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People v. Mayfield1/2/1997
m of ineffective assistance for lack of prejudice.
Exclusion of prospective jurors whose last names began with a letter in the second half of the alphabet did not skew the jury selection procedure. There is no evidence, and no claim, that jurors of either gender or of any religious or racial or ethnic group are present in disproportionate numbers in the group of excluded jurors. Defendant does make the argument that the excluded jurors contain a higher percentage of death penalty skeptics as revealed by their responses during the death-qualification voir dire, but the argument is based on an invalid comparison. Instead of comparing the number of death penalty skeptics among the prospective jurors whose last names began with a letter in the second half of the alphabet with the number of death penalty skeptics among the prospective jurors whose last names began with a letter in the first half of the alphabet, defendant compares the former group with the jurors actually selected. Because this comparison completely disregards the effects of general voir dire and the exercise of peremptory challenges, it cannot be used to demonstrate that the selection method deprived defendant of the benefits of a completely random selection procedure.
Although there was no prejudice on the facts of this case, procedures that unnecessarily narrow the jury pool are disfavored, and courts should strictly adhere to statutory provisions designed to provide criminal defendants with juries constituting as nearly as reasonably possible a random cross-section of the community. (See People v. Wright (1990) 52 Cal. 3d 367, 394-395 [276 Cal. Rptr. 731, 802 P.2d 221].)
IV. GUILT PHASE
A. Defendant's Statements to Police
At trial, the defense moved to exclude evidence of defendant's statements to the police during the hostage negotiations at the Haverstick residence and his postarrest statements to Deputy Stein. After a hearing out of the jury's presence (see Evid. Code, § 402-403), the trial court denied the motion. Defendant contends on appeal that the trial court erred in so ruling because the statements were obtained in violation of defendant's Fifth Amendment rights under Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974], and because Deputy Stein's testimony was inherently improbable.
1. Facts
After defendant dove through the living room window of the Haverstick residence, officers of the Rialto Police Department and the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department surrounded the house and set up a command post in the residence next door. The officers established telephone communication with the Haverstick residence and engaged in a series of conversations with defendant. Roy Mayfield (defendant's father) and Yvonne Hester (defendant's cousin) participated in some of these conversations as the officers attempted to resolve the situation without further injury or loss of life. These telephone conversations were recorded on tape. During the conversations, defendant made damaging admissions. For example, he referred to Haverstick as his "hostage" and threatened to "blow his head off." Speaking to Hester, defendant said he had "fired five shots already" and that "two of those shots went straight to--at the police." When Hester asked defendant how many policemen he had shot, defendant replied, "Just the one." At no time during the telephone conversations was defendant advised of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, (supra) , 384 U.S. 436.
The officers surrounding the Haverstick residence were heavily armed and would not have permitted defendant to leave the area had he attempted to do so. Defendant finally agreed t
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