Though there was no DNA evidence or fingerprints on the explosive device, the jury found Paul Moore guilty. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Gus was . Paul was afforded a fair trial. Farm accidents are as old as the wheel, but was this an accident? It will be reassigned in five weeks. Paul's ex-father-in-law testified briefly, and the description he gave certainly did not consume an undue amount of trial time. We conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion by calculating the minimal risk of prejudice and finding the probative value was sufficient to justify the admission of the evidence. The court summarized what it perceived was a two-part argument: first, that Paul had no part in the killing and had no motive to kill Roberto because everything was rosy for him at the farm and he had worked his way into a happy partnership with his father; but second, his cousin Peter, who was bitter and estranged from the farm he loved, was a plausible bomb builder because he was capable of constructing the simple explosive device in question, particularly with the assistance of the YouTube video found on his computer. He was able, however, to install electrical sprinkler systems. My Life: Paul maintains that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting the prosecution's evidence of a document extracted from Paul's computer entitled My Life because its probative value was outweighed by undue prejudice within the meaning of Evidence Code section 352. His son, Fabian, who was 7 at the time, witnessed the explosion and ran two miles through fields to find help. In fact, the incarcerated man's full name is Paul Roger Moore, as a sign of respect to his father. A Sustainable Legacy Founded over 90 years ago, at Moore Farms we vow to apply our family farming experience toward growing the finest produce for you, the customer and consumer. In her opinion, the labels came from the same tape cassette or from another one with the same characteristics. As a result, Roger had the duck blinds removed. For the first time at trial, however, he testified he got into the truck and tried to drive it. Nor was there a terrible danger of unnecessarily inciting the jurors' passions. Whether we conclude that despite our reservation the trial court did not abuse its discretion or that, even if there was an abuse of discretion, the failure to allow surrebuttal was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, our rationale is essentially the same. He was familiar, therefore, not only with Roberto's working routine, but also with the operation of the pump. His body was still burning when the firefighters arrived. (People v. Ochoa (1993) 6 Cal.4th 1199, 1206.) The fact that the prosecutor chose to highlight the damaging evidence only in response to the defense claims that Peter, not Paul, had killed Roberto Ayala and that he had no motive or nothing to gain from the killing was a strategic choice the prosecutors made. He was responsible for regulating the water levels on the rice fields. He has endangered others in his family. A jury convicted defendant Paul Roger Moore of first degree murder based exclusively on circumstantial evidence that he built and planted a victim-activated bomb in an irrigation pump he knew the farm foreman and eventual victim, Roberto Ayala, would activate. Robert John Vierra. Chance of rain 100%. The actual printing on the diagram looks like somebody printed it on a label maker, affixed it to the paper and then ran it through a photocopier. She sued Moore Brothers farm and three Moores - brothers Arlan and Roger and Roger's son Paul - in Colusa County Court. We find no merit in Paul's objection to the admissibility of his own life story. The settlement awarded the family $20 million as well as $44,800 in workers compensation payment. At the same time, their sons, Peter and Paul, respectively, hated Ayala. The bolts were just like the bolt discovered at the scene of the explosion. Thus it was relevant and probative of his knowledge of creating explosions. I will come peacefully or detonate all the devices.. During tomato harvest, he wrote, he drove the shitty tractor, but pussy Peter was allowed to drive the tractor with an air-conditioned cab because otherwise Peter was a prick to work with. Employees, including Roberto Ayala and Roberto's brother Eduardo, were given liberties he was not, such as drinking on the job, taking farm vehicles and equipment for personal use, and getting paid during the winter. Given the brevity of the comment, we believe Paul grossly overstates its potential danger and conclude there was no prosecutorial error. A document examiner expert testified at trial that the paper used in the second letter sent to the sheriff, the diagram, and the indented paper were chemically indistinguishable. The investigators would later discover that Paul had deleted individual text messages he had sent to and received from Peter. From this evidence, the jury could reasonably infer that because Paul was familiar with Roberto's routine, he could specifically target Roberto by placing the bomb in an electrical pump panel he knew Roberto would be operating. Paul returned to work on the farm a few years before the explosion. ), Admission of character evidence, however, is subject to special rules. Roberto's seven-year-old son told the investigators and testified at the preliminary hearing that he did not move or drive the truck after the bomb exploded. THE PEOPLE v. PAUL ROGER MOORE (2016) | FindLaw In Paul's view, it was Peter who had lost the most and had the most to gain by Roberto's demise. "Paul was afforded a fair. But Paul insists the prosecutor's rebuttal constituted error, even if we assume it was not intentional. 370; People v. Hillhouse (2002) 27 Cal.4th 469, 503-504.) He described how the booby trap would detonate, as follows: So imagine you take a metal box, typical control panel, electrical, that has the lip that goes around, and you have that little washer pin in there so that the lip of the box, I imagine, the door to the box and the box itself has this little washer sandwiched in between them so that it can't fall down. ROBERTO'S DEATH AND THE MOORE FAMILY TRAGEDY. Upon detonation gas atomized for millisecond, completed the circuit triggering flashover, thus electrocution, fail safe and no disarming. Our criminal justice system is predicated on the fundamental notion that a person accused of criminal conduct must be convicted based on evidence that he or she committed the alleged conduct and not merely based on evidence of a criminal disposition or a criminal reputation. A jury convicted defendant Paul Roger Moore of first degree murder based exclusively on circumstantial evidence that he built and planted a victim-activated bomb in an irrigation pump he knew the farm foreman and eventual victim, Roberto Ayala, would activate. The focus again, therefore, is not on just how probative the evidence was, but rather on how grave the risk of prejudice admission of the old incident presented. "That's why I took the case.". The prosecution called a litany of forensic experts connecting Paul to the sheet of paper with the indentations of the bomb diagram, the paper in the printer to the paper used in the diagram of the bomb, the ink in the copier to the ink used on the second letter and the diagram, the type of labels used in the letters and diagram to the type Paul used on his own files, and the fishing line found in his boat to the type of fishing line used in the bomb. According to the testimony offered by his father, his son, and his ex-father-in-law, that was a lie. There were disagreements where Roger took Roberto's advice over that of his son or nephew. He discovered what the prosecution experts had all missedthat the user of Peter's computer had visited a YouTube rat trap video. Peter testified he was not a trained welder, he was not talented when it came to anything mechanical, and the only electrical work he performed was the simple wiring of electrical sprinkler systems. Stay up-to-date with how the law affects your life. In denying Paul's motion for a new trial on this ground, the trial court stated that the prosecutor's offhand and brief comment could not be fairly construed as arguing character. No fingerprints were found on the two letters, and one of the envelopes contained the fingerprints of an unknown person. ARLAN MOORE OBITUARY . (People v. Davis (2009) 46 Cal.4th 539, 606.) In the My Life document, as described above, Paul provides a litany of perceived wounds and transgressions he suffered throughout his life on the farm and many of the indignities he felt were a result of the privileges, trust, and respect showered on Roberto by Roger and Gus. Since I will not take this job, it will soon be reassigned. (People v. Morris (1988) 46 Cal.3d 1, 21.). It is true that the prosecution did not elicit testimony from the ex-father-in-law or from anyone else about what electrical knowledge was necessary to wiretap a telephone. By Harold Kruger In short, he could not tell them apart. Their investigation focused on whether the explosion was an accident. He ran to help him, but his father was unresponsive. And we do not accept the proposition that a document that was either written or transferred a mere year and a half before the blast was too remote in time. White Ford, same plate number. According to CBS Sacramento, the Sheriffs Office received a letter on August 12, 2011 claiming responsibility for detonating the bomb. Dr. Svetlana Moore is a Family Medicine Doctor in Colusa, CA. Corning Observer Obituaries - Legacy.com A Colusa County judge approved the judgment last month in the wrongful death lawsuit filed in 2013 by Jesus, Maria and Paola Ayala against Moore Brothers, Arlan Moore, Paul Moore and Roger Moore. Paul insists the limiting instruction could not cure the prejudice. Eschewing the old formulation characterizing a prosecutor's behavior as misconduct and urging us to consider the more forgiving label of prosecutorial error, the Attorney General defends the prosecutor's rebuttal argument and insists the court did not err by foreclosing the defense from making a surrebuttal argument as requested. Another expert will do this job. Becoming windy late. Paul told the investigators that Peter had been around the explosion site one day before the explosion. I am over this life. One of the investigators described the diagram of the bomb as follows: It's a diagram that has writing around the diagram and on the diagram. Although the trial was lengthy, they took less than a day to deliberate. Click to reveal He denied saying he would fire the Ayala brothers if he ever took over the farm and insisted he liked Roberto. At FindLaw.com, we pride ourselves on being the number one source of free legal information and resources on the web. The bomb exploded, injuring Paul and his friend. Paul, not Peter, used abbreviations such as u and 4 in his text messages. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Paul Moore was found guilty on Friday of first-degree murder of Moore Bros. farm foreman Roberto Ayala in Colusa County after the jury deliberated for about five hours. The potential prejudice of admitting the evidence was slight. His reputation in the community would make Peter the more likely suspect than Paul. Paul was well represented at trial, and his lawyer effectively lodged these arguments, and many more, to the jurors. Roger is Pauls father. Roberto Ayala died instantly from an explosive device that he unknowingly detonated at chest level. [Citation. Virginia Carmen Ortiz. Thus, he was suggesting by analogy that the document examiner could not say the papers were a positive match. The trial court rejected the defense claim that the prosecutor improperly had compared paper stock analysis to DNA analysis when there was no DNA analysis in evidence.
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