California Court of Appeal

Trial court's conviction of defendant for first degree murder is affirmed where: 1) questioning defendant's girlfriend in the presence of the jury did not violate defendant's right of confrontation; 2) permitting the prosecutor to argue in its closing argument that defendant's girlfriend's refusal to testify did not violate defendant's constitutional rights; 3) even if the court erred by permitting the adverse comment striking all of defendant's girlfriend's testimony the error was harmless. Trial court is directed to award defendant 249 days of presentence custody credit, not 248 days.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/04/2009
• Published 09/04/2009

Judges

• JONES, P.J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Catherine White, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant., Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Stan Helfman, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Christopher J. Wei, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.