California Court of Appeal

Conviction of first degree murder, Pen. Code section 187, is reversed where: 1) it was error to allow the jury to hear extensive evidence of defendant's past act of domestic violence, which involved planning, hours of waiting, and a bloody knife attack on sleeping victims; and 2) given the relative weakness of the evidence of premeditation and deliberation in the case, there is a reasonable probability the improper admission of such vivid and inflammatory evidence of defendant's past conduct affected the verdict.

Appellate Information

• Published 2016/07/15

Judges

• STEWART

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel