California Court of Appeal

In this case, a jury convicted defendants Campbell and Fort of first degree murder and found true a robbery special circumstance allegation, and also convicted them of two counts of robbery. Regarding the murder charge, the jury was instructed on first degree felony murder only, with robbery as the underlying felony. The judgment is reversed as to Fort's murder and robbery convictions, where: 1) the trial court had a sua sponte duty to instruct on lesser included offenses; 2) there was substantial evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that a lesser offense, but not the greater, was committed, and so the court erred by failing to instruct the jury as to the lesser included offenses; 3) the error was not harmless; and 4) the instructional error may have led the jury to convict Fort of the robbery counts.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/15/2015
• Published 01/15/2015

Judges

• King

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel