People v. Kjar

236 Cal. App. 2d 785, 46 Cal. Rptr. 440, 1965 Cal. App. LEXIS 874
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 24, 1965
DocketCrim. No. 10386
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 236 Cal. App. 2d 785 (People v. Kjar) 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. Kjar, 236 Cal. App. 2d 785, 46 Cal. Rptr. 440, 1965 Cal. App. LEXIS 874 (Cal. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

HERNDON, J.

Defendant appeals from the judgment entered against him following a jury verdict finding him guilty of voluntary manslaughter in violation of section 192, subdivision 1 of the Penal Code, a lesser offense necessarily included within the crime of murder with which he was charged.

By way of assignment of error defendant argues (1) that the murder weapon and the testimony relating thereto should not have been received in evidence by reason of their being the fruits of an illegal arrest followed by an illegal search and seizure; (2) the receipt of appellant’s confession obtained in violation of the rule established in People v. Dorado, 62 Cal.2d 338 [42 Cal.Rptr. 169, 398 P.2d 361]; (3) the refusal of the trial court to instruct on the theory of self-defense; and (4) alleged error in admitting a portion of the tape recording of appellant’s confession that referred to matters irrelevant to the case.

Defendant’s contentions regarding the illegality of his arrest and the discovery of the murder weapon are wholly without merit.

Appellant and a companion were arrested at approximately 11 p.m. on March 27, 1964, by California Highway Patrol officers. Officer Barnes testified that he and his partner had received a call from their office advising them that persons stopping at the Agricultural Check Station outside of Barstow, California, had complained that two men were throwing rocks at vehicles passing on the highway. The officers were informed as to the locale of the incidents and of the fact that a vehicle described as a 1949 to 1954 blue Ford or Mercury had been observed near the scene of action.

The officers promptly proceeded to the designated place and there observed a 1951 blue Mercury parked on the north [787]*787shoulder of the roadway facing in the wrong direction. Seeing no one in the vehicle, the officers parked their car across the highway and approached it from the rear. Officer Barnes’ partner cast the light of his flashlight through the rear window and thereupon was able to identify both the car and its two occupants, who were lying on the seats. He recognized the occupants as juveniles to whom he had issued a citation earlier in the day for possession of alcohol.1 The officers were also able to observe a steel bar approximately 12 inches long on the seat beside the boy in the rear of the car. This bar was tapered on one end and wrapped with friction tape on the other.

The officers quite properly decided that these juveniles should be taken into custody in accordance with the broad provisions of sections 600, subdivision (a) and 625, subdivision (a) of the Welfare and Institutions Code.2

Having due and proper regard for their own safety, the officers approached the car from opposite sides. They opened both doors and asked the boys to step out. When they did so they were taken to the rear of the car and searched for weapons. They denied that there were any other weapons in the car.

However, when Officer Barnes returned to the front door, which was still open, and threw the beam of his flashlight into the front seat area where defendant had been lying, he was able to observe an automatic pistol lying on the floor just [788]*788back of the profile of the seat. This gun was later established to be the murder weapon.

We deem it beyond question that this action of the police was legal and proper in every particular. While it is doubtful that merely looking into the interior of the car would have been an “unreasonable search” in any event, (cf. People v. Terry, 61 Cal.2d 137, 152 [37 Cal.Rptr. 605, 390 P.2d 381]), in the instant case any search of the immediately accessible interior of the car for dangerous weapons was properly incidental to the arrest of its occupants. (Cf. People v. Schader, 62 Cal.2d 716, 722-725 [44 Cal.Rptr. 193, 401 P.2d 665]; People v. Burke, 61 Cal.2d 575, 580 [39 Cal.Rptr. 531, 394 P.2d 67]; People v. Lopez, 60 Cal.2d 223, 241 [32 Cal.Rptr. 424, 384 P.2d 16].)

Defendant’s contentions regarding the court’s refusal to instruct on the issue of self-defense is equally unmeritorious. We are, of course, fully cognizant of the duty of a trial court to instruct on a defense theory that finds any support in the evidence. (People v. Young, 214 Cal.App.2d 641, 645-646 [29 Cal.Rptr. 595].) But, as indicated, some supportive evidence must be found in the record and certainly none sufficient to raise the issue is present here.

Defendant’s challenge to the asserted irrelevancy of a portion of his confession as presented need not be considered because the record is clear that the tape was played outside the presence of the jury before being presented to it and any offensive portions deleted. No objection on this point was made during the trial and the confession, as thus restricted and introduced, apparently was deemed acceptable in form by the court and both counsel.

Defendant’s contention regarding the inadmissibility of the confession as such, however, is meritorious and requires reversal. The record clearly discloses that the investigating officers assigned to the case by the Los Angeles Police Department strongly believed him to be guilty from the inception of their investigation although they had not arrested him following their initial interviews with him in which he gave a false alibi that had been supported by a female companion. When he had been found in possession of the murder weapon at the time of his arrest by the highway patrol some 10 days after the killing, the investigating officers clearly regarded him as the primary suspect and accordingly conducted an interrogation of him designed to elicit a confession. (Cf. People v. Dorado, supra, 62 Cal.2d 338, 347; People [789]*789v. Stewart, 62 Cal.2d 571, 577, et seq. [43 Cal.Rptr. 201, 400 P.2d 97].) This is clearly demonstrated by the following excerpts from the interrogation which immediately preceded defendant’s confession:

“Q. All right, regardless, you said you had the gun. Remember when I talked to you that morning when we brought you in? A. Yeah. Q. I said, ‘I don’t believe your story,’ at the time. You recall it? A. Yeah. Q. All right. Now we have your gun picked up in the car. A. It’s not my gun. Q. Well, I don’t care whose gun it is, it’s in your ear, you’re the one who had the beef with him that night, and he’s dead. I told you that night that everything pointed to you. It looks like you’re wearing the shoes. All right, now the gun’s in there and the gun has been positively identified. That’s the murder weapon, and it’s in your possession. You’re not going to wiggle out of it and you’re not going to lie your way out of it, Svend. The thing to do now is to lay the complete story out. Let’s have the straight story. A. I don’t remember.
“Q. Well, you’d better start remembering, because I’ll tell you one thing.

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Related

People v. Magdelena
238 Cal. App. 2d 613 (California Court of Appeal, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
236 Cal. App. 2d 785, 46 Cal. Rptr. 440, 1965 Cal. App. LEXIS 874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-kjar-calctapp-1965.