People v. Dworak

11 Cal.5th 881

490 P.3d 330

281 Cal.Rptr.3d 176

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.Douglas Edward DWORAK, Defendant and Appellant.

S135272

Supreme Court of California.

July 15, 2021

Diane Nichols, San Diego, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris and Rob Bonta, Attorneys General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Jaime L. Fuster and Viet H. Nguyen, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Opinion of the Court by Liu, J.

Defendant Douglas Edward Dworak was sentenced to death in 2005 for the rape and murder of Crystal Hamilton. The jury found Dworak guilty of one count each of murder and rape ( Pen. Code, §§ 187, subd. (a), 261, subd. (a)(2) ; all undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code) and found true the special circumstance that the murder was committed while Dworak was engaged in the commission of rape ( § 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(C) ). Dworak waived his right to jury trial on two prior felony conviction allegations and admitted to prior convictions for rape ( § 261, subd. (a)(2) ) and sexual penetration with a foreign object while using a weapon ( § 289, subd. (a)(1) ). This appeal is automatic. ( § 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

I FACTS

A. Guilt Phase

1. Prosecution Case

The prosecutor's theory at trial was that Dworak, who had previously been convicted of rape and who admitted to a history of consensual sexual encounters with prostitutes during times of stress in his marriage, sought out nonconsensual sex the evening of April 20, 2001, after he and his wife had an argument, and while his wife was out of town. The prosecutor speculated that the victim, Crystal Hamilton, may have mistaken Dworak's white pickup truck for that of her father, who was on his way to pick her up from a shopping plaza sometime around midnight. During the course of their encounter, the prosecutor argued, Dworak raped Hamilton and then murdered her in order to avoid a return to prison, leaving her body in the water at a deserted point of Mussel Shoals Beach in Ventura.

The prosecutor opened her case with testimony from Cynthia W. concerning Dworak's prior convictions. In October 1986, Cynthia was returning home from a shopping trip when Dworak approached her in her driveway. Dworak grabbed her from behind and put a large hunting knife to her throat. They struggled; Cynthia's glasses fell off and she sustained a cut on her thumb. Dworak took Cynthia to the back of her car, put his finger in her vagina, and raped her. He then told her to "stay put" or else he would come back and hurt her. After Dworak left, Cynthia ran inside her home and called her husband and then 911. She provided a statement to the police and identified Dworak as the perpetrator. Dworak was 20 years old at the time. He was convicted of rape and sexual penetration with a foreign object while using a weapon and was sentenced to 18 years in state prison.

Dworak was paroled to Ventura County in 1996. In 1999, he married Susannah Dworak. They fought frequently, and Dworak described Susannah as a "raging bitch" who "got on [his] case about everything," including his fishing trips with friends to Mussel Shoals, among other places. Dworak told detectives that he was "sexually frustrated" and sought to have sex with prostitutes in Ventura because there "just wasn't any sex happening."

Susannah worked for an oral surgery group. On the weekend of April 21, 2001, Susannah was scheduled to attend a certification course in Irvine to become an oral surgery assistant. The day before the training, Susannah called the office to explain she would not come in that day. Susannah was crying and upset but confirmed she would attend the weekend training. Susannah attended the conference; a coworker who shared a room with Susannah described her as "very upset, very emotional" that weekend because she had "a rough day Friday."

Dworak was employed at a general contracting company. He was "on-call" the weekend of April 21 but did not work either day. A neighbor testified that Dworak stopped by to talk that weekend; Dworak told the neighbor that his wife was away and that he was "out living it up and playing pool and — at the local bars and going down to Ventura and staying out late." The neighbor testified that Dworak seemed to be in good spirits and told her, " ‘[W]hen the cat's away, the mouse will play.’ "

Crystal Hamilton was 18 years old in April 2001. She lived in Oxnard with her father, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Hamilton and two siblings. She frequently wore small jewelry items; Hamilton's sister recalled that she was wearing a bracelet when she left home the day before her death to attend a small gathering at the home of Matt Zeober, a friend and former classmate. Zeober lived with his mother, Robyn Jones, in Ventura. During that gathering, which took place on Friday, April 20, Zeober, Hamilton, and some friends smoked marijuana and used methamphetamines. Hamilton spent the night at Zeober's home.

