P. v. Suknaich

Filed 6/15/06 P. v. Suknaich CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Gary S. Paer, Judge. Affirmed.

Patrick J. Hennessey, Jr., under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Pamela Ratner Sobeck, Ronald A. Jakob and Christopher P. Beesley, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

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A jury found Defendant James Suknaich guilty of second degree murder. Defendant argues the trial court erroneously admitted statements he made to police investigators in violation of Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436, and it failed to sua sponte give a modified version of CALJIC No. 3.00, a standard instruction on aider and abettor liability. He also challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury's verdict. We find no merit in defendant's contentions and affirm the judgment.

I

In the early morning hours of September 27, 1986, Garden Grove Police Officer John Keely discovered the body of Kiva Bible lying face down in the middle of Lucille Street in Garden Grove. Bible died from exsanguination caused by five stab wounds in her chest. Her arms showed signs of intravenous drug use. Her wrists had red marks consistent with the use of restraints. Although Bible's body had been repeatedly stabbed, her clothing (a jacket, a purple bodysuit, and green corduroy pants) did not have any holes or tears.

Orange County Sheriff's Department Criminalist Daniel Gammie collected trace evidence from Bible's body and clothing, including hair and fibers. During the autopsy, Gammie made an unusual finding; four of Bible's stab wounds had been stuffed with cotton, as was Bible's mouth and each of her nostrils. Gammie counted nine cotton balls in Bible's mouth. In the months and years following Bible's murder, the Garden Grove Police Department was unable to identify any suspects and the case turned cold.

In November 1999, retired law enforcement Officer Robert Romaine started working on the Bible case in his capacity as a Master Reserve Officer assigned to the Detective Bureau of the Garden Grove Police Department's Cold Case Files. He submitted the forensic evidence Gammie had collected during Bible's autopsy to the Orange County Sheriff's Department for review and testing. Included in this packet of evidence was a single eyebrow or eyelash hair that had been recovered from one of Bible's socks. DNA testing established the hair found on Bible's sock could not have been hers. Further, the DNA profile of the hair sample would occur in less than one in one trillion individuals.

Romaine also reviewed various police reports generated at the time of the crime in an effort to identify individuals to be interviewed or reinterviewed. During this part of the investigation, Romaine identified defendant as a person of interest or a potential suspect. In 2002, investigators contacted defendant at his home in Ohio, where he had been living for many years, and obtained buccal swabs from him for DNA testing. Defendant's DNA profile matched the DNA profile of the hair found on Bible's sock.

In late January 2003, the Garden Grove Police Department offered to fly defendant from Ohio to California at the department's expense for an interview. Defendant accepted the offer and came to California on January 31. On February 1, 2003, Garden Grove Detective Mark Hutchinson and Sergeant Ted Peaslee interviewed defendant at the Garden Grove Police Department. The interview was audio and video tape-recorded. The prosecution introduced a redacted version of the videotape and a typed transcript of the videotape at trial.

In the first session, which lasted approximately 70 minutes, defendant admitted he was present when Bible was killed, but denied having any part in her murder. He arrived at Steve's house, a place where he used to smoke cocaine and hang out, between 12:00 noon and 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon on September 26, 1986. Two men defendant knew as Steve and Alan, but later identified from photographs as Ronald Lee and Adam Ballard, were already at the house when defendant arrived. Defendant walked into a spare bedroom and started smoking cocaine. Steve and Alan were in the kitchen injecting heroin.

Sometime later in the evening, Bible arrived at the house. She entered the bedroom where defendant was smoking cocaine and attempted to exchange sexual favors for cocaine. However, defendant was unable to perform. He gave Bible some cocaine anyway and she left to go into the kitchen with Steve and Alan. Sometime later, defendant heard Bible and Steve argue, briefly stop arguing to inject heroin, and then resume their argument. Defendant claimed he did not know exactly what the argument was about, but said, â€