People v. Nelson

1

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. ERICK LAMAR NELSON, Defendant and Appellant.

A162846

California Court of Appeals, First District, First Division

March 14, 2024

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Contra Costa County Super. Ct. No. 05-170547-4.

CASTRO, J.^[*]

Defendant Erick Lamar Nelson appeals his conviction for first degree murder and driving or taking a vehicle without consent. On appeal, Nelson argues his murder conviction must be reversed due to various evidentiary and constitutional errors. He also contends insufficient evidence supports his conviction for driving or taking a vehicle without consent. Finally, he requests this court review the Pitchess^[1] motion proceedings for error.

We agree insufficient evidence supports Nelson's conviction for driving or taking a vehicle without consent but otherwise affirm the judgment. We find no error in connection with Nelson's Pitchess motion.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

The victim, Pointsettia Love Gant-Parks, and Nelson began dating in September 2015. Her mother and various friends and coworkers described concerning behavior by Nelson toward Gant-Parks during their relationship. Nelson would curse at Gant-Parks and call her a "bitch." A coworker testified she saw Nelson at the Safeway where Gant-Parks worked "[o]n a daily basis," including observing him walking around the store looking for Gant-Parks and using her car while she was at work. The coworker recounted seeing them in Gant-Parks's car yelling, with Nelson hitting the dashboard. Gant-Parks's close friend, Robert Rawlings recounted Nelson going to Gant-Parks's second job at a hair salon, where he "confronted her . . . and ripped her . . . wig off of her head in front of everybody in the store." Rawlings also described receiving a telephone call once from Gant-Parks in which she was "very, very frantic" and stated Nelson "was threatening to kill himself," "chasing after her," and telling her "that he had swallowed cleaning fluid or bleach of some sort." Her mother also described a telephone call from Gant-Parks, in which she was upset because Nelson was standing in front of her car preventing her from going to work.

Gant-Parks and Nelson broke up approximately one or two months before her murder. Nelson's friend, Michael Talton, informed police that Nelson was "heartbroken" and worried Gant-Parks would "snitch" on him to his parole officer for "fucking with her," "[trying to] harass her," and "[trying to] beat her ass and shit."

After breaking up, Gant-Parks asked Rawlings to return certain property to Nelson. Rawlings testified Nelson was upset that Rawlings, rather than Gant-Parks, was returning the items, and Nelson wanted to see Gant-Parks. When Rawlings informed Nelson "that wasn't going to happen," Nelson stated," 'I'm going to fuck up her life. I'm going to just fuck her life up.' "

A coworker also reported seeing Nelson hiding in the bushes by the Safeway where Gant-Parks worked after they broke up. Gant-Parks told Nelson to leave and that he "can't show up at her place of work," but the coworker noted Nelson returned. Another coworker testified Nelson would come into the Safeway and stare at Gant-Parks, which made her angry and afraid. And another coworker observed Nelson walk around the Safeway parking lot and punch through a taped-up window in Gant-Parks's vehicle.

At some point in May, Gant-Parks and Nelson began seeing each other again. Gant-Parks informed her mother she was pregnant with Nelson's baby.

Around 6:30 p.m. on May 15, a friend of Gant-Parks, Sandrena Monroe, testified she saw Gant-Parks with Nelson and sold her marijuana. Monroe stated she and Gant-Parks had connected over the fact that they "both were kind of trying to get-separate from domestic violence." She was "shocked" to see Gant-Parks "back with [Nelson]."

At 8:59 p.m. that evening, video footage showed Gant-Parks and Nelson walking around a Lucky's supermarket before she purchased a spiral notebook.

At 9:23 and 9:24 p.m., Gant-Parks and Rawlings exchanged text messages. At the time of these messages, Gant-Parks's cell phone was located in a geographic area that encompassed a park with a duck pond.

At 12:40 a.m., Gant-Parks called Monroe. Immediately thereafter at 12:41 a.m., Gant-Parks sent Monroe a text stating," 'Can you please call me as soon as possible? I have a problem.'" Again, at the time of these communications, Gant-Parks's cell phone was located in a geographic area that encompassed the duck pond.

Surveillance footage showed a vehicle leaving the area of the duck pond around 1:01 a.m., but the video quality made identification of the vehicle impossible.

Shortly after 1:00 a.m. on May 16, Nelson arrived at Talton's house. Talton lived approximately five minutes from the duck pond. Nelson was driving Gant-Parks's vehicle. Talton stated he did not find this unusual because Nelson often borrowed the car. Talton stated Nelson seemed normal, and he did not notice any blood or injuries or observe Nelson's clothing being wet.

Nelson left Talton's home around 2:00 a.m. Talton received two telephone calls at 4:42 a.m. and 4:53 a.m. from a number associated with Nelson's sister. Talton stated the woman was looking for Nelson. Calls from that same number were made to Gant-Parks's cell phone at 4:50 a.m. and 6:49 a.m. Later that morning, Nelson called Talton and asked if "it was hot," i.e., whether police were present. Nelson also told him to look at a local news blog site. Talton did so and saw an article about a female body being found in the duck pond. He deleted the number on his phone from which Nelson had called him.

Two individuals found Gant-Parks deceased in the duck pond at approximately 1:23 a.m. on May 16. Police responded to a 911 call and located the body in the water at approximately 2:30 a.m. A wig, later identified as Gant-Parks's, was located nearby. Police identified potential blood on a part of the pathway and a guardrail near the pond. The guardrail appeared to contain a "print." The police also located a radio, which had a "red-like substance" later determined to be blood, wrapped in a T-shirt in a nearby garbage can.

The autopsy revealed Gant-Parks suffered multiple skull fractures, a broken nose, a broken cheekbone, and broken bones around her left eye. The autopsy also revealed signs of "attempted strangulation" to her neck, swelling around both eyes, a torn frenulum and tongue, and bruises on her shoulder, flank, left upper arm, elbow, and forearm. The autopsy concluded her cause of death was "multiple blunt-force injuries," with attempted manual strangulation as another significant factor.

Police tested both the T-shirt and radio for DNA evidence, but the DNA on both objects did not match either Nelson or Gant-Parks. Fingerprint analysis matched the palm print on the guardrail to Nelson. However, Nelson's DNA was not found on the guardrail.

Nine days after Gant-Parks's murder, police located her vehicle in Stockton, approximately a mile from Nelson's sister's home. It had a broken window and appeared to have intentional fire damage to the front passenger seat, along with the burned remains of a spiral notebook. The fire investigator concluded someone burned the spiral notebook intentionally to start the fire.

B. Procedural Background

The Contra Costa County District Attorney filed an information charging Nelson with murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a); count 1) and vehicle theft (Veh. Code, § 10851, subd. (a); count 2). The information further alleged Nelson had suffered two prior convictions that constituted prior strikes and serious felonies. (Pen. Code, § 667, subds. (a)(1), (d)-(e).)

The jury found Nelson guilty of first degree murder and vehicle theft. The trial court subsequently found true the special allegation regarding Nelson's prior convictions. The trial court sentenced Nelson to a prison term of 25 years to life for murder, tripled for the two prior strike convictions, a two-year concurrent term for the vehicle theft conviction, and five years for each of the prior serious felony convictions. Nelson timely appealed.

II. DISCUSSION

Nelson raises five issues on appeal: (1) the trial court erred by allowing the fingerprint expert to testify regarding another analyst's verification; (2) the trial court improperly admitted prejudicial hearsay evidence regarding statements by Gant-Parks; (3) the trial court improperly excluded DNA and CODIS^[2] database evidence that supported the defense; (4) the trial court improperly admitted evidence of uncharged prior conduct; and (5) insufficient evidence supported his conviction for driving or taking a vehicle without consent. Finally, Nelson requests this court review the sealed transcript and documents from his Pitchess motion to determine any procedural error or abuse of discretion.

A. Confrontation Clause

Nelson first asserts the trial court erred by allowing a fingerprint expert to testify another analyst verified her opinion that the print was from Nelson. He contends this statement constituted testimonial hearsay and violated his rights under the confrontation clause.

1. Relevant Background

Kathryn Novaes from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department crime laboratory analyzed photographs of the print found on the guardrail at the duck pond. Novaes testified as an expert in fingerprint analysis, comparison, and identification.

Novaes initially analyzed the print as a fingerprint and was unable to make an identification. She then analyzed the print as a palm print. Novaes concluded Nelson's right palm was the likely source of the print on the guardrail. In her opinion "the right palm of Erick Nelson made the print." Novaes submitted her report to a colleague, Scott Genove, to...