California Court of Appeal

Conviction for second degree murder arising from a fight between defendant and two convenience store clerks is affirmed where: 1) the prosecution used reasonable diligence in attempting to obtain the presence of the surviving clerk as a witness and, thus, the trial court did not err in admitting the preliminary hearing testimony of that clerk; 2) the trial court properly defined the requisite unlawful act for second degree murder and properly categorized in its instruction the different types of intent for voluntary manslaughter; and 3) any arguable instructional error concerning the requisite intent for manslaughter was not prejudicial.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/20/2007
• Published 08/20/2007

Judges

• MOSK, J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Thomas T. Ono, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant., Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Linda C. Johnson, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Michael A. Katz, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.