Hamilton remained at Zeober's house the next day. In the afternoon, Hamilton called her father asking for a ride home. Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton was in Corona and told Crystal he could pick her up that evening. Hamilton made other calls seeking a ride home but ultimately made plans to meet her father in the parking lot at a nearby Ralphs grocery store around midnight. That evening, Zeober fell asleep but then woke up between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. Hamilton was drawing a picture and told Zeober she would be leaving soon, and he fell back asleep. It was the last time he saw Hamilton. When Zeober next woke up, the evening news was on and Hamilton was gone.

Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton arrived at the grocery store around midnight, driving a white pickup truck with no toolbox, but Hamilton was not there. He drove around looking for her in the parking lot, then drove to Zeober's home. The lights were off, and he did not knock on the door. Hamilton occasionally failed to appear when she made arrangements to meet her father, so he was not overly concerned at that point and did not call the police.

Jorge Valdez was fishing at Mussel Shoals Beach around dawn on Sunday, April 22, when he saw what looked like a body. The beach was approximately an 18-minute drive from the Ralphs store where Hamilton had planned to meet her father. Valdez went to a nearby fire station to report what he saw. Firefighters found Hamilton's body lying naked in the surf.

The firefighters recovered Hamilton's body and observed signs of lividity and rigor mortis, a cut over her left eye, and bruising around her hips. There was no clothing or jewelry on the body. Police searched the area but found no clothing, jewelry, or other evidence connected to Hamilton.

The autopsy revealed numerous injuries on Hamilton's body, including blunt-force trauma to the head ; abrasions on her left breast, right shoulder, ribs, and hips; bruising on her left upper bicep; abrasions and bruising to her left wrist and hand; and abrasions on her neck. Examination of the body and biopsies of some of the injuries confirmed that some of Hamilton's injuries, including the injuries to her right forehead area, breast, bicep, knee, and wrist, occurred before death. The medical examiner, Dr. Ronald O'Halloran, testified that marks on her left wrist could have been a pressure mark caused when an object like a bracelet was pressed into her skin before or after death. Dr. O'Halloran further testified that the injury just above the bridge of her nose was caused by an impact against a hard, blunt object that hit Hamilton in the head, such as a car or rock, but because no biopsy was performed of this injury, he could not testify as to whether it occurred before or after death.

Dr. O'Halloran described abrasions on a "relatively protected" area of Hamilton's neck that is not usually injured when a person falls down, explaining that "in manual strangulations, fingernails often leave" such marks. Hamilton had petechial hemorrhages in her eyes, which Dr. O'Halloran described as "a very common finding in manual strangulations." He acknowledged these can also occur as a result of CPR or violent vomiting but added there was no evidence that either had occurred here. There was sand and water in Hamilton's lungs. The toxicology report was positive for methamphetamine, amphetamine, and marijuana in amounts sufficient to affect Hamilton's "brain function, that is, she probably got high on it," but "not a level that generally is accepted to cause death."

Dr. O'Halloran determined that the cause of death was a homicide, and he opined that she likely died from drowning, though the evidence strongly indicated she was also manually strangled, perhaps while in the water. Based on the paramedics’ observations of lividity, rigor mortis, and body temperature, as well as contemporaneous measurements of the air and water temperatures in the area, Dr. O'Halloran estimated that Hamilton died between midnight and 3:30 a.m.

Dr. O'Halloran did not observe any injuries in the vaginal area. Seminal fluid, sand, and seaweed were present inside Hamilton's vagina. A forensic scientist at the Ventura County Sheriff's Department who later examined the vaginal swabs described the amount of sperm as "off the charts," indicating that it was deposited within one hour and 15 minutes of her death or much less, assuming she was ambulatory after intercourse. If she was not ambulatory (i.e., had laid down before intercourse and never got back up), the sperm could have been deposited 11 to 12 hours before her death. He acknowledged that this was the first examination he had conducted on sperm found in someone floating in cold water and that colder temperatures could have slowed degradation and prolonged sperm life. He also acknowledged that he did not prepare his sample using the same method as the studies he relied on.

An analysis of the vaginal swabs confirmed the presence of both sperm...