Opinion ID: 1122777
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Proceedings in the present case.

Text: Defendant and Manuel Perez were arrested for robbery and murder. [5] Following a preliminary hearing, the prosecutor filed a five-count information against defendant. Count I, the only count relevant to the present proceeding, charged defendant with the murder of Jennifer Slagle, and alleged as a special circumstance that the murder was committed by defendant and Perez while both were engaged in or were accomplices in the commission of robbery and the immediate flight after committing robbery. (§ 190.2, subd. (a) [¶] (17).) At the preliminary hearing, the prosecutor presented the following evidence in support of that count: On November 17, 1979, two men stopped at the entrance of a Safeway store in La Crescenta. Before entering the store, one man, identified as defendant, pulled a ski mask over his face. At the same time, Gerald Slagle, an off-duty reserve deputy sheriff, was walking toward the Safeway store with his three-year-old daughter, Jennifer. He saw the two men walk past him and noticed that just before they entered the store, one man pulled a ski mask over his face and drew a gun. Concluding that a robbery was about to occur, Slagle took his daughter, crouched down behind a car in the parking lot, and waited for the men to emerge. Upon entering the store, defendant, the man in the ski mask, approached a grocery clerk