Opinion ID: 844288
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Florin Road Robbery and Murder

Text: After the Watt Avenue robbery, defendant told Proby and Penilton he wanted to do another lick, i.e., commit another robbery. During September 1994, the month in which the two robberies occurred, Ulanda Johnson testified defendant and Proby were good friends and saw each other every day; she teased defendant that Proby was his girlfriend. On September 27 or 28, [6] defendant accompanied one of Johnson's friends, Deborah Allen, to a residence on Hillsdale Boulevard in Sacramento so she could retrieve some of her property. Allen testified defendant was holding a small silver gun. Defendant and Proby were seen together on September 28, both before and after the Florin Road robbery, at Penilton's and Johnson's residences. Defendant was carrying his black backpack when he left Johnson's house that evening. Jeffrey Hickey was the manager in charge of the closing shift at the Florin Road McDonald's on September 28. Also working that shift were Ronald Lee, Pravinesh Singh, and Jerome Williams. Previously, from October 1993 to April 1994, defendant had worked at the same restaurant. Hickey, Lee, and defendant had worked the same shift together about a dozen times. The restaurant was scheduled to close at 11:00 p.m. About 10:40 p.m., Hickey entered the men's restroom, propped open the door, and began to scrub graffiti off the wall. A loud aluminum fan made it difficult to hear what was going on elsewhere in the restaurant. While Hickey was cleaning the wall, an African-American man standing about Hickey's own height (five feet 10½ inches tall), weighing about 165 pounds, and wearing a baseball cap and a scarf over the lower portion of his face, whom Hickey later identified as Proby, came into Hickey's view in the doorway. Pointing what appeared to be a sawed-off rifle at Hickey, Proby told him to lie down on the floor, and Hickey complied. Proby left the bathroom and headed toward the main area of the restaurant, but returned after about two minutes and asked Hickey if he could open the safe. Still pointing the gun at Hickey, Proby followed him to the restaurant's office. Ronald Lee lay on the floor just outside the office doorway. The other employees were in the stockroom just past the office. A second man, whom Hickey described as being about six feet two inches tall and weighing 185 to 200 pounds, was standing against a salad preparation table just outside the office and holding what appeared to be a small semiautomatic handgun. Although Hickey deliberately refrained from looking at the second man's face in order to avoid giving the impression he was looking for identifying features, he perceived that the second man's physical characteristics were consistent with defendant's. While Hickey was opening the safe, the second man told him three times to hurry up, in an unnaturally low voice, as if he were trying to sound gruff. After opening the safe, Hickey left the office and lay on the floor facing the back of the restaurant, where the employees were. The second robber put his foot on Hickey's head to stop him from looking at the employees. Hickey heard cash drawers being removed from the safe. The second robber reached into Hickey's back pocket, removed his wallet, and after a few seconds placed it on Hickey's back. After two or three minutes, Hickey heard the robbers leave the restaurant. After about two more minutes, Hickey got up, checked on the other employees, and called the police. Singh and Williams got up, but Lee still lay on the floor. Hickey then noticed that Lee had a wound on the back of his head. An ambulance later came to take Lee away. Hickey ascertained that the robbers had taken about $550 in cash and a steel box containing some gift certificates. After the robbery, about 11:30 p.m., defendant and Proby went to Ulanda Johnson's house, where Johnson noticed defendant was wearing his black backpack on his right shoulder. The next morning, the backpack, containing a gun, was on Johnson's living room floor. Also late in the evening after the robbery, defendant and Proby went to Vera Penilton's house, entered her bedroom, and shut the door. Penilton stood outside the door, listening to their conversation. She heard Proby talking about how they had robbed another McDonald's, and heard defendant say he had killed his friend. Penilton entered the bedroom, and defendant told her he had shot his friend in the back of the head because the boy had said his name. In defendant's backpack were a metal box containing gift certificates and some rolls of coins. On September 29, the day after the Florin Road robbery murder, defendant made a deposit of $212, consisting of $5 and $1 bills, into his share account at the SAFE Federal Credit Union. Less than 20 minutes later, Proby opened an account at the same credit union. Later that day, defendant and Penilton were riding in Proby's car while Proby drove. A police car with flashing lights came up behind them, and officers inside tried to get Proby to stop. At defendant's urging, Proby continued to drive, running several red lights. Finally, having driven into the parking lot at Ulanda Johnson's apartment building, defendant and Proby jumped out of the moving car, which crashed into a police car and came to a stop. Defendant and Proby were arrested. Penilton was taken to the police station and interviewed. Initially, she testified, she did not tell the officers the whole truth because she was afraid. She did, however, tell them about the conversation she had overheard between defendant and Proby in her bedroom and that defendant had told her he had killed a boy. Penilton allowed the officers to search her room. They seized money, gift certificates, and the metal box. During a second search, officers seized the phone defendant had taken in the Watt Avenue robbery. Penilton agreed to speak with the officers a second time because she felt bad she had not previously told them the truth. During the second interview, she told them what she knew about the robberies. The cause of Lee's death was determined to be a wound to the back right side of his head from a copper-jacketed .25-caliber ACP bullet designed to operate in a semiautomatic weapon. A live cartridge of the same type of ammunition was recovered from Zaharko's truck.
Pravinesh Singh was cleaning the kitchen at the time of the robbery and saw only one of the robbers, whom he described as being a dark-complected African-American male about five feet eight inches tall, wearing black clothing and a green ski mask. The robber, who Singh testified was not defendant, held a small silver handgun with which he motioned nervously to Singh to get onto the floor. Singh complied, lying facedown toward a storage room and away from the robber. Singh saw Ronald Lee walking toward the safe and standing near the office door. Singh heard a voice coming from the office, angrily demanding the safe be opened, and then heard a gunshot and a dropping sound, like someone falling down. He did not hear Lee say anything to the robber.