Supreme Court of California

Defendant's convictions of three counts of first degree murder with a multiple-murder special circumstance, one count of attempted murder, and various firearm enhancements, and death sentence, are affirmed, where: 1) it was not an abuse of discretion to permit the Orange County District Attorney's Office to charge and prosecute defendant for capital murder, and the trial court did not err in denying defendant's recusal motion; 2) the trial court's error in refusing to give a pinpoint instruction on provocation and heat of passion was harmless; 3) the failure to provide the jury written copies of the two instructions regarding defendant's election not to testify was statutory error, but it was harmless; 4) following two hung juries on the penalty issue, the trial court did not err in denying defendant's motion to sentence defendant to life without the possibility of parole; and 5) defendant's remaining contentions fail.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/05/2014
• Published 06/05/2014

Judges

• WERDEGAR

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel