People v. MyersPeople v. Myers
COUNSEL
Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Victoria B. Wilson and Viet H. Nguyen, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
OPINION
CHANEY, Acting P. J.—Derrick Myers appeals from a judgment entered following a jury trial in which he was convicted of second degree robbery of a motel, contending evidence of a prior robbery was inadmissible to prove common plan or design, intent, or absence of mistake under
From May 13, 2012, to May 16, 2012, Myers, a resident of San Bernardino, stayed at his niece‘s apartment in Lancaster. While there, he borrowed a red USC Trojans jacket and a bicycle.
Around 2:00 a.m. on May 16, 2012, Myers, wearing the red USC Trojans jacket, rode a bicycle up to the front door of the Inn of Lancaster (the Inn). Christopher Hurst, the night clerk, unlocked the door electronically, and Myers entered and approached the counter where Hurst sat. Myers asked Hurst about the cost of a room, told him he would return with money, and left. Approximately 15 minutes later, Myers returned. He pressed what appeared to be money up to the glass door of the Inn and Hurst unlocked the door. Myers asked Hurst if he could get a room although he was unable to get enough money to pay the full price. When Hurst told him no, Myers stated, “Here‘s what I want you to do,” put his hand into his jacket pocket, and pointed something at Hurst. He told Hurst to give him the money inside the cash register and ordered him not to look at him or he would shoot him. Frightened, Hurst put his hands up, took $194 in bills out of the cash register, and placed them on the counter. Myers took the money, instructed Hurst to open the door, and rode off on his bicycle. Hurst then called the sheriff‘s department and reported he had been robbed. Myers was later arrested.
An information charged Myers with second degree robbery (
Before trial, the prosecution moved to admit evidence of Myers‘s prior robbery of a San Bernardino donut shop under
At trial, an employee at the donut shop testified that at 11:45 a.m. on May 13, 2012, Myers walked into the shop and asked her about the price of various donuts and drinks. He then handed her a note that said, “give me all the money” and grabbed his waistband as if to show her the shape of a gun. He whispered to her “not to f-ing move” and to hurry up and put the money in a hat he had placed on the counter. Believing she saw a gun in his
The prosecution also sought to introduce oral testimony of the contents of a surveillance video without an audio component of the Inn‘s lobby on May 16, 2012. Los Angeles County Sheriff‘s Department Detective Mark Donnel testified he and the Inn‘s owner viewed the surveillance video shortly after the robbery, but he and his partner accidentally deleted the video while trying to copy it off a digital video recorder. Detective Donnel and the Inn‘s owner sought to testify only as to what they viewed on the video, as the video contained no audio. Defense counsel objected to admission of testimony regarding the video‘s contents on the grounds that it constituted hearsay and improper secondary evidence. The trial court overruled the objections and allowed the testimony, finding the detectives inadvertently destroyed the video.
Detective Donnel testified that on the video, he saw someone wearing a red USC Trojans jacket ride a bicycle up to the Inn‘s front door, look through the door, then open it and walk up to the counter. The person appeared to talk to the clerk at the counter, then moved his jacket aside and reached for his waistband. The clerk put his hands up, took money out of the cash register, and gave it to the individual in the red jacket, who then rode away on his bicycle.
The Inn‘s owner also testified to the surveillance video‘s contents. He testified he viewed the video three times before it was accidentally erased while he was assisting police to copy it. He testified he viewed a person enter the Inn, talk to the front desk clerk, then leave. The same man came back about five to 10 minutes later, entered the Inn, and approached the counter. He put his hand in his right jacket pocket and made a gesture as if he had a gun. The clerk raised his left hand while taking money out of the cash register with his right hand, then handed the money to the man.
The jury found Myers guilty of second degree robbery. The trial court sentenced him to 19 years in state prison, consisting of five years for the robbery and an additional 14 based on the prior strike, felony, and prison terms. Myers timely appealed.
We review any ruling on the admissibility of evidence for abuse of discretion. (People v. Guerra (2006) 37 Cal.4th 1067, 1113 [40 Cal.Rptr.3d 118, 129 P.3d 321].) A court abuses its discretion when its ruling “falls outside the bounds of reason.” (People v. DeSantis (1992) 2 Cal.4th 1198, 1226 [9 Cal.Rptr.2d 628, 831 P.2d 1210].)
