People v. Wilson

11 Cal.5th 259

484 P.3d 36

277 Cal.Rptr.3d 24

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.Byron WILSON, Defendant and Appellant.

S087533

Supreme Court of California.

April 12, 2021

As Modified April 30, 2021

Michael J. Hersek and Mary K. McComb, State Public Defenders, under appointments by the Supreme Court, Joseph E. Chabot, Ryan R. Davis and Elias Batchelder, Deputy State Public Defenders, for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris and Xavier Becerra, Attorneys General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters and James William Bilderback II, Assistant Attorneys General, Jaime L. Fuster and Douglas L. Wilson, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Opinion of the Court by Cuéllar, J.

This automatic appeal follows from defendants Byron Wilson's and Aswad Pops's¹ 2000 convictions and death sentences for the murders of four men during the robbery of a Compton car wash. Wilson was found guilty of four counts of murder in violation of Penal Code ² section 187, subdivision (a), four counts of second degree robbery in violation of section 211, and second degree commercial burglary in violation of section 459. The jury found true that Wilson was armed with, and personally and intentionally discharged, a firearm causing great bodily injury with regard to three of the murders in violation of sections 12022, subdivision (a)(1) and 12022.53, subdivisions (b)–(d). The jury also found true the robbery-murder, burglary-murder, and multiple-murder special circumstances in violation of section 190.2, subdivisions (a)(3) and (a)(17). The jury found Wilson had suffered a prior serious or violent felony conviction under section 667, subdivisions (a)(1) and (b) through (i). After a penalty trial, the jury returned a verdict of death.

Wilson contends that several errors occurred during the guilt and penalty phases of his trial. Because we see no merit to any of his claims, we affirm the judgment.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. Guilt Phase

1. Prosecution Case

a. Wheels ’N Stuff

On January 25, 1998, Super Bowl Sunday, Byron Wilson and Aswad Pops parked outside of the Wheels ’N Stuff car wash on Sportsman Drive in Compton. Christopher Williams and Charles "Spanky" Hurd operated the car wash, which had been open for several months.

Williams, Hurd, and other employees dealt marijuana from the car wash, a fact about which Wilson was aware. Williams testified that he and his coworkers "tend[ed] to smoke a lot of weed," and the car wash customers "would want us to sell [them] some of the weed we were smoking and from time to time we would." A soda vending machine was located inside the car wash, and sometimes marijuana was stored inside of it. The patrons and workers of the car wash, by and large, knew one another. Williams saw both patrons and workers of the car wash with large amounts of cash in their pockets. Williams testified that the car wash had no official employees, and Williams did not keep financial records. Williams explained that anyone who washed cars did so on a volunteer basis, and Williams made no money from car washing as Wheels ’N Stuff did not charge for washes, although donations were permitted. The business sporadically paid its workers, but they generally earned money in tips.³ The $1,500 rent for the Wheels ’N Stuff location was paid from marijuana proceeds.

b. Williams

Williams arrived at the car wash the morning of January 25, 1998, intending to invite his friends to his home for a Super Bowl party, and to obtain marijuana to smoke. When he got out of his truck, he noticed a car parked directly beside the car wash with two people sitting low in the car's front seats. Williams went into the car wash, where he saw Michael Hoard working behind the counter, from whom he obtained a small bag of marijuana. He also saw two acquaintances, Shawn Potter and E.T., arriving as he was leaving.

As Williams was leaving he noticed the two people, both Black men, were still sitting in a car — "probably an eighty something Honda" — parked beside the car wash. Because he routinely sold marijuana from the car wash, he assumed the two men were interested in buying some and asked them what they needed. The passenger — who Williams later identified as Pops — replied they were interested in "sounds," which the driver — later identified as Wilson — confirmed; Williams directed them to a nearby store that sold car stereos.

Williams then left the Wheels ’N Stuff parking lot. Later that day he received a call at his home from a friend who told him, "[H]ey man, as soon as you left the people you talked to went straight in there and killed everybody." Williams returned to the car wash, which had already been cordoned off with police tape. From there, he was taken to the Compton Police Department and interviewed. He described the men he had seen sitting in the Honda earlier, explaining that the driver had a lighter complexion than the passenger, and appeared to be a little older. He believed both men had short hair, although he described the driver as having worn a cap.

c. Bowie

Randy Bowie, who washed cars at the Wheels ’N Stuff from time to time, walked to work the day of the shooting, arriving just as Williams was leaving. Bowie stopped to use the payphone right outside of the car wash, which was where he first saw the car parked next to the car wash. The driver was about six feet from where Bowie stood. Bowie identified the driver at trial as Wilson. While on the payphone, the passenger of the car — who Bowie identified at trial as Pops — raised what Bowie believed was a TEC-9 semiautomatic handgun, pointed it at him, and told him not to warn anyone. Pops then got out of the car, grabbed Bowie's collar, thrust the gun beneath Bowie's arm, and used him as a shield. The driver got out of the car while brandishing a gun, which Bowie believed was a nine-millimeter or Glock and held it to Bowie's back. The two men then marched Bowie into the car wash.

While Bowie was held at gunpoint by the payphone, Hurd drove up to the car wash. At the same time, Jessie Dunn arrived in his own car, an El Camino with chrome IROC rims. The custom 3-bar chrome IROC rims originally belonged to Hurd, who had them specially retrofitted for his El Camino. Because the rims were manufactured for use with a Camaro, Hurd had new holes drilled into them and added distinctive hardware. Dunn bought the El Camino from Hurd. Following the sale, Dunn's girlfriend, Kimberly Thomas, noticed an oxidation spot on one of the rims, and Dunn planned to have the rim re-dipped in chrome to fix the imperfection.

Hurd and Dunn both entered the car wash building after Pops and Wilson marched Bowie inside. Once in the building, Pops and Wilson ordered everyone to get on the ground and not move. The men inside the building after Bowie and his assailants entered included Hurd and Dunn (who had walked in after Bowie), Potter and E.T. (who entered as Williams was leaving), and Hoard (who had been inside all along). Bowie was afraid that if he alerted Hurd and Dunn to Pops and Wilson's presence, he would be shot.

Pops and Wilson asked those inside the car wash where the money and "shit" were kept. They searched inside of the building, walking to the opposite side of the building away from where Bowie lay on the ground. Hurd was the only other person Bowie could see. Bowie heard a commotion, after which a room divider slid between him and the area where Wilson and Pops were searching. Seizing the opportunity, Bowie got up and ran from the building; as he ran, he heard a number of gunshots.

Bowie hid for some time not knowing whether he was being pursued, and ultimately ran into a storage facility where he asked an employee to call the police. He said his shop had been robbed and his friends may have been shot.

Bowie, shaken by the events, asked an employee of the storage facility to drive him to his brother's house. The employee agreed, and as they drove they passed the car wash, where Bowie saw police arriving.

While heading toward his brother's house, Bowie saw his brother's car turn into a parking lot, and Bowie asked the driver to go there instead. Bowie, shaking so badly he could hardly stand, got into his brother's car. Now a passenger in his brother's car, Bowie again drove past the Wheels ’N Stuff where he saw the car wash taped off and a large crowd gathered. Bowie was still very frightened, and he did not want to stop or speak with police. He did not report that he witnessed the crime until the next day.

Bowie was interviewed by Detective Cat Chavers of the Compton Police Department. He told Detective Chavers about what he had witnessed and gave descriptions of the Honda's driver and passenger. He described the passenger as darker skinned than the driver, with braided hair curled up at the ends. He believed the passenger was between 25 and 30 years old and described him as wearing dark clothing and having a TEC-9 gun with a long clip. Bowie described the driver as lighter skinned and smaller than the passenger. Bowie "guess[ed]" the driver's age to be between 25 and 30; in fact, Wilson was 20 years old at the time of the shooting. Bowie told Detective Chavers he thought Wilson had a uniquely shaped mouth, and was able to identify Wilson on February 23, 1998, from a photographic lineup based on what he described to be "the smirky grin on his face."⁴

d. Brown

Anthony Brown's testimony from the preliminary hearing was read to the jury as Brown was unavailable for trial. Anthony Brown was a Wheels ’N Stuff employee since its opening in 1997. The morning of January 25, 1998, Brown arrived at the car wash in the late morning. Brown planned to attend a Super Bowl ’98 party with his friends and coworkers that day and planned to sell T-shirts and wash cars to make money before going to the party. As he was arriving to the car wash, Brown saw a man driving Jessie Dunn's El Camino abruptly out of the parking lot, moving forward and backward, skidding the tires, and...