People v. King

89 Cal. App. 3d 506, 152 Cal. Rptr. 566, 1979 Cal. App. LEXIS 1399
California Court of Appeal·Decided February 1, 1979·No. Crim. 32884·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

Opinion

LILLIE, Acting P. J.

Defendant appeals from order revoking probation granted after imposition of sentence upon a plea of guilty to assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and with a deadly weapon. Revocation proceedings were initiated on grounds which were *508 also the basis for new criminal charges (A-340503, A-340999) on which defendant had been held to answer but had not yet been tried.

Over objection of defendant, violation of probation was submitted by the People on the transcript of testimony taken at the preliminary hearing in each of the two cases. Without merit is appellant’s contention that the quantum of the evidence is insufficient as a matter of law to sustain the order of revocation. Among the terms and conditions of probation were that defendant shall not own, use or possess any dangerous or deadly weapon, and that he shall obey all laws; violations thereof were established by a clear and convincing showing (People v. Coleman, 13 Cal.3d 867, 876, 877, fn. 8 [120 Cal.Rptr. 384, 533 P.2d 1024], and cases cited therein) and the trial court so found. 1 Overwhelming evidence establishes that on three separate occasions defendant was in possession of a dangerous and deadly weapon—a firearm—and used the same, and that he did not obey all laws.

Case A -340503 (kidnaping, robbery, rape, assault with intent to commit murder and attempted murder).

Around 1:10 p.m. on December 28, defendant pointed a gun at Florcita M. who was walking down Manchester Avenue, informed her it was a robbery, threatened to shoot her if she screamed and told her he had killed someone in the past. He pushed her into a vacant building, robbed her and had an act of intercourse with her while holding a gun to her head.

About six hours later (7:30 p.m.) defendant was standing on the sidewalk at 91st and Western with some juveniles; Rickey Bobbitt was getting into his Pinto when defendant pulled a revolver from his waistband, pointed it at Bobbitt and shot him in the back as a result of which he was hospitalized for five days. As defendant and the others fled 91st and Western, Officers Connly and Brockman took up pursuit; looking back at the police vehicle defendant ran to the gate of a residence and attempted to enter but failed; as he continued running the officers *509 saw him reach in his waistband; when apprehended defendant claimed he dropped some marijuana because he did not want to “get hassled,” and took the officers back to show it to them but none could be found; retracing defendant’s flight, Officer Connly found a .357 magnum revolver with an expended round in the bushes in front of the gate. Defendant was arrested for possession of a firearm then returned to 91st and Western where a witness identified him as the one who fired the gun at Bobbitt. Thereafter defendant told police that his friend “Duck” began shooting at the Pinto with a .22 magnum, then he removed his .357 magnum from his waistband and fired at the people in the Pinto. A spent shell casing recovered from the door of the Pinto was fired from a .357 magnum.

Case A-340999 (murder).

On November 15 around 9 p.m. Randolph Jackson was approached while seated in his red Monte Carlo in front of his apartment and shot in the head with a shotgun. Neighbors heard a shot and heard and saw a dark 1974 or 1975 Chevrolet Malibu with two passengers back up “real fast” and leave the area; Jackson was lying dead in the street. When arrested on December 28, 1977, defendant told officers about a murder in November of 1977; he said that Virgil Grundy shot a man in his burgundy Monte Carlo in the face with a sawed-off shotgun. Later he told officers he and Grundy were in Grundy’s black Chevrolet Malibu, he had borrowed a loaded sawed-off 410 single shot shotgun from a friend and he drove the Malibu and Grundy got out to rob the man in the Monte Carlo but when he refused to give up his keys Grundy shot him in the face. When Grundy was arrested he told police that he drove the Malibu, defendant had possession of the shotgun the entire evening and that defendant got out of the car, demanded the keys from the man in the Monte Carlo and shot him in the face.

The identical contention, that the revocation of probation in advance of the trials of the two criminal cases denied him procedural due process because he was forced to forego his opportunity to testify on his own behalf at his revocation hearing in order to avoid self-incrimination at his pending trials, made by appellant herein was raised in People v. Coleman, 13 Cal.3d 867 at page 871 [120 Cal.Rptr. 384, 533 P.2d 1024]. The Supreme Court deemed it unnecessary to adjudicate Coleman’s constitutional claim but afforded relief in the exercise of its “inherent supervisory powers of the courts of this state” (p. 872), and articulated this exclusionary rule: “We accordingly declare as a judicial rule of *510 evidence that henceforth upon timely objection the testimony of a probationer at a probation revocation hearing held prior to the disposition of criminal charges arising out of the alleged violation of the conditions of his probation, and any evidence derived from such testimony, is inadmissible against the probationer during subsequent proceedings on the related criminal charges, save for purpose of impeachment or rebuttal.... [¶] This exclusionary rule allows the state to continue to press for revocation of probation either before or after a probationer’s trial on related charges, but insures that this scheduling discretion will not be influenced by the illegitimate desire to gain an unfair advantage at trial. Objection to prosecutorial use of revocation hearing testimony or its fruits may be made at trial . . . .” (People v. Coleman, 13 Cal.3d 867, 889 [120 Cal.Rptr. 384, 533 P.2d 1024]; see also People v. Sharp, 58 Cal.App.3d 126, 128-130 [129 Cal.Rptr. 476]; People v. North, 48 Cal.App.3d 530, 532 [120 Cal.Rptr. 661]; People v. Carter, 48 Cal.App.3d 369, 373-374 [121 Cal.Rptr. 677].)

Although the court in Coleman noted that “the most desirable method of handling the problems of concurrent criminal and probation revocation proceedings may well be for revocation proceedings not even to be initiated until after disposition of the related criminal proceedings” (People v. Coleman, 13 Cal.3d 867, 896 [120 Cal.Rptr. 384, 533 P.2d 1024]), it is clear that it recognized that the state may continue to press for a probation hearing preceding the criminal trial. 2 Thus we decline to curtail state action preceding the criminal trial made permissible in Coleman,

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People v. King, 89 Cal. App. 3d 506, 152 Cal. Rptr. 566, 1979 Cal. App. LEXIS 1399 (Cal. Ct. App. 1979).

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