1. Evidence of Myers‘s Prior Robbery
Myers argues the trial court abused its discretion in admitting evidence of his prior robbery of a donut shop to show a common design or plan because it lacked sufficient similarity to the robbery at issue. We disagree.
Under
To be admissible, “such evidence ‘must not contravene other policies limiting admission, such as those contained in Evidence Code section 352. [Citations.]’ [Citation.]” (People v. Ewoldt, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 404.) Because evidence of prior offenses is highly prejudicial, it must have substantial probative value, and the trial court must carefully analyze the evidence under section 352 to determine if its probative value outweighs its inherent prejudicial effects. (People v. Ewoldt, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 404.) Under section 352, the trial court “in its discretion may exclude evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the probability that its admission will (a) necessitate undue consumption of time or (b) create substantial danger of undue prejudice, of confusing the issues, or of misleading the jury.” (
Applying these principles, we find no abuse of discretion in the admission of evidence of the prior robbery. In both the prior robbery and the
Likewise, the trial court acted within its discretion under
Because we find the prior robbery was admissible to show a common design or plan, we need not address whether it was also admissible to show intent or absence of mistake. Nevertheless, we will address Myers‘s argument that evidence of the donut shop robbery was irrelevant to prove intent or absence of mistake because they were not at issue in the case. He claims he contested only the issue of whether he used fear or force, to which the prior robbery was not probative. This argument has no merit.
When a prior offense is proffered to prove an ultimate fact, that fact must be in dispute. (People v. Thompson (1980) 27 Cal.3d 303, 315 [165 Cal.Rptr. 289, 611 P.2d 883].) A defendant‘s plea of not guilty puts the elements of the crime in issue for purposes of
Evidence of the prior robbery suggested Myers acted intentionally when he entered a business, asked about pricing, demanded money, gestured to indicate he had a gun, and took the contents of the cash register. (See People v. Thomas (2011) 52 Cal.4th 336, 355 [128 Cal.Rptr.3d 489, 256 P.3d 603] [“‘We have long recognized “that if a person acts similarly in similar situations, he probably harbors the same intent in each instance . . . .“‘“].) That defense counsel in closing argument focused solely on whether Myers used force or fear did nothing to narrow the elements at issue. (See People v. Daniels, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 857, citing People v. Rodriguez (1986) 42 Cal.3d 730, 757-758 [230 Cal.Rptr. 667, 726 P.2d 113] [when a defendant fails to isolate the issue until after the prosecution has completed its case-in-chief, the court does not err in admitting evidence of prior criminal conduct to prove an element of the offense].) Accordingly, the trial court committed no error in admitting the evidence.
2. Oral Testimony of the Surveillance Video‘s Contents
Myers argues testimony regarding Hurst‘s act of putting up his hands constituted inadmissible hearsay evidence because the act was an out-of-court statement that he would comply with Myers‘s demands, offered to prove the statement‘s truth.1 We need not resolve whether Hurst‘s act of raising his hands was hearsay because even if it was, it would have been admissible under
Hearsay is a statement made other than by a witness at the hearing, offered to prove the truth of the matter stated. Hearsay is generally considered
We recognize that the universal meaning of Hurst‘s act in human communication—as a sign of surrender—supports a conclusion that his use of that gesture was an intentional (if reflexive) communicative act. But it is equally indisputable that Detective Donnel‘s and the Inn‘s owner‘s accounts of the clerk raising his hands in the surveillance video was not offered to prove that Hurst actually surrendered to Myers. Thus, the testimony was not offered to prove the matter asserted—a surrender. The same would be true if Hurst had uttered the words “I surrender.” Such proof of actual surrender—oral or gestural—would be of no relevance or materiality in the case at issue. What was at issue was that Myers used fear to effect the robbery. The clerk‘s raised hands reflected his state of mind of surrender and thus tended to support a contention that Myers used fear to effect his crime. So, we have no hearsay.
But even if the hearsay nature of the gestural statement were debatable, we would reach the same result.
The judgment is affirmed.
Johnson, J., and Miller, J.,* concurred.
Appellant‘s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied October 1, 2014, S220659.