Opinion ID: 1447881
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence of Defendant's Intent to Kill

Text: (9a) Defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence that he intended to kill Maxine Brown when he fired the fatal shot. We reject this argument. (10) In assessing a sufficiency-of-evidence argument on appeal, we review the entire record in the light most favorable to the prevailing party to determine whether it shows evidence that is reasonable, credible and of solid value from which a rational trier of fact could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. ( People v. Price (1991) 1 Cal.4th 324, 462 [3 Cal. Rptr.2d 106, 821 P.2d 610]; People v. Johnson (1980) 26 Cal.3d 557, 576 [162 Cal. Rptr. 431, 606 P.2d 738, 16 A.L.R.4th 1255].) We draw all reasonable inferences in support of the judgment. ( Ibid. ) (9b) Here, defendant's tape-recorded statement to sheriff's deputies on December 1, 1984, supplied ample evidence that he intended to kill Maxine Brown when he shot her. This is what defendant told the deputies: After driving with the victim in her car for several hours, looking unsuccessfully for a place to rob, he stopped at a church. Defendant eventually told Brown to get out of the car and start walking. Brown got out, but then came back into the car and asked for her purse. Defendant said, No, you can't have your purse because you'll call the police. When Brown replied, I'm going to call them anyway, defendant got scared, and hit her on the head with his gun, and told her to get out again. She did so. She then turned around and told defendant, I'm going to call the police. At that point, defendant jumped out and shot her. Also, at trial defendant testified that when the victim was in her car in the church parking lot, he told her, Leave. I don't want to shoot you but I will. These statements by defendant strongly support the jury's conclusion that he intended to kill Maxine Brown when he shot her. In the tape-recorded interview with defendant that was played at trial, defendant claimed he did not intend to kill the victim, but intended only to scare her. At trial, defendant made the same claim. He testified that as to the third (and fatal) shot, which hit the victim in the chest, he just fired at random. The jury, however, was not required to accept that testimony. The jury was free to believe some of defendant's statements and to disbelieve other statements. (3 Witkin, Cal. Evidence, supra, งง 1770-1771, pp. 1723-1725.) Moreover, the testimony of defendant's girlfriend, Mary Kimble, also supports the jury's finding that defendant intended to kill Maxine Brown when he shot her. Kimble testified that when defendant came home on the night of the crimes, he told her that things went sour and that he had to kill a woman. Defendant emphasizes the evidence tending to show that the first two shots were fired at a downward angle, which, he argues, is consistent with an intent to frighten rather than an intent to kill. But defendant need not have intended to kill the victim when he fired the first and second shots. The jury's conclusion that defendant intended to kill when he fired the third and fatal shot, which hit the victim in the chest, is supported by evidence that the gun used by defendant required that he manually retract the hammer before pulling the trigger. The testimony of Mark Velarde also supports this conclusion. This witness, who lived across the street from the site of the killing, testified that he heard three shots. The first two shots were fired in rapid succession, but there was a slightly longer delay between the second and third shots than between the first and the second. In the context of this case, this delay is further evidence that defendant intended to kill the victim when he shot her in the chest.