People v. Contreras

Opinion

PUGLIA, P. J.

Defendant appeals from the judgment entered after a jury convicted him of second degree murder. (Pen. Code, § 187.) In urging reversal, defendant asserts he was erroneously denied a free transcript of the testimony at a previous trial on the same charge. The claim is unsupported by the record. We will therefore affirm the judgment.

The judgment under review arose from the second trial of defendant on the same charge. The first trial (Feb. 27-Mar. 18, 1980) resulted in a mistrial when the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Retrial was set for May 12, 1980.

On March 19, 1980, defense counsel, the San Joaquin County Public Defender, moved “that the Court order a transcript of the first trial” at the court’s expense limited to the testimony of the prosecution witnesses. The prosecutor did not oppose the request, but suggested the People had an equal right to a transcript of testimony of defense wit

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nesses at the court’s expense. The court took the requests under submission and announced its ruling in open court the next day:

“The public defender has made a motion for a copy of the transcript of the prosecution’s witnesses, requesting the Court to use court funds or court’s budget to pay for the transcripts.

“Then the district attorney has filed a contrary [.sic] motion, saying that if the public defender is entitled to transcript at the court expense, then, likewise, the district attorney would like to have a copy of the defendant’s witnesses, a transcript at the court expense.

“I mentioned to you that last year, when Judge Darrah and I were working the criminal department, we did have a policy. And I wanted to review that policy.

“I had a meeting yesterday at noon at the Yosemite Club with the presiding judge, Chris Papas, Judge Martin and Bruce Avrit and this Court. And we discussed the entire situation of court-ordered transcripts at court expense. We have resolved the policy and it’s being circulated today as follows: On public defender requests for court payment of transcripts, the Court is not passing on the merits. We’re not saying that Mr. Contreras is not entitled to the transcripts. All the Court is saying is that as far as requesting the Court to use the court budget to pay for the transcript, that the Public Defender’s Office does have a budget for their office. And that the transcripts should be paid from the budget from the office of the public defender. In the event the Public Defender’s Office does not have sufficient budget monetary-wise to pay for these transcripts, then they should seek apjplication from the Board of Supervisors for additional funds.