In re D.L.
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Christian, Caldecott, Rattigan
Lawrence R. Horn and Lawrence E. Moll, under appointments by the Court of Appeal, and William W. Kaufmann for Defendants and Appellants.
OPINION
CHRISTIAN, J.
D.L. and T.R. appeal from orders of the juvenile court determining that they came within the court‘s jurisdiction as a result of committing voluntary manslaughter (
On June 27, 1973, police discovered the body of juvenile Lupe Torres in a vacant field in Salinas. The victim had been strangled with a belt and his skull had been fractured with a rock. Appellants D.L. and T.R. were taken into custody on the basis of information, given by M.A., that appellants and two other juveniles, R.C. and C.G., had killed the victim following a party on the night of June 22, 1973.
At a joint jurisdictional hearing pursuant to
On appeal, argument is focused on whether the drawing qualified as a declaration under
(2) The drawing, having been posted publicly by D.L., may reasonably be taken as evidence of an implied statement (
Appellant D.L. also contends that his Sixth Amendment3 right to confront witnesses against him was violated by the admission of an
The question is whether Aranda is to be applied in juvenile jurisdictional hearings. The United States Supreme Court has held that the right to confront witnesses is among the essentials of due process and fair treatment and, as incorporated by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, must be secured in state juvenile proceedings. (In re Gault (1967) 387 U.S. 1 [18 L.Ed.2d 527, 87 S.Ct. 1428]; see In re Winship (1970) 397 U.S. 358, 368 [25 L.Ed.2d 368, 377, 90 S.Ct. 1068].) In California,
In his out-of-court statement C.G. admitted pulling on the belt while it was wrapped around the victim‘s neck and kicking him while he was down. The statement was read by the officer who took it; the names of the other three youths and the term “everybody” were deleted and replaced in each instance by the word “blank.” References to the victim and M.A. were not deleted. Concerning the nondeclarants, the statement reveals that: three “blanks” were present at the scene of the crime, one “blank” got into a fight with the victim, another “blank” joined the fray, “we” hit him with a rock, C.G. and the “other people” kicked him, “they” stopped kicking, and that “we” left the victim while he was still breathing because “we” just wanted to beat him up.
In Aranda, the court defined “effective deletion” as requiring not only deletion of direct identifications of codefendants, but deletion of any statements that could be employed against nondeclarant codefendants once their identity was otherwise established (63 Cal.2d at p. 530). In a footnote, the court provided additional guidance as to the meaning of the “effective deletion” requirement:
“The rules governing the cases in which deletion would be a permissible alternative cannot be set out fully. Use of the procedure would depend on the evidence linking the defendants together before and after the crime and on the actual statements made by the declarant defendant.
“In the present case, deletion would have been an effective solution to the joint trial problem. All that Martinez‘s confession added to the case against Aranda was Aranda‘s identity. No evidence linked the two together at any other time relevant to the commission of the robbery. Deleting all references to Aranda would not have prejudiced Martinez and what remained would have prejudiced Aranda no more than if Martinez had in fact said that ‘I was one of the persons who robbed the store but I will tell you nothing more.‘” (63 Cal.2d, fn. 10, pp. 530-531.)
In People v. Massie, supra, 66 Cal.2d 899, 919, the court held that deletions would be ineffective within the meaning of Aranda where references in an out-of-court confession were to “me and John” and
(5) Since the error in admitting the statement was of constitutional dimensions, reversal is required unless the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. (Bruton v. United States, supra, 391 U.S. 123; In re Hill, supra, 71 Cal.2d 997; see Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18 [17 L.Ed.2d 705, 87 S.Ct. 824, 24 A.L.R.3d 1065].) Aranda-Bruton errors may be rendered harmless beyond a reasonable doubt where there is competent and overwhelming evidence against the implicated nondeclarant defendant. (In re Hill, supra, 71 Cal.2d 997; People v. Flores, supra, 68 Cal.2d 563; People v. Hill (1967) 66 Cal.2d 536 [58 Cal. Rptr. 340, 426 P.2d 908].) Here M.A. testified that he saw appellant D.L. pull on the belt which was wrapped around the victim‘s neck, as well as hit, kick, and stab him. Even if the C.G. statement had been admitted without any deletions it would have done no more than second M.A.‘s uncontradicted testimony at trial; it did not implicate appellant D.L. to a greater extent than M.A.‘s eyewitness testimony. Moreover, M.A.‘s testimony was not the only evidence supporting the finding: another witness who had attended the party placed appellant D.L. at the scene of the crime; appellant‘s drawing reasonably implied that he had been present; and the physical evidence found at the scene corroborated M.A.‘s testimony. (4b) In light of this overwhelming evidence against appellant D.L., we are persuaded that admission of the ineffectively edited C.G. statement was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
Appellant T.R. does not challenge the admission of the C.G. statement; its effect on his case is nevertheless considered. The admission of the C.G. statement had the same impact on appellant T.R.‘s case as on appellant D.L.‘s: one series of “blanks” effectively placed him at the
Finally, appellant D.L. contends that the evidence against him was insufficient to sustain the referee‘s finding that he committed voluntary manslaughter. In so doing, he focuses exclusively on the testimony given by M.A. and attacks it by arguing that (1)
(6) Appellant‘s contention that
(7) Appellant attacks the reliability of M.A.‘s testimony because he had sniffed paint fumes on the night of the crime. He correctly asserts
In a statement made to a psychiatrist prior to the jurisdictional hearing, M.A. stated that appellant T.R. had pulled on the belt which was around the victim‘s neck. At the hearing, M.A. testified that from his vantage point he could not see appellant T.R. pull on the belt, but that appellant T.R. was in such a position that he appeared to be pulling on it. The statement made to the psychiatrist was admitted as a prior inconsistent statement. (
The trier of fact is charged with determining the credibility of witnesses. (
(8) The evidence was sufficient to sustain the finding that appellant D.L. had committed voluntary manslaughter and therefore had come within the court‘s jurisdiction.
Appellant T.R.‘s sole contention is that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the finding of voluntary manslaughter; in so contending, he focuses exclusively on the sufficiency of M.A.‘s testimony in light of
The orders are affirmed. The appeal from the trial court‘s order denying rehearing is dismissed.
Caldecott, P.J., and Rattigan, J., concurred.
Appellants’ petitions for a hearing by the Supreme Court were denied May 8, 1975.
Notes
“(a) ‘Hearsay evidence’ is evidence of a statement that was made other than by a witness while testifying at the hearing and that is offered to prove the truth of the matter stated.
“(b) Except as provided by law, hearsay evidence is inadmissible.
“(c) This section shall be known and may be cited as the hearsay rule.”
“A conviction can not be had upon the testimony of an accomplice unless it be corroborated by such other evidence as shall tend to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense; and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows the commission of the offense or the circumstances thereof.
“An accomplice is hereby defined as one who is liable to prosecution for the identical offense charged against the defendant on trial in the cause in which the testimony of the accomplice is given.”