Supreme Court of California

Defendant-s conviction and sentences resulting from five counts of first degree murder and multiple counts of robbery, and kidnapping are: 1) vacated where lying-in-wait special circumstances as to four of the murder victims four were not supported by sufficient evidence; 2) reversed where defendant-s six convictions for simple kidnapping are lesser-included offenses to committing robbery; 3) modified to reflect a single sentence for conspiracy where trial court erred in sentencing defendant for five separate conspiracies to commit the five separate crimes listed in the indictment (3) stayed on the order that sentences for the conspiracy conviction in count 27 and for the robbery convictions on the basis that defendant may not be punished for both the underlying crimes and the conspiracy. The judgment is affirmed over claims of error regarding (a) whether four-day delay between defendant-s warrantless arrest and his arraignment violated his Fifth Amendment right to be left alone after his invocation of Miranda rights until attorney was appointed; (b) whether defendant failed to meet his burden of establishing that the small size of the relevant community weighed in favor of a change of venue; (c) that defendant has not shown reasonable likelihood that he did not receive fair trial before an impartial hearing; (d) whether trial court-s denial of defendant-s motion for severance, based on out-of-court statements made by co-defendants implicating defendant, or for separate juries was erroneous and violated his Constitutional rights; (e) trial court did not err in finding defendant did not establish purposeful discrimination in the prosecutor-s exercise of peremptory challenges with regards to jury selection; (f) whether erroneous admission of drawings, or testimony regarding prior incarceration, or admission of other evidence as exhibits did not prejudice defendant, (g) whether jury-s consideration of all reversed counts and invalid special circumstances in the aggregate did not effect the penalty verdict; (h) that the trial court did not err in not conducting competence hearing because there was no substantial evidence of incompetence before the trial court; (i) whether error to admit the photographs of damage to the holding cell wall and the records of defendant-s juvenile confinement, was harmless; (j) whether evidence of defendant-s possession of homemeade stabbing object while in custody on a prior charge was sufficient for jury to conclude that defendant-s possession of the shank was knowing; (k) trial court need not instruct that beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard and the requirement of jury unanimity do not apply to mitigating factors; (l) whether trial court-s error in failing to reinstruct jury with applicable instructions regarding evaluating the evidence was harmless; The Court did not consider defendant-s new claim that four-day delay between arrest and arraignment violated his Constitutional right against unreasonable search and seizure under McLaughlin because the defense was not raised at trial.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/28/2008
• Published 04/28/2008

Judges

• KENNARD, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Lynne S. Coffin and Michael J. Hersek, State Public Defenders, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Kathleen M. Scheidel, Assistant State Public Defender, for Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Robert R. Anderson and Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Pamela C. Hamanka, Assistant Attorney General, Keith H. Borjon, John R. Gorey, Sharlene A. Honnaka and Deborah J. Chuang, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.