People v. Lara
People v. Lara
Concurring Opinion
MOSK, J.
I concur insofar as the judgment is modified to provide for life imprisonment on the murder count.
As I explained in my dissent in Thornton (id. at p. 77), however, “Forcible control, as this court recently and unanimously held, is an essential ingredient of all kidnaping under California law. (People v. Stephenson (1974) 10 Cal.3d 652, 659-660 [111 Cal.Rptr. 556, 517 P.2d 820].) It follows that a definition couched merely in terms of forcible control fails to distinguish between simple and aggravated kidnaping.” Yet because the penalties for the two offenses are vastly different in severity such a distinction must be drawn, under pain of violating the equal protection clause. (See, e.g., In re Lynch (1972) 8 Cal.3d 410 [105 Cal.Rptr. 217, 503 P.2d 921].) As I further observed in my Thornton dissent, “under the majority’s view the present defendant must be found guilty of aggravated kidnaping —but not an intended robber who renders his victim unconscious, or securely binds and gags [him], before driving exactly the same distance. The contrast underscores the arbitrariness of the majority’s reliance on the single element of ‘forcible control,’ rather than the totality of the circumstances placed before the jury, in determining whether the movements resulted in a substantial increase in the risk of harm.” (11 Cal.3d at p. 782.)
When the totality of those circumstances is considered, it will immediately be seen that in the case at bar the manner in which the victim was moved was not highly dangerous within the meaning of our prior cases.
The irony is that the Attorney General does not contend to! the contrary. He does not urge that the movement of Mitchell “under the threat of imminent injury by a deadly weapon” itself created the requisite increased risk of harm. The majority’s rationale finds no support in the brief of the Attorney General. Rather, he argues that defendant increased the risk of harm by moving Mitchell from a “public” lumberyard to a “secluded” dump where the robbery and deadly assault could be accomplished with less chance of being observed by third persons. But the facts do not support this theory either. The events in question took place shortly after 2 a.m. on a Sunday. The People concede in their supplemental brief that defendant “could have taken Mitchell’s car at the lumberyard”; considering the hour, in so doing he could also have fired the fatal shot at that location with little fear of attracting unwanted attention. Even a “public” lumberyard, I suggest, is scarcely a beehive of activity at 2 o’clock on a Sunday morning.
Thus even if the asportation here may conceivably have increased the risk of harm to Mitchell in some degree, it cannot have “substantially” increased it as required by Daniels. Under the rule of People v. Mutch (1971) 4 Cal.3d 389 [93 Cal.Rptr. 721, 482 P.2d 633], defendant was convicted of kidnaping to commit robbery under a statute which did not prohibit his acts at the time he committed them, and he is therefore entitled to relief. I would vacate the judgment on the kidnaping count.
The lateness of the hour also refutes the majority’s speculation that unforeseen intervention by third parties during the asportation was a “great” likelihood. {Ante, p. 908, fn. 4.) The chances of running into a late reveller or an early riser between the lumberyard and the dump were slim indeed.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion
Tony Montoya Lara was convicted of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187) and kidnaping for the purpose of robbery with the victim suffering bodily harm (Pen. Code, § 209). He was sentenced to death on the murder count and to life imprisonment without possibility of parole on the kidnaping count. The judgment was affirmed. (People v. Lara (1967) 67 Cal.2d 365 [62 Cal.Rptr. 586, 432 P.2d 202].) Thereafter, under compulsion of Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968) 391 U.S. 510 [20 L.Ed.2d 77.6, 88 S.Ct. 1770], the judgment was reversed insofar as it imposed the death penalty and was affirmed in all other respects. (In re Lara (1969) 1 Cal.3d 486 [82 Cal.Rptr. 628, 462 P.2d 380].) Upon retrial of the penalty issue defendant’s punishment was again fixed at death, and his automatic appeal is now before us. (Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b).)
In People v. Anderson (1972) 6 Cal.3d 628 [100 Cal.Rptr. 152, 493 P.2d 880], we held that the death penalty violated our state constitutional prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment. (Cal. Const., art. I, § 6.)
By supplemental brief, however, defendant presents additional contentions relating to the judgment of guilt. He first asserts that under People v. Daniels (1969) 71 Cal.2d 1119 [80 Cal.Rptr. 897, 459 P.2d 225], there is insufficient evidence as a matter of law to support his conviction on the
The facts relevant to this contention were set forth as follows in our first opinion in this case (People v. Lara, supra, 67 Cal. 2d 365): “About 3 p.m. on May 23, 1965, the body of Raymond Mitchell was discovered in a large excavation used as a dump near Wilmington, California. He was lying on a ledge some 15 feet below the top of the excavation. His hands were tied behind his back with strips torn from his T-shirt. He had been shot in the back with a shotgun, death being caused by massive hemorrhages of the vital organs. Officer Taggart of the Los Angeles Police Department, the first to reach the scene, found two spent shotgun shells on the ground nearby. The deputy coroner fixed the time of death at between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m. that same day.
“That evening, Mitchell’s car, a light-colored 1951 Chevrolet, was found abandoned approximately two miles away in an area known as the Bixby Slough. It was stuck, and could not be moved either forward or backward under its own power. Officer Taggart examined the vehicle and observed a discoloration appearing to be blood on the steering column.
“Augustine Meza testified that about 1:30 a.m. on May 23 he was offered a ride by Mitchell in the latter’s Chevrolet. They drove to a liquor store to buy some cigars. Meza declined Mitchell’s offer of a drink from a bottle of wine, explaining he had been drinking since a wedding reception the previous afternoon. Ten or fifteen minutes later they drove to a lumberyard where they encountered defendants Lara and Alvarez, known to Meza respectively as ‘Tony’ and ‘Baby.’ Lara and Alvarez entered Mitchell’s car, saying ‘Why don’t you take us for a ride?’ Meza then asked to be driven home, and Mitchell complied. It was 2 a.m.; Meza had something to eat, and went to bed.
