People v. Zack

184 Cal. App. 3d 409, 229 Cal. Rptr. 317
California Court of Appeal·Decided August 13, 1986·No. B011269·Published·Cited by 65 cases

Opinion

184 Cal.App.3d 409 (1986)
229 Cal. Rptr. 317

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
GEORGE FRANCIS ZACK, Defendant and Appellant.

Docket No. B011269.

Court of Appeals of California, Second District, Division Six.

August 13, 1986.

*411 COUNSEL

Norman W. de Carteret, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

John K. Van de Kamp, Attorney General, Robert F. Katz and Donald J. Oeser, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

YEGAN, J.[*]

George Francis Zack was convicted of first degree murder (Pen. Code, §§ 187, 189) and was sentenced to state prison for 25 years to life. He contends: "I. The court erred when it admitted evidence of prior bad acts against defendant over objection and instructed the jury from CALJIC 2.50 [on] evidence of other offenses. II. The court ruled that all prior statements of defendant were admissible, allowed the plaintiff to play tapes and present transcripts and testimony of innumerable exculpatory and irrelevant statements of defendant, allowed ostensibly impeaching testimony, allowed plaintiff to argue alleged false statements to show a consciousness of guilt, and instructed the jury on consciousness of guilt. III. The court erred when it allowed testimony that Theresa [F.] consulted with attorney John Smiley who obtained a restraining order."

The People introduced uncontradicted evidence that Theresa F., the decedent herein, was murdered at approximately 3 a.m. on January 21, 1982. Her body was found in her car in the Dakota Apartments parking lot. Cause of death was aspiration of blood due to strangulation and five or six applications of blunt force trauma to the head and neck. In addition, there were 21 injuries on her body, including 2 fractured ankles. She was literally beaten to death. Significantly, there was no evidence of sexual assault, robbery or any other independent felonious purpose.

*412 The circumstantial evidence against appellant was compelling. Appellant met the decedent in 1973 when they were employed at the Point Mugu Naval Base. After dating, they lived together in a stormy "up and down" relationship commencing in 1978 and ending in 1980. During that period, they jointly acquired property. As a result thereof and upon separation, appellant executed a $10,000 promissory note payable to the decedent which was due April 1, 1982, two months after her demise. The decedent's grandson, Wes, also lived with appellant and the decedent between 1978 and 1980. Wes and appellant did not get along, partly as a result of watching appellant, on several occasions, use force upon the decedent, the last application of which resulted in her having two black eyes. Appellant threatened to kill the decedent if she left him.

After the decedent moved into the Dakota Apartments, she and appellant continued to experience problems. Appellant accused Wes and the decedent of committing a burglary of his residence. The decedent retained Attorney John Smiley who, with appellant's attorney, obtained mutual restraining orders prohibiting harassment.

Notwithstanding the restraining order, several residents at the Dakota Apartments saw appellant or his distinctive orange Toyota truck with a white camper shell and a "crease" in the rear fender at the Dakota Apartments between November of 1981 and the day before the murder. The parking lot where the decedent's body was found was ordinarily illuminated by an overhead light. On the day of the murder, the bulb was not operative, not because it had burnt out, but because it had been unscrewed.

The police found four distinctive bloody heel prints on the pavement near decedent's body. Appellant was required to wear Knapp safety shoes at his work at Point Mugu. The heel impressions from appellant's Knapp safety shoes had 15 to 20 points of similarity with the bloody heel impressions at the crime scene. There were no points of dissimilarity. The circular wound to decedent's cheek corresponded to a Seiko watch owned by appellant. Although disputed, both a police officer and Doctor Gerald Vale, a forensic dentist, opined that appellant's wrist watch made the subject wound. In addition, a minute amount of blood was found on appellant's watch.

The day after the murder, appellant was questioned after advisement and waiver of his constitutional rights (Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [16 L.Ed.2d 694, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974]). During the interrogation, appellant made several statements which were at variance with other evidence. First, aware that blood was found under the decedent's fingernail, the police noticed that appellant had scratches on his face and abrasions on his lip. Appellant explained that he received these injuries in *413 an altercation involving two hitchhikers on a recent fishing trip from which he had just returned. Second, he indicated that he had spent the night of the murder in his truck at San Simeon. Later, he claimed that he had spent the night in Carmel. Third, he described with particularity the Carmel gas station where he claimed to have purchased gas. Investigation revealed that the subject station had stopped selling gas on January 10, 1982, approximately 10 days before the murder and appellant's fishing trip. Fourth, appellant claimed to have turned in his Knapp safety shoes to obtain new ones. A coworker, however, saw appellant simultaneously in possession of both pair. Fifth, he initially denied having ever threatened decedent. Thereafter, he said that the threats were "superfluous." Sixth, appellant claimed to have been fishing in Carmel. However, at the subject time, Carmel was experiencing a major rain storm and cold weather, with winds to over 30 miles per hour and ocean waves in excess of 10 feet. It even included unprecedented hail.

(1a) Appellant's first contention is without merit. In ruling that the People could introduce evidence of appellant's prior assaults on the decedent, the court expressly relied upon People v. Daniels (1971) 16 Cal. App.3d 36 [93 Cal. Rptr. 628], and determined that People v. Deeney (1983) 145 Cal. App.3d 647 [193 Cal. Rptr. 608] was distinguishable. We quickly dispose of appellant's Evidence Code section 352 claim. Consistent with decisional law (e.g., People v. Frank (1985) 38 Cal.3d 711, 731 [214 Cal. Rptr. 801, 700 P.2d 415]; People v. Montiel (1985) 39 Cal.3d 910, 924 [218 Cal. Rptr. 572, 705 P.2d 1248]), the trial court with meticulous precision expressly articulated its thought process in overruling appellant's Evidence Code section 352 objection. The trial court's determination was not an abuse of discretion, i.e., arbitrary, whimsical, or capricious, and, not being erroneous as a matter of law, must be sustained on appeal. (People v. Alfaro (1976) 61 Cal. App.3d 414, 423 [132 Cal. Rptr. 356]; People v. Giminez (1975) 14 Cal.3d 68, 72 [120 Cal. Rptr. 577, 534 P.2d 65].)

In People v. Daniels, supra, 16 Cal. App.3d 36, the defendant argued that his prior assaults on his wife were "... proof of prior offenses inadmissible under the rule stated and applied in People v. Kelley [1967] 66 Cal.2d 232, 238 [57 Cal. Rptr. 363,

People v. Zack, 184 Cal. App. 3d 409, 229 Cal. Rptr. 317 (Cal. Ct. App. 1986).

184 Cal. App. 3d 409 (People v. Zack) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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