California Court of Appeal

In this case involving the murders of three men, codefendant Mackey was convicted of two counts of first degree murder, and codefendant Bey was convicted of all three counts of first degree murder. Mackey was sentenced to two life terms without possibility of parole, and Bey was sentenced to three life terms without parole. The judgment is affirmed, where: 1) denial of defendants' change of venue motion did not result in an unfair trial, and refusal to sever Mackey's case was not an abuse of discretion; 2) California case law allowed warrantless placement of a GPS device by law enforcement at the time the device was placed in the present case, so the tracking evidence should not be excluded; 3) there is either no error or no prejudice with respect to the claimed instructional errors and the related ineffective assistance of counsel claim; and 4) the accomplice testimony rule does not apply with regard to the evidence supporting the Wills murder conviction, as the witness was not an accomplice.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/14/2015
• Published 01/14/2015

Judges

• Richman

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel