People v. Elmore

59 Cal.4th 121, 172 Cal.Rptr.3d 413, 325 P.3d 951 (2014)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D is mentally ill. He had repeatedly been institutionalized and diagnosed as psychotic. On the day of the killing, he was living in a rehabilitation center. While visiting his grandmother's house that morning, he became fidgety and anxious. He began to crawl under cars as his family and a friend tried to speak with him. He left his grandmother's home around 12:30 p.m. Fifty-three-year-old Ella Suggs was doing her weekend shopping. She wore a necklace with a charm in the shape of a turtle, which had a magnifying glass in place of the shell. She also wore reading glasses on a chain around her neck. At about 1:00 p.m., Brandon Wilson looked out a restaurant window and noticed Suggs sitting at a bus stop across the street. He saw D walk past Suggs, stop, look in both directions, and return to confront her. D did not seem to be talking to himself. D grabbed Suggs and appeared to pull on something around her neck. Suggs raised her hands defensively, stood, and tried to walk away. Defendant pushed her back to a seated position, brought his hands together over his head, and plunged them toward Suggs's chest. Then he fled, looking around as he ran. Suggs stood for a moment before falling. She had been stabbed with a paintbrush handle sharpened to a point. The weapon penetrated six or seven inches, through a lung and into her heart. She died. Neither the turtle necklace nor the reading glasses were found at the scene or among Suggs's possessions. Wilson saw D return and approach the bus stop. He appeared to be puzzled and fled. Police apprehended D. It took four officers to subdue him. His behavior was sufficiently bizarre that he was referred for psychiatric evaluation. D pleaded both not guilty and not guilty to murder by reason of insanity. The forensic psychiatrists all agreed that D suffered from schizophrenia, but disputed whether he was actively psychotic when he stabbed Suggs. On direct examination, D kept talking about someone out there who was saying violent things to him. D claimed to have blacked out. He claimed that a “Person said something and did something to me, I didn't just go do it to be doing it.” He then said he did not know if he had made it (paintbrush) and thought he picked it up in that condition. He admitted stabbing Suggs but claimed the act was unintentional. He denied trying to steal anything. D requested jury instructions on unreasonable self-defense, mistake of fact, and the effect of hallucination on the degree of murder. The court refused. D was convicted of first-degree murder. D withdrew his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. D appealed the refusal to instruct on unreasonable self-defense and hallucination. The Court of Appeals overturned D's first-degree murder conviction because D was prejudiced by the trial court's failure to instruct the jury that evidence of hallucinations can negate premeditation, a requirement of first-degree murder. D appealed. D does not claim there was any factual basis for him to believe he had to defend himself and requests the instruction based on his delusions.