Flores

Defendant appeals from a judgment entered after a jury found him guilty of first degree robbery and simple assault. He challenges the trial court’s restriction of his cross-examination of an immunized witness.

The robbery and assault occurred in the late evening hours on a Sacramento street as the victim, Jack Congalton, was returning to his residence carrying a pasteboard barrel containing his clean laundry. He had noticed a car, with its left headlight out, circle the block, and then follow him a short distance. The vehicle stopped and a male passenger, later identified as defendant, left the right front passenger seat; and two other occupants shortly thereafter joined him and confronted the victim. A scuffle ensued, the victim’s package of laundry was taken, and he suffered a knife wound requiring 56 stitches.

At trial, Congalton was unable to specify which of his attackers wielded the knife resulting in his wounds. The immunized witness, Cecil Archuleta, supplied that information. The defendant’s attorney sought to cross-examine Archuleta on the nature and content of discussions held with his attorney which occurred before the attorney negotiated the grant of…