People v. Johnson

In these appeals from judgments of conviction of first degree attempted burglary entered on jury verdicts, appellants contend: (1) they were denied their right of confrontation of the principal witness against them because (a) the trial court received prior testimony of that witness at the preliminary hearing upon his failure to appear at trial despite a lack of diligence of the prosecution to secure his attendance, and (b) improper conduct of an interpreter at the preliminary hearing precluded meaningful cross-examination; (2) when hearing the motion to exclude the preliminary hearing testimony, the trial court erroneously excluded evidence that the appellants had not been afforded an opportunity of meaningful cross-examination because translation of questions and answers with respect to the absent witness testimony had not been accurate; (3) the trial court permitted improper cross-examination relating to uncharged crimes; and (4) the judgments are not supported by substantial evidence. Concluding that the trial court failed to follow the statutory mandate of Evidence Code section 750 that an interpreter “is subject to all the rules of law relating to witnesses” and…