People v. Welborn

2 Cal. App. 3d 715, 82 Cal. Rptr. 845, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 2453
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 17, 1969
DocketCrim. No. 16228
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2 Cal. App. 3d 715 (People v. Welborn) 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. Welborn, 2 Cal. App. 3d 715, 82 Cal. Rptr. 845, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 2453 (Cal. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

Opinion

ROTH, P. J.

Appellant Rodney Keith Welborn was charged with one count of murder (Pen. Code, § 187). He was first tried in 1966. At his first [718]*718trial he pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. By stipulation, he was tried by the court, the plea of not guilty was submitted to the court upon the transcript of the preliminary hearing and a conversation between appellant and an investigating officer. He was found guilty of murder of the first degree. The sanity issue was also submitted to the court by stipulation upon the reports of five psychiatrists. None of these reports were offered or considered during the guilt phase of the trial. He was found sane and sentenced to life imprisonment.

On appeal, this court reversed.1 We held that the failure of defense counsel to present psychiatric testimony or argument during the guilt phase of the trial to establish a defense of diminished capacity “resulted in a total failure to present the cause of the defendant in any fundamental respect, and thereby deprived him of his constitutional right to effective aid of counsel.”

Appellant’s retrial began on July 29, 1968. His plea of not guilty was tried to a jury. The sole defense was diminished capacity which was presented by the testimony of three psychiatrists who had examined appellant. The jury rendered its verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree on August 20, 1968.

Appellant then waived his right to a trial by jury on his plea of “not guilty by reason of insanity” and submitted that issue to the court. On September 17, 1968, the trial court found appellant sane at the time of the commission of the offense. Appellant was sentenced to prison for the term prescribed by law on October 31, 1968. This appeal followed.

Appellant’s primary arguments are: (1) the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury on “nonstatutory” voluntary manslaughter; and (2) certain items of evidence were erroneously admitted because they were the fruit of admissions made by appellant in the absence of Miranda warnings.

Appellant and Richard Rebbe, the victim, left Richard’s house in Richard’s car at about 1 p.m. on November 20, 1965. They were going hunting in the Los Angeles National Forest and appellant was armed with a pistol and Richard with a rifle. Richard did not return that night.

The next day Richard’s mother called appellant and asked him where Richard was. Appellant was evasive but said that Richard had left him at a service station and gone to a party. He also told Mrs. Rebbe that he and Richard had had a slight argument. Mrs. Rebbe then called the police and reported that her son was missing. She told the officers that appellant was the last one she had seen with Richard.

[719]*719On November 22, 1965, Officers Brondell and Long went to appellant’s home to investigate. When appellant answered the door, the officers identified themselves, stated they were investigating a missing person’s report on Richard Rebbe, and asked appellant if he knew where Richard was. Appellant stepped out on the porch and said, “He’s dead.” Sargeant Brondell, believing that they might now be investigating a homicide gave appellant his constitutional warnings; that he had the right to an attorney before making any statement and that any statement he made could be used against him. When asked if he understood these rights, appellant said, “Yes. I wanted to turn myself into the police. . . .”

The officers went into the house with appellant while he put on additional clothing. When asked whether he wanted to tell the officers what happened, he made a complete confession. At the suggestion of the officers, appellant then led them to the pistol, which was in appellant’s garage, and to the rifle, which he had tossed over a fence into a storage yard. On the following day, because heavy rains prevented the officers and appellant from access to the area on November 22, appellant directed the officers to the place where he had buried Richard’s body in the San Canyon area of Los Angeles National Forest. The body was buried eight to nine inches deep. All identification had been removed from the body.

Richard had been shot twice in the head. Either wound would have been immediately fatal. A ballistics expert testified that one of the bullets found in Richard’s brain was fired from appellant’s pistol and that the other could have been fired from Richard’s rifle. Richard’s father later found Richard’s car in San Diego.

At the retrial, appellant’s sole defense was by psychiatric testimony. Each of the psychiatrists called by appellant testified that appellant was in some way mentally incapacitated at the time of the shooting although their testimony differed on the exact nature of the infirmity, appellant’s ability to harbor malice, and the material or information by which they reached their conclusions. This testimony was clearly sufficient to entitle appellant to an instruction on “nonstatutory” voluntary homicide. (People v. Graham, 71 Cal.2d 303, 315 [78 Cal.Rptr. 217, 455 P.2d 153]; People v. Castillo, 70 Cal.2d 264, 270 [74 Cal.Rptr. 385, 449 P.2d 449]; People v. Conley, 64 Cal.2d 310, 318 [49 Cal.Rptr. 815, 411 P.2d 911].)

Respondent concedes that it is the duty of the trial judge to properly instruct the jury on all issues in a case whether or not defense counsel [720]*720requests a particular instruction (People v. Graham, supra, at p. 318; People v. Castillo, supra, at pp. 270-271 [fn. 5].) Nor does respondent question that failure to give a proper instruction is reversible error per se, since such omission deprives defendant of a trial on 'all of the issues in the case. (People v. Graham, supra, at pp. 315-316; People v. Castillo, supra, at p. 270.)

In People v. Aubrey, 253 Cal.App.2d 912, 919 [61 Cal.Rptr. 772], the court explained the nonstatutory homicide doctrine which was defined by the Supreme Court in People v. Conley, supra: “What the Conley opinion teaches is that there is a type of voluntary manslaughter which does not come within any of the three definitions found in Penal Code section 192. The nonstatutory voluntary manslaughter is a homicide which may be intentional, voluntary, deliberate, premeditated, and unprovoked. It differs from murder in that the element of malice has been rebutted by a showing that the defendant’s mental capacity was reduced by mental illness, mental defect or intoxication.”

Respondent argues that the instructions given to the jury, when taken as a whole, adequately instructed the jury on this type of homicide. The instructions on which reliance is placed are those in which the jury was told that: (1) all of the evidence must be considered in determining whether the defendant was suffering from some mental condition which prevented him from forming an essential mental state or specific intent; (2) voluntary manslaughter is the intentional killing of a human being without malice aforethought upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion without deliberation or premeditation; and (3) that voluntary manslaughter is a homicide.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

People v. Webster
14 Cal. App. 3d 739 (California Court of Appeal, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2 Cal. App. 3d 715, 82 Cal. Rptr. 845, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 2453, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-welborn-calctapp-1969.