VI, defendants were charged with another act of rape of Cheryl, a violation of Penal Code section 261, subdivisions 2 and 3. It was also alleged that defendants acted in concert and used a firearm.

Defendant Gordon was charged with four prior felony convictions while defendant Boone was charged with two such prior convictions. The firearm-use allegations were stricken with respect to defendant Boone.

Defendants entered pleas of not guilty and denied the priors. Defendants’ motions, made pursuant to Penal Code sections 995 and 1538.5, were denied. Subsequently, defendants admitted their prior convictions.

Trial was by jury. The jury found defendants guilty as charged, but determined that the firearm-use allegation made against defendant Gordon was not true. Defendants were sentenced to state prison for the term prescribed by law. The sentences were ordered to run consecutively to each other, except that the sentence for the burglary offense was stayed pending completion of the sentence for the robbery offense. After completion of the robbery sentence, the stay was to become permanent. The sentences were ordered enhanced by reason of the great bodily injury infliction, the acts committed in concert, and the prior felony convictions admitted by the defendants.

Defendants have appealed from the judgments of conviction.

I

The Factual Background

Upon this appeal, no challenge is directed to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgments of conviction. Accordingly, our factual summary concerning the crimes will be brief.

Toward midnight on September 10, 1976, a young married couple, Lewis Steven and Cheryl, returned to their Los Angeles home. Upon entering, Lewis, known to family and friends as Steve, encountered a male who pointed a gun at him. Steve was then hit on the head. He fell *918 to the floor, and was turned over on his face. His glasses were removed and a paper bag placed over his head; his hands and ankles were taped.

A male, whose face was partially covered by a bandana, entered the bathroom where Cheryl was, and told her to be “cool.” Later, someone entered the bathroom and placed a bag over Cheryl’s head. She was then led upstairs.

Addressing him as “Steve,” the intruders asked the male victim “[w]here is the dope?” Steve could hear voices, and the sound of items being moved around; he heard conversation, which sounded like ghetto talk.

Meanwhile, someone entered the bedroom where Cheryl had been put, and disrobed her. She was forced to orally copulate this individual, and then was raped and sodomized. Later she was raped again. She heard various voices. Steve heard the assailants depart, three of them he thought.

A Los Angeles police officer responded to the call from Lewis and Cheryl. He recovered a laundry ticket with the name “E. Gordon” written upon it, pushed down between the mattress and the bed frame in the bedroom where Cheryl had been assaulted. The ticket had been issued by Poppy Cleaners in Altadena on September 9, 1976.

On September 11, 1976, Investigating Officer Westbrook went to the Poppy Cleaners, and discovered that the clothing to which the ticket pertained had already been picked up that day. Westbrook located this clothing at the home of defendant Gordon, who was arrested the night of September 11, 1976. Two other individuals were taken into custody as the investigation progressed—Richard Dodd and codefendant Boone. At trial, Lewis and Cheryl recognized codefendant Boone as a person who had visited their home socially in June 1976.

II

The Suppression-of-evidence Motion

Defendants contend on this appeal that their motion to suppress evidence should have been granted, because the custodial interrogation *919 of defendant Gordon was unlawfully conducted, and led ultimately to the issuance of search warrants, the searches and seizures of physical evidence, and the arrest of Dodd and defendant Boone. Various grounds of illegality are set forth in defendant Gordon’s brief, and are adopted by codefendant Boone. Preliminarily, we note that codefendant Boone has standing to attack the finding of the voluntariness of defendant Gordon’s in-custody admissions, but lacks standing to assert a violation of Gordon’s Miranda rights. (Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [16 L.Ed.2d 694, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974]; People v. Varnum (1967) 66 Cal.2d 808 [59 Cal.Rptr. 108, 427 P.2d 772]; People v. Felix (1977) 72 Cal.App.3d 879 [139 Cal.Rptr. 366].)

Evidence adduced at the suppression hearing revealed that, after defendant Gordon was taken into custody, he spoke to Detective Ramirez, who advised him of his constitutional rights with respect to custodial interrogation; included, of course, was the right to remain silent. (Miranda v. Arizona, supra.) Defendant Gordon was asked to take a lie detector test, a request he refused. Defendant Gordon was placed in a lineup on September 13, 1976, but was not identified by either Lewis or Cheryl. The police meanwhile were searching their files in an effort to learn more about defendant Gordon. They discovered that Gordon had previously been associated in criminal activity with a certain Richard Dodd, among others. Defendant Gordon had placed a telephone call to Richard Dodd from the jail. However, because of the lack of identification by the victims, the police planned to release Gordon from custody on September 15, 1976.

On that date, Frank Marino, Gordon’s parole officer, placed a detention hold on defendant Gordon, and thus Gordon remained in custody.

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Bluebook (online)
84 Cal. App. 3d 913, 149 Cal. Rptr. 91, 1978 Cal. App. LEXIS 1933, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-gordon-calctapp-1978.