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People v. Williams8/4/1997
Barry Glenn Williams (defendant) appeals the first degree murder conviction and sentence of death he received in Los Angeles County Superior Court in connection with the shooting death of Jerome Dunn in 1982. The sole special circumstance found true was that defendant had previously been convicted of the June 16, 1981, murder of Donald Billingsley. We affirm the judgment in its entirety, finding no prejudicial error affecting either the guilt or penalty trials.
I. FACTS
The charges against defendant arose out of two incidents: the shooting deaths of Donald Billingsley in June 1981 and of Jerome Dunn in March 1982. The People initially charged defendant with Billingsley's murder and with attempted murder of others injured in the Billingsley incident. That information was dismissed for insufficiency of the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing. The People then filed a new complaint, charging defendant, inter alia, with the murder of Jerome Dunn and the murder of Donald Billingsley, and alleging multiple murder special circumstances as to each. Defendant moved to sever the charges. We issued a peremptory writ of mandate directing the trial court to grant defendant's motion to sever. ( Williams v. Superior Court (1984) 36 Cal. 3d 441, 446, 454, 204 Cal. Rptr. 700, 683 P.2d 699.) Accordingly, charges related to Jerome Dunn's death were severed from those based on Donald Billingsley's death.
Following a jury trial on the Billingsley charges, defendant was found guilty of one count of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187), two counts of attempted murder ( §§ 187, 664) and one count of conspiracy to commit murder ( § 182). Defendant was sentenced to 34 years to life in state prison. The Court of Appeal affirmed.
The trial court denied defendant's motion to continue the trial in this matter until final resolution of the appeal of his conviction on the 1981 offenses. Accordingly, trial commenced on October 16, 1985. The jury in this case found defendant guilty of the first degree murder of Jerome Dunn ( § 187) and found true allegations that a principal was armed with a firearm ( § 12022, subd. (a)) and that defendant personally used a firearm in the commission of the offense ( §§ 12022.5, 1203.06, subd. (a)(1)). Subsequently, defendant admitted a prior-murder special-circumstance allegation. ( § 190.2, subd. (a)(2).) After trial on penalty, on July 11, 1986, defendant was sentenced to death. This appeal is automatic. (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 11; § 1239, subd. (b).)
A. Guilt Trial
The prosecution's theory was one of gang violence, namely, that defendant, a "Blood," killed Jerome Dunn for being a "Crip." Defendant proffered an alibi.
1. The Murder of Jerome Dunn
In 1982, defendant Barry Williams, also known as "Big Time," was a member of the 89th Street Family Bloods, a street gang in South Central Los Angeles. At that time, the 89th Street Family Bloods associated with other Blood gangs in Los Angeles against rival Crip gangs, especially the Avalon Garden Crips. The Crips wore blue and the Bloods wore red. On the morning of March 25, 1982, defendant led a meeting of Blood gang members. The purpose of the meeting was to "protect" the neighborhood from various Crip gangs. Some present had weapons; defendant had a .38-caliber pistol. It specifically was stated at the meeting that anyone present who wanted to go out and shoot rival gang members could go out and shoot.
In the afternoon of the same day, Marcellus Gray (who had died by the time of trial) and a friend, Kathleen Gurley, drove, in Gray's blue van, to the Food Barn near the corner of Rosecrans and Central in Los Angeles. Around 6:30 p.m.,
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