People v. Wilson

552 P.3d 974

323 Cal.Rptr.3d 790

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.Javance Mickey WILSON, Defendant and Appellant.

S118775

Supreme Court of California.

August 5, 2024

San Bernardino County Superior Court, FVA-012968, James A. Edwards, Judge

Michael J. Hersek, Mary K. McComb and Galit Lipa, State Public Defenders, Jessica K. McGuire, Assistant State Public Defender, Christina Spaulding, Chief Deputy State Public Defender, Ellen J. Eggers and Craig Buckser, Deputy State Public Defenders, for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Xavier Becerra and Rob Bonta, Attorneys General, Gerald A. Engler and Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Julie L. Garland and James W. Bilderback II, Assistant Attorneys General, Holly D. Wilkens, Meredith S. White and Donald W. Ostertag, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Opinion of the Court by Kruger, J.

Defendant Javance Mickey Wilson was charged with robbing and murdering or attempting to murder three cab drivers on separate occasions over a four-week period. At Wilson’s first trial, the jury deadlocked on guilt and the court declared a mistrial. On retrial, Wilson was convicted of robbery, carjacking, and attempted murder of James Richards; first degree murder and robbery of Andres Dominguez; and first degree murder and attempted robbery of Victor Henderson. (Pen. Code, §§ 187, subd. (a), 211, 215, subd. (a), 664.) The jury also found that Wilson personally used a firearm in committing the crimes against Richards (id., § 12022.53, subd. (b)), and personally and intentionally discharged a firearm causing the deaths of Dominguez and Henderson (id., § 12022.53, subd. (d)). The jury found true the special circumstances of robbery murder and multiple murder. (Id., § 190.2, subd. (a)(3), (17).) At the penalty phase, the jury returned a death verdict and the trial court entered a judgment of death. This appeal is automatic. (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 11, subd. (a); Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment.

I. Factual Background

A. Guilt Phase

1. Prosecution evidence

The prosecution presented evidence that in early 2000, Wilson committed a series of crimes against cab drivers in the San Bernardino and Los Angeles areas. On each occasion, the perpetrator called for a cab, then robbed and murdered or attempted to rob and murder the cab driver. The first victim, James Richards, was robbed at gunpoint at the end of a rural road in San Bernardino County. The perpetrator attempted to kill Richards, but the gun jammed and Richards managed to escape. The second victim, Andres Dominguez, was shot and killed in the same location several weeks later. The perpetrator then used Dominguez’s cell phone to request another taxicab from a Pomona company. The driver of the cab that responded, Victor Henderson, was the third victim; he was killed approximately two hours after Dominguez, shot by the same gun used to kill Dominguez.

James Richards picked up a passenger in front of a grocery store in downtown San Bernardino on January 7, 2000. The passenger was going to Bloomington, about 20 minutes away. After reaching Bloomington, the passenger directed Richards to stop on a rural, dimly lit road. There, the passenger drew a gun and robbed Richards. Then, forcing Richards out of the cab and onto his knees, the passenger put the gun into Richards’s mouth and tried to shoot him. The gun jammed, however, and Richards was able to escape to a nearby house. The owner of the house heard Richards screaming and pounding on his door and saw a figure in the street pointing a gun at Richards before getting into a cab and speeding off. The cab company later recovered Richards’s stolen taxi from an apartment complex in Victorville.

When police arrived at the scene, Richards told them the perpetrator was a Black male in his 30s, with short hair and pock-marked skin, about six feet tall and 220 pounds, and wearing a light-colored ski jacket. Although Wilson was 25 at the time, Richards’s description generally matched Wilson’s appearance. Richards later identified Wilson from a photo lineup but was unable to pick Wilson out of a live lineup held two weeks after the initial identification. Richards described the weapon Wilson used as a smaller, chrome gun. Police later recovered a .22 handgun fitting this description from a friend of Wilson’s, as part of their investigation into the crime.

