The People v. Silva CA4/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 16, 2013
DocketE055801
StatusUnpublished

This text of The People v. Silva CA4/2 (The People v. Silva CA4/2) 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
The People v. Silva CA4/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Filed 9/16/13 P. v. Silva CA4/2

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, E055801

v. (Super.Ct.No. FVA701548)

KEITH SILVA, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of San Bernardino County. Ingrid A. Uhler,

Judge. Affirmed in part; reversed in part with directions.

Cara DeVito, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and

Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney

General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Barry Carlton and Garrett

Beaumont, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

1 A jury convicted defendant, Keith Silva, of first degree murder (Pen.Code, § 187,

subd. (a))1 and torture (§ 209), both of which were committed for the benefit of a

criminal street gang (§ 186.22, subd. (b)(1)(C)). In connection with the murder, the jury

further found that a principal had used a firearm, discharged a firearm and discharged a

firearm causing death (§ 12022.53, subds. (b), (c), (d) & (e)(1)). In bifurcated

proceedings, defendant admitted having suffered a strike prior. He was sentenced to

prison for 75 years to life. He appeals, claiming the trial court erred in refusing to

dismiss the jury venire, in denying his motion for a mistrial and in instructing the jury.

We reject these contentions and affirm the judgment as it applies to them. The parties

agree that our holding in People v. Beltran (Aug. 21, 2012, E053541 [nonpub. opn.]

(Beltran)) constitutes the law of the case and, based on it, we reverse the gang true

findings as to both offenses and the firearm true findings as to the murder. We also direct

the trial court to correct errors in the abstract of judgment.

FACTS2

“On April 4, 2003, defendant and his codefendant, both members and officers of a

local chapter of the Vagos motorcycle club, participated, along with seven other

members, in the beating of the victim, a club “hang-around,” because the latter owed

money to one of the other members and had not returned a truck belonging to yet another.

Then, defendant drove the bound victim, along with the codefendant, in his truck out to

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.

2 On this court‟s own motion, we have taken judicial notice of the record in People v. Beltran, E053541.

2 the desert where the victim was fatally shot.” (Beltran, supra, E053541, pp. 2-3.) Facts

relating to the gang findings are described in Beltran. (Id. at pp. 3-6.)

ISSUES AND DISCUSSION

1. Refusal to Dismiss the Jury Venire

On the first day of jury selection, a panel of venire persons were brought into the

court room and “time qualified” during the morning, and another panel during the

afternoon. The trial court announced to the morning group that the trial would be a “very

lengthy” one and to the afternoon group that it would last a month. The following court

day, which was five days later, whatever venire persons survived this process were

brought together into the court room and the trial court continued excusing some due to

financial hardship or because they had an association with someone who would be

testifying in the case. During this time, one of the venire persons said, “I am a retired

parole agent and so is my husband and several other people I know. I believe [defendant]

was at one time on my husband‟s caseload.” Both counsel immediately stipulated that

this venire person could be excused and she was. The trial court then said, “I‟m going to

indicate to all of you as jurors—based on [this venire person‟s] most recent comment,

I‟m going to tell you right now that [defendant] was not on parole in the State of

California and that she‟s mistaken in terms of her husband being his parole agent. [¶]

Does everybody understand that? He‟s not on parole and has not been on parole.

Everybody understand that? Okay.” After excusing another venire person, the court said

to the venire, “Because . . . you have to understand that first [the female venire person]

thought it was [the codefendant that her husband supervised]—I don‟t know if you were

3 part of that panel that day—then she goes, „Oh, now I think it was [defendant].‟ I think,

in all honesty, she‟s using it as an excuse to get off the jury panel because there‟s actually

no connection between the two at all. [¶] . . . [¶] We kind of expected this. . . . [W]e

still have a good core group of people that we are going to get started with. We still hope

that we will actually get a panel from those that are willing to remain—and I completely

appreciate the fact that all of you are willing to remain and participate in this jury

process . . . .” Outside the presence of the venire, counsel for defendant moved to have it

dismissed and the process begun all over again because “there is at least a reasonable

likelihood that [the female venire person‟s] comments, despite what the Court told the

jurors afterwards, may have poisoned this panel . . . .” The trial court denied the request,

saying, “I think I sufficiently admonished the balance of the jury panel and made it very

clear that, obviously, [the female venire person‟s] opinion that there may be a connection

between [defendant] and herself was an erroneous one. I think I made it very clear to the

jury panel that she made a mistake—and the same mistake with [the codefendant]—and,

obviously, I also conveyed my opinion to the other jurors that I thought she was just

using it as a tool to try to get off from the jury panel because from the beginning we met

her, she was giving all sorts of excuses trying to get off the jury panel despite our efforts

of having her remain as a potential juror, so I think with the admonishment provided by

the Court to the other potential jurors, that that, obviously, deadens any type of potential

prejudice with the other jurors. They all agreed in unison that they accepted the Court‟s

admonition and that, obviously, we‟re under the legal authority to expect and understand

that the jurors do follow court admonitions . . . .” Defendant points out that because the

4 record states that he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for the 1988 killing of his

wife the trial court lied to the venire when it said that defendant had never been on parole.

Also during trial, defense counsel objected to the introduction into evidence of

pictures of defendant‟s tattoos that he received in prison. One was of an eagle and the

other was of the letters, “I” and “E.” Counsel asserted that since two of the jurors were

employees of the Department of Corrections (one was retired but had worked at

“Calpatria State Prison, two fire camps” and Patton State Hospital, the latter for 13 years,

and the other currently worked at Patton) “they . . . have to receive certain training and

have experience vis-à-vis . . . prison tattoos and what they mean, . . . since the [c]ourt had

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

Related

Middleton v. McNeil
541 U.S. 433 (Supreme Court, 2004)
John George Paschal v. United States
306 F.2d 398 (Fifth Circuit, 1962)
People v. Gonzales
253 P.3d 185 (California Supreme Court, 2011)
In Re Hamilton
975 P.2d 600 (California Supreme Court, 1999)
People v. Allen
77 Cal. App. 3d 924 (California Court of Appeal, 1978)
People v. Lynn
159 Cal. App. 3d 715 (California Court of Appeal, 1984)
People v. Maurer
32 Cal. App. 4th 1121 (California Court of Appeal, 1995)
People v. Hamlin
170 Cal. App. 4th 1412 (California Court of Appeal, 2009)
People v. Ramos
101 P.3d 478 (California Supreme Court, 2004)
People v. Avila
133 P.3d 1076 (California Supreme Court, 2006)
People v. Ayala
1 P.3d 3 (California Supreme Court, 2000)
People v. Huggins
131 P.3d 995 (California Supreme Court, 2006)
People v. Hillhouse
40 P.3d 754 (California Supreme Court, 2002)
People v. Whisenhunt
186 P.3d 496 (California Supreme Court, 2008)
People v. Medina
799 P.2d 1282 (California Supreme Court, 1990)
People v. Burgener
62 P.3d 1 (California Supreme Court, 2003)
Auto Equity Sales, Inc. v. Superior Court
369 P.2d 937 (California Supreme Court, 1962)
People v. Frye
959 P.2d 183 (California Supreme Court, 1998)
People v. Wallace
189 P.3d 911 (California Supreme Court, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
The People v. Silva CA4/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-people-v-silva-ca42-calctapp-2013.