People v. Olivencia

In People v. Olivencia (1988) 204 Cal.App.3d 1391, two defendants were convicted of false imprisonment. At trial, one defendant made a hearsay objection to a witness's testimony regarding the second defendant's statement that they "had" the victim and her child. Although the trial court overruled the objection on grounds that the statement was admissible as the statement of a coconspirator, the defense argued there was no evidence of an agreement to achieve an unlawful objective. The court, however, disagreed. Even without resort to the contested hearsay testimony, the victim had testified that the defendants had entered her apartment together and that one defendant told the other to remain with the victim at the apartment. (Olivencia, at p. 1403.) The court held this was sufficient evidence to show that the defendants were engaged together in a conspiracy to falsely imprison the victim and her child.