The prosecution presented additional evidence to connect Wilson to the weapon used in the Richards robbery and to related events and locations. Joe Diaz testified that on January 6, 2000, intruders broke into his house and took everything from his gun case, including a hunting rifle and a .22 handgun that jammed nearly every time it was shot. A childhood friend of Wilson’s purchased that hunting rifle from Wilson in January or February 2000. The same friend testified that Wilson’s grandparents lived in Bloomington, not far from the road where Richards had been robbed, and that Wilson had lived with his grandparents periodically. In an interview with detectives, Wilson admitted having access to a small .22 pistol. At the time of the robbery, Wilson lived in an apartment in Victorville about two miles from Diaz’s home and one street away from the location where the cab company recovered Richards’s stolen taxicab. It was about 40 miles from Victorville to San Bernardino, but in January 2000, Wilson's mother had been staying in a motel right by the grocery store in San Bernardino where Richards picked up his assailant; the manager of the motel testified that Wilson and his brother Sylvester Seeney visited her there on January 6 or 7.

Andres Dominguez drove his cab to pick up a passenger at a San Bernardino grocery store just before midnight on February 20, 2000. Soon afterwards, Dominguez was shot and killed on the same road where Richards had been robbed. A resident who heard the gunfire saw a car leaving the scene, while Dominguez’s taxicab remained on the street.

Later that night, a caller used Dominguez’s cell phone to request a taxi from a Pomona cab company. Victor Henderson picked up the passenger. At approximately 2:30 a.m., Henderson was shot and killed a distance from his cab. Eyewitnesses saw a man in a white ski jacket running in the street where Henderson had been shot. The man then got into a car that drove away before he was fully inside, dragging him briefly.

Sara Bancroft and Christina Murphy saw Wilson the day before the murders and the morning after; each testified that after the murders, Wilson had an injured leg and was complaining about scuffs on his new sneakers that had not been present the day before. A friend of Bancroft’s, Tiffany Hooper, also saw Wilson the morning after the murders and noticed his injury.

Bancroft was a neighbor of Wilson’s in Victorville who knew Wilson and his younger brother Seeney. She rented a car for Wilson to use on February 20 and 21. She saw Wilson on the evening of February 20. He was with an 18- or 19-year-old man she did not recognize. The next morning when Wilson came back with the rental car, he was with a different man and there was something wrong with his knee. He was limping and could not bend his leg well. Bancroft and Hooper gave Wilson and the man a ride to San Bernardino before returning the rental ear. Hooper later identified the second man as Cory McKinney. Hooper said that Wilson was limping badly and that there was a white ski jacket and a cell phone in the back seat of the car.

Murphy met Wilson on February 19 and he stayed with her in San Bernardino until about 3:00 a.m. on February 20. She saw him later that day and again the next morning. Although he had not been previously injured, on the morning of February 21, Wilson was limping, his leg was wrapped and a little bloody, and his pant leg was tom. Wilson came to her house with Cory McKinney’s brother Brad McKinney, who asked if she had seen the news. She had not. Wilson asked her sometime after that what she would think if she found out he shot someone.

Criminalists determined that Dominguez and Henderson were killed by the same weapon. The investigation later revealed the weapon was a .44 revolver stolen from Grant Fargon on February 15, 2000. Fargon lived a half mile from Wilson’s apartment in Victorville. His entire gun collection — including the .44 revolver, guns that had been painted in camouflage for hunting, and other specialized weapons — had been taken in the February 15 burglary.

Phyllis Woodruff, the girlfriend of Wilson’s brother Seeney, testified that shortly before the murders she saw Wilson with a large collection of guns on his bed, including camouflaged guns. Wilson had been showing off a long black gun that looked like the .44 revolver later identified as the murder weapon. Woodruff acknowledged that she participated in burglarizing some of the homes from which the weapons were taken, serving as the driver while Wilson, Seeney, and Brad McKinney went inside. She was given immunity from prosecution for those crimes. Woodruff testified that she and Seeney were at her family’s barbeque on February 20, and that Wilson stopped by with Brad McKinney and borrowed Seeney’s white ski jacket.

Woodruff also knew about the Richards robbery. She testified that on January 7, 2000, she was with Seeney and Wilson when they visited their mother at her motel in San Bernardino. Wilson stayed in San Bernardino after Woodruff and Seeney left. Later, back at the apartment W’ilson shared with Seeney in Victorville, Wilson told them that he had robbed a cab driver, described his gun jamming when he tried to shoot the driver, and took them to see the taxicab he had stolen and abandoned in a nearby apartment complex. Woodruff said that Wilson gave the malfunctioning gun to Brad McKinney. Police later recovered the .22 handgun stolen in the January 6 break-in of Joe Diaz from the house where Brad and Cory McKinney stayed in San Bernardino.

Woodruffs father, Henry...