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People v. Kraft8/10/2000
e any suggestion the defense might offer in a severed trial that the photographs were innocently obtained on dates preceding the victim's death. In this regard, the Attorney General observes that the prosecution presented evidence the photographs of Loggins were taken after his death, a proposition the defense disputed. The Attorney General contends further that evidence of all of the charged murders was cross-admissible to refute any possible defense of accident in the case of those victims whose death may have been caused by drug or alcohol intoxication, i.e., Loggins, Crisel and Klingbeil. Defendant contends that because he did not, at trial, actually take the stand to proffer these explanations in avoidance of murder liability, they may not now support the denial of severance. He overlooks, however, that in assessing whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying severance, we examine the state of the record at the time of the ruling. (People v. Price (1991) 1 Cal.4th 324, 388.)
For the foregoing reasons, we conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant's motion to sever the murder charges.
2. Admission of Death List
Defendant contends the trial court erred in admitting into evidence a handwritten document the prosecution characterized as a coded list of defendant's victims. The list, he argues, lacked probative value because any connection between the entries on the list and particular victims was speculative. Defendant also contends any relevancy the list possessed was outweighed by its prejudicial impact. Additionally, he asserts the list constituted inadmissible hearsay. He further argues that admission of the list violated the heightened evidentiary reliability requirements in capital cases, established by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution. We find no abuse of discretion in the admission of the list.
After defendant was arrested on May 14, 1983, Orange County Sheriff's deputies searched defendant's car pursuant to a warrant. Among the items recovered in the search was a notebook containing a sheet of paper bearing 61 cryptic entries in defendant's handwriting. The prosecution contended the list memorialized defendant's various murder victims and that 13 of the entries corresponded to murder counts tried in the guilt phase of this case. The prosecution further contended eight additional entries referred to murders defendant committed in Oregon and Michigan, evidence of which was presented in the penalty phase. The prosecution also asserted 21 additional uncharged victims were represented on the list, while acknowledging the remaining entries could not be linked to a specific victim. Four of the entries included the numeral "2," which, according to the prosecution, referred to two victims.
The defense moved in limine to exclude the list from evidence, citing as grounds the hearsay rule, lack of relevancy, absence of a corpus delicti for some of the entries, and the unduly prejudicial effect of references to uncharged crimes. In response, the prosecution stated it would not seek to introduce the entire list into evidence unless the defense so requested. Instead, the prosecution sought to introduce only the 13 entries corresponding to 14 of the murder charges. (The prosecution believed Gambrel was not represented on the list, as defendant would not have had time to add an entry for him, and it was unable to determine which, if any, entry corresponded to victim Eric Church. The prosecution believed one entry, "2 IN 1 BEACH," referred to both Rodger DeVaul and Geoffrey Nelson.) In the course of the hearing on the in limine motions, the trial court rejected the prosecution's argument th
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