People v. Suruy CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

A jury convicted defendant and appellant Richard Angel Suruy of 38 felony

counts arising from his participation in a series of armed robberies that took place in

March and April 2011. Counts 1 through 5 arose from an incident at a video store where

two store employees were robbed. About five days after the incident, a detective showed

the employees a “wanted bulletin” concerning a robbery that took place at a donut shop

on the same day they were robbed. That bulletin included photographs of defendant

committing the donut shop robbery. The video store employees indicated that the person

in the wanted bulletin was the person who had robbed them. Seven weeks later, after

defendant was apprehended, the video store employees selected defendant’s photograph

from a six-pack photographic lineup. During trial, they identified defendant in court as

the robber.

Defendant contends the court erred in denying his motion to exclude the video

store employees’ identification evidence. He argues that the wanted bulletin was

impermissibly suggestive and the subsequent identifications were tainted by that initial

identification. Although we agree that the use of the…