 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
People v. Mayfield1/2/1997
He has not shown that Roy Mayfield would not have made the statement but for the monitoring and tape recording, much less that the police obtained the statement by exploitation of that conduct. Therefore, evidence of Roy Mayfield's statement to Detective Amicone was not subject to suppression as the "tainted fruit" of the claimed illegal police conduct.
4. Improper Rebuttal
Defendant contends that evidence of Roy Mayfield's statement to Detective Amicone, apparently recounting a statement by defendant, was not proper rebuttal evidence, and should have been excluded on that ground, because it was material incriminating evidence, known to the prosecution before trial, that the prosecution could have presented during its case-in-chief. Defendant further contends that the trial court's error in permitting the use of this evidence in rebuttal violated his right to due process of law under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution and his right to a reliable guilt determination in a capital case under the Eighth Amendment to the federal Constitution. We disagree.
"If evidence is directly probative of the crimes charged and can be introduced at the time of the case in chief, it should be." ( People v. Thompson (1980) 27 Cal. 3d 303, 330 [165 Cal. Rptr. 289, 611 P.2d 883].) "roper rebuttal evidence does not include a material part of the case in the prosecution's possession that tends to establish the defendant's commission of the crime. It is restricted to evidence made necessary by the defendant's case in the sense that he has introduced new evidence or made assertions that were not implicit in his denial of guilt." ( People v. Carter (1957) 48 Cal. 2d 737, 753-754 [312 P.2d 665].)
The reasons for the restrictions on rebuttal evidence are "to (1) ensure the orderly presentation of evidence so that the trier of fact is not confused; (2) to prevent the prosecution from 'unduly magnifying certain evidence by dramatically introducing it late in the trial;' and (3) to avoid 'unfair surprise' to the defendant from sudden confrontation with an additional piece of crucial evidence." ( People v. Bunyard (1988) 45 Cal. 3d 1189, 1211 [249 Cal. Rptr. 71, 756 P.2d 795], quoting People v. Carter, (supra) , 48 Cal. 2d 737, 753.)
"The decision to admit rebuttal evidence over an objection of untimeliness rests largely within the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be disturbed on appeal in the absence of an abuse of that discretion." ( People v. DeSantis (1992) 2 Cal. 4th 1198, 1232 [9 Cal. Rptr. 2d 628, 831 P.2d 1210].)
Here, we reject defendant's assertion that the Roy Mayfield statement ("Basically the officer confronted him with the gun. He pressed him, and he took it. The officer tried to take it back, and that's when the shot was fired.") properly belonged in the prosecution's case-in-chief because it was crucial and material evidence that was directly probative of defendant's guilt of the crimes charged. It was never disputed that Sergeant Wolfley was shot during an encounter with defendant. The crucial contested issue was whether defendant shot Sergeant Wolfley deliberately and without provocation, as the prosecution contended, or whether the gun discharged accidentally while defendant struggled with Sergeant Wolfley and while defendant was acting in self-defense. During its case-in-chief, the prosecution relied on forensic evidence to establish that the fatal shot was not fired at close range and thus that the gun could not have discharged accidentally during a hand-to-hand struggle. The Roy Mayfield statement was consistent with the prosecution's version of the shooting to the extent it established that the fatal shot wa
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 California DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|