California Court of Appeal

Conviction for murder is affirmed where: 1) under the "unavailable evidence" exception of Penal Code section 654, in cases where the prosecution has probable cause to charge the defendant with murder and a related crime and proceeds only on the related crime, it is not thereafter barred from bringing the murder charge upon obtaining additional evidence if at the time it declined to proceed, the prosecution lacked evidence supporting the objectively reasonable belief that it could obtain a murder conviction on the evidence then available, despite the exercise of due diligence in the investigation of the crimes ; and 2) under Evidence Code section 1108, the admissibility of prior sexual misconduct under the statute does not hinge on whether there is sufficient independent evidence to prove that a sexual act occurred in the case.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/17/2015
• Published 04/17/2015

Judges

• Manella

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel