Opinion ID: 2387024
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Burglary, robbery, and murder at Alpha Beta market

Text: Brenda Rambo testified that she was working at a cash register in an Alpha Beta market on July 18, 1994, at approximately 10:40 p.m., when she observed a man enter the store wearing a woman's wig. The only other employee on duty at that time was Rambo's supervisor, Timothy McVeigh. Rambo testified that the man looked at her, walked around behind her checkout stand, and then came into her checkout aisle and set down a pack of gum. She related that [a]fter I rang it up he threw down a dollar and told me that I'd have to break it. She turned to put the dollar in the cash register, and [t]he next thing I know I had a gun at me. According to Rambo, the man did not say anything, but reached across the conveyor belt, removed a tray of money from the cash register's drawer, and set it on the belt. He began removing money with his left hand, as he held the handgun in his right hand. Rambo testified that the robber did not appear to be nervous. Rambo testified that during the time defendant was removing money from the cash tray, she said Tim. She recalled that several seconds passed, and then McVeigh appeared at her checkout stand. She related that McVeigh grabbed the man's left wrist and placed his other hand around the man's shoulder. The man turned toward McVeigh, and the two men struggled for a short period of time. Rambo then heard the gun discharge. The two men let go of each other, and McVeigh stepped back and fell a few feet away from where the struggle occurred. Rambo recalled that the man again pointed the gun at her, and she knelt down and asked him please don't. She described the man as calm after McVeigh was shot, and testified that he turned and left the store with the money he had removed from the tray. Rambo testified that the robber wore a wig, a baseball hat, clear-framed dark plastic glasses, a purple-pinkish long-sleeved shirt, and jeans. She confirmed that on July 21, 1994, she was asked by Detective Brakebill of the City of Brea Police Department to review a photographic lineup of six individuals. She selected the second photograph, which is identical to the photograph of defendant that appeared in the third position in the lineups shown to Bugbee and Shahbakhti. Rambo testified that the person in the second photograph appeared to be similar, very similar to the person who robbed her. She confirmed that the only significant differences between the person in the photograph she chose and the person who robbed her was that the latter did not have a beard or mustache. Kelly Carpenter, a City of Brea police officer, testified that he received a request for emergency assistance at approximately 10:40 p.m. on July 18, 1994. When he arrived at the Alpha Beta market four minutes later, he saw a man lying on the floor and Brenda Rambo standing beside the man, screaming and crying. At trial, he reviewed his police report setting forth Rambo's description of the events on the evening of the incident, which was substantially similar to Rambo's testimony at trial. Carpenter also testified concerning the crime scene, including the open cash drawer, the money tray and gum on the conveyor belt, a shell casing in the aisle from a .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun, and a pair of glasses Carpenter found in the store parking lot. Paul Diersing testified that he was the manager of the Alpha Beta market where McVeigh was shot. He conducted an inventory after the incident, and determined that $156 was missing. Richard Fukumoto, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy upon McVeigh, testified that the cause of death was acute hemorrhaging that resulted from a gunshot wound through the victim's abdominal aorta and stomach. According to Fukumoto, the entry wound reflected that the firearm was discharged within three inches of the victim. He further explained that the bullet entered the front of the victim's body, traveled from the victim's left to right side, front to back, and downward, and was recovered from the victim's right back side. He confirmed that the wound was consistent with testimony indicating that two men were grappling and a gun discharged in close proximity to the victim.