Supreme Court of California

Defendant's conviction and death sentence for first degree murder is affirmed on automatic appeal over claims of error regarding: 1) the exclusions of prospective jurors for cause based on their questionnaires; 2) Batson/Wheeler challenges; 3) a denial of a motion to suppress two duffel bags and a jacket police found when they searched his mother's car; 4) sufficiency of the evidence; 5) prosecutorial misconduct; 6) ineffective assistance of counsel; 7) challenges to the finding on the robbery-murder special-circumstance allegation; 8) various evidentiary rulings; 9) cumulative errors; 10) discharge of appointed counsel and defendant's self-representation; 11) miscellaneous challenges to the penalty phase statute; 12) discharge of a juror at the penalty phase; 13) a denial of a motion for a new trial; 14) denial of an automatic motion to modify the sentence; 15) whether the sentence was grossly disproportionate to defendant's individual culpability; and 16) miscellaneous challenges to the death penalty.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/24/2010
• Published 05/24/2010

Judges

• WERDEGAR, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Irene Kiebert, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Mary Jo Graves, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Holly D. Wilkens and Melissa Mandel, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.