People v. Scott

61 Cal.4th 363

349 P.3d 1028

188 Cal.Rptr.3d 328

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent

v.Royce Lyn SCOTT, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S064858.

Supreme Court of California

June 8, 2015.

Michael J. Hersek, State Public Defender, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Susan Ten Kwan and Arnold Erickson, Deputy State Public Defenders, for Defendant and Appellant.

Edmund G. Brown, Jr., and Kamala D. Harris, Attorneys General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Holly D. Wilkens and Jennifer A. Jadovitz, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Opinion

THE COURT.^*

Following a jury trial on a 15–count indictment, defendant Royce Lyn Scott was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering 78–year–old Della Morris in her home. Specifically, Scott was convicted of the first degree murder of Morris (Pen.Code, § 187, subd. (a) ; count 4), burglary (id., § 459 ; count 1), and the rape and sodomy of Morris (id., §§ 261, subd. (a)(2), 286, subd. (c) ; counts 2 and 3). (All undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.) The jury found true the burglary, rape, and sodomy special circumstance allegations. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17) (G), (C), (D).) The trial court found that Scott had one prior serious felony conviction (§ 667) and had served one prior prison term (§ 667.5, subd. (b)).

Before trial, the trial court granted Scott's motion under section 995 to set aside the burglary charge in count 5. In addition, Scott had pleaded guilty to four counts of burglary (§ 459 ; counts 6 through 9), two counts of second-degree robbery (§ 211 ; counts 10 and 11), two counts of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury (§ 245, subd. (a)(l ); counts 12 and 13), and two counts of battery (§ 242; counts 14 and 15). The charges in counts 6 through 15 concerned separate burglaries committed after the charged murder. Scott admitted the personal use of a deadly weapon allegations as to counts 9 through 12. (§ 12022, subd. (b).)

After a penalty trial, the jury returned a verdict of death. The trial court denied Scott's automatic application to modify the penalty verdict (§ 190.4, subd. (e)) and sentenced him to death on count 4. The court dismissed counts 14 and 15 under section 1385 and imposed a determinate sentence of 35 years and eight months on the remaining charges and allegations.

This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

I. Facts

A. Guilt Phase

1. Prosecution Evidence

a. The Murder of Della Morris

Della Morris (Morris) lived in Palm Springs with her brother, Webbie Morris (Webbie). On Thursday, July 9, 1992, Webbie went to bed around 10:00 p.m., while Morris watched television in the living room. When Webbie woke up the next morning around 8:00 a.m., he found her dead in her bedroom. He saw blood on the bed and underneath her body, and he noticed that the sliding door to his room and the one in the living room were open. A VCR and Webbie's wallet were missing.

b. Investigation

Around 8:15 a.m., police arrived at the Morris residence. They found no indication of forced entry or a struggle in Morris's bedroom.

Warren Horton, a deputy coroner with the Riverside County coroner's office, examined Morris's body at the scene. He observed two small bruises under her right eye. Horton rolled her body over and saw a small amount of blood underneath her vaginal area. The blood appeared dried and had stained Morris's buttocks and the bedsheet. Horton found a small hair directly underneath her pubic area that did not appear to be consistent with her pubic hair.

Darryl Garber, a forensic pathologist and independent contractor with the County of Riverside, performed an autopsy.

Garber found multiple abrasions and contusions on the right side of Morris's face, left nostril, and left anterior neck. He also found pinpoint hemorrhages in her eyes consistent with strangulation or smothering. Inside Morris's mouth, Garber found evidence of bruising on her cheek and tongue associated with smothering. Garber also found evidence of traumatic sexual assault, including contusions to Morris's vaginal area and abrasions to, and signs of dilatation of, her anus. Garber opined that the sexual assault occurred before death and that she died from strangulation and smothering.

Garber used a sexual assault kit to gather evidence from Morris's body, taking swabs from her mouth, vagina, and rectum, and collecting fingernail clippings and hair samples from her head and pubic area.

Ricci Cooksey, a senior criminalist with the state Department of Justice, examined the contents of the sexual assault kit, blood samples taken from Morris, and bedding obtained during the investigation. Cooksey found sperm cells on the vaginal and rectal swabs and two stains on a bedsheet.

On November 4, 1992, police arrested Scott during a burglary of the home of Kenneth Osburn and Jeffrey Cole, which is discussed below. While Scott was in custody, Heather Gunkel, a registered nurse and independent contractor with the Palm Springs Police Department, used a sexual assault kit to collect blood, saliva and hair samples, including pubic hair, from Scott.

Cooksey typed Scott's blood, saliva, and hair samples, and analyzed the hair samples and hair taken from the murder scene. Cooksey opined that four hair strands taken from the crime scene were consistent with and could have come from Scott's pubic area and that there were no major discrepancies between the crime scene hairs and Scott's. The crime scene hairs did not come from Morris or Webbie.

Donald Jones, a criminalist with the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department crime laboratory, performed RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) analysis on DNA extracted from the blood samples taken from Morris and Scott, the sperm cells found on the vaginal and rectal swabs obtained from Morris, and the sperm cells found on the two stains on the bedsheet. Jones concluded that the DNA extracted from the vaginal swabs and from each of the stains on the bedsheet came from a single donor, and that the DNA profile of each of these samples matched Scott's. Jones testified that the DNA was “130 million times more likely to come from [Scott] than it is from any other black chosen at random in the population.”

c. Other Burglaries Nearby

Scott pleaded guilty to each of the nearby Palm Springs burglaries described below. Evidence of each crime was admitted in the guilt phase for the limited purpose of showing his intent to burglarize Morris's house.

Around 2:30 a.m. on August 3, 1992, Dorothy Nancy Pruss heard a rustling noise near her kitchen. Pruss was not certain whether she had locked the sliding glass door near the kitchen that led outside. She checked the house and saw Scott inside, holding her purse and fanny pack. Both items had been on a dining room chair near the sliding glass door. Scott asked Pruss to tell him where her money was. Press said she had no money and screamed. After Pruss's roommate ran out of her bedroom and confronted Scott, he ran out of the house through the sliding glass door near the kitchen, taking the purse and fanny pack with him.

Around midnight on August 9, 1992, Marc Daley had just returned home when he saw that the sliding screen door in the kitchen area was open. The door had been closed when he left earlier that evening. Daley walked through the house and discovered Scott behind the door of a bedroom. Scott said that he did not want to hurt Daley and that he only wanted his money. Daley ran to his neighbor's house, and Scott fled the scene. When Daley returned to his house, he noticed the sliding glass door in the master bedroom was open. The door had been closed the last time he had seen it. A television had been moved in the bedroom where Daley had seen Scott. A fingerprint obtained from the television matched Scott's.

Around midnight on August 25, 1992, Emily Pollard was watching television in her living room when she heard a large crash. Pollard saw Scott in her kitchen, screamed, and ran to a neighbor's house. When she returned to her house the following morning, her purse and a camera were missing; she had last seen both items on the kitchen counter. The sliding glass door that led from the kitchen to the backyard had been smashed.

Around 12:50 a.m. on November 4, 1992, Kenneth Osburn and Jeffrey Cole were in their den watching television when Osburn heard the sliding glass door that led from the dining room to the outside of the house open. Osburn saw Scott standing in the dining room. Scott ordered him and Cole to get down on the floor, and they complied. Scott took Osburn's wallet and went into the kitchen. He said he was going to take the microwave oven and told Osburn and Cole to “stay put.” Minutes later, police apprehended Scott in the house and found Osburn's wallet in Scott's possession and a microwave oven in the backyard.

2. Defense Evidence

For a few weeks in July 1992, Scott lived with his stepsister, Audrey Mickens. Occasionally, Scott stayed out all night. Mickens did not recall whether Scott was home on the morning of July 10, 11, or 12.

In September 1992, Detective Barry Dallas received a report from Cooksey that listed the names of 19 paroled registered sex offenders who had the same genetic markers as the semen that was found on Morris's sheets. Ten of those individuals were black. In his police reports, Dallas did not refer to the list of 19 names submitted by Cooksey. He put the list into a folder or case file and forgot about it. Dallas provided the prosecution with the list during trial.

B. Penalty Phase

1. Prosecution Evidence

The prosecution introduced evidence of the following prior unadjudicated offenses involving force or violence, or the threat to use force or violence, within the meaning of section 190.3, factor (b).

On November 4, 1992, during the burglary of Osburn and Cole, Scott kicked Osburn in the ribs, stomped on Cole's back, and hit Cole with a fireplace poker. After putting...