“The first part of [Lara’s] statement[
“The two then drove away, looking for a place to rob. Finding none to their liking, Lara took the other person home. Lara then removed some small objects from the car, wiped it clean of fingerprints, and ‘ditched’ it when it stuck in a field.” (67 Cal.2d at pp. 369-370, 372-373.)
In People v. Daniels, supra, 71 Cal.2d 1119, we held that “the intent of the Legislature in amending Penal Code section 209 in 1951 was to exclude from its reach . . . those [robberies] in which the movements of the victim are merely incidental to the commission of the robbery and do not substantially increase the risk of harm over and above that necessarily present in the crime of robbery itself.” (71 Cal.2d at p. 1139.) Applying this standard to the instant case, we have concluded that the asportation to which defendant and his companion Alvarez subjected the victim Mitchell prior to murdering him was such that conviction under section 209 was proper.
The record clearly establishes — out of Lara’s own mouth — that he and Alvarez wanted Mitchell’s car for the purpose of using it in an armed robbery, and that they resolved to kill Mitchell in order to prevent him from later identifying them. When they returned to the lumberyard after taking Meza home, they obtained a shotgun which Lara had hidden there and, presumably concluding that the dump near Wilmington was a preferable site for robbery and murder, threatened Mitchell with the weapon
We conclude without hesitation that the asportation of the victim Mitchell from the lumberyard to the dump near Wilmington was not “merely incidental to the commission of the robbery” and that it “substantially increase[d] the risk of harm over and above that necessarily present in the crime of robbery itself” within the meaning of Daniels. “The fact that . . . defendants] chose to consummate the robbery at a location remote from the place of initial contact does not render the subsequent asportation ‘merely incidental’ to the crime, for it is the very fact that defendants] utilized substantial asportation in the commission of the crime which renders [them] liable to the increased penalty of section 209 if that asportation was such that the victim’s risk of harm was substantially increased thereby. Clearly, any substantial asportation which involves forcible control of the robbery victim such as that occurring in this case exposes [him] to grave risks of harm to which [he] would not have been subject had the robbery occurred at the point of initial contact.” (People v. Thornton (1974) 11 Cal.3d 738, 768 [114 Cal.Rptr. 467, 523 P.2d 267].) Here to be sure, the record does not affirmatively indicate that Lara or his partner kept the shotgun trained on the victim during the course of the asportation. (Cf. People v. Thornton, supra, at p. 768 (victim Ottillia J.); People v. Milan (1973) 9 Cal.3d 185, 189-193 [107 Cal.Rptr. 68, 507 P.2d 956].) This, however, is not the determinative factor in cases of this kind. (See People v. Beamon (1973) 8 Cal.3d 625, 636 [105 Cal.Rptr. 681, 504 P.2d 905].) The crucial inquiry under Daniels is whether a defendant, in the course of his asportation of the victim for purposes of robbery, has created a situation having a substantially increased potential for serious harm to the victim. Such a situation is clearly brought into being when, as in this case, the victim is forced to travel a substantial distance under the threat of imminent injury by a deadly weapon. The fact that the potential for serious injury inherent in such a situation
As to the first claim, it is the law of this caáe that the officer had reasonable cause to arrest defendant on a chárge of murder. .(67 Cal. 2d at pp. 373-375.) The officer wás justified in interviewing defendant’s sister at her house. (People v. Michael (1955) 45 Cal.2d 751, 754 [290 P.2d 852].) Defendant’s sister did not resist his entry, but rather “let the officer into the living room.” (67 Cal.2d at p. 371.) Defendant then appeared, and Was placed under arres! Inasmuch as there was no forcible entry, the prosecution was not required by Penal Code Section 844 to show “reasonable groünds for believing” that defendant was actually inside.
Defendant’s second complaint is that an investigating officer testified that the material witness on probable cause had submitted to a lie detector test and this event substantiated his belief that the witnesses’ story was credible. But whatever may be the rule on the admissibility of the results of a polygraph test as evidence of guilt — a question we do not reconsider today — we are cited to no authority holding such collateral use of the test for investigative purposes to be improper. Moreover, this court in fact placed no reliance on the foregoing testimony in determining there was probable cause for defendant’s arrest. (67 Cal.2d at pp. 373-375.)
The judgment, insofar as it provides for the penalty of death on the murder count, is modified to provide a punishment of life imprisonment on that count, and as so modified the judgment is affirmed as to both counts.
For the effect of article I, section 27, of the California Constitution on this issue, see People v. Murphy (1972) 8 Cal.3d 349, 352, footnote 2 [105 Cal.Rptr. 138, 503 P.2d 594].
Lara’s confession was properly admitted at the trial. (See People v. Lara, supra, 67 Cal.2d at p. 375 ff.)
We reject as patently incredible defendant’s contention, based upon his trial testimony, that Mitchell “voluntarily” drove him and Alvarez to the dump after being threatened with the shotgun at the lumberyard. The fact that a victim, after being threatened with a deadly weapon, complies with the orders of his captors without apparent complaint surely does not render such compliance “voluntary” in any meaningful sense of that word.
It takes but little imagination to envision the kind of violent events whose likelihood of occurrence is great in a situation of this kind. Ready examples include not only desperate attempts by the victim to extricate him,self but also unforeseen intervention by third parties.
Concurring Opinion
McCOMB, J.
I concur except to the extent that the opinion modifies the death penalty on the murder count.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied January 8, 1975. Tobriner, J., and Mosk, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. TONY MONTOYA LARA, Defendant and Appellant
- Cited By
- 49 cases
- Status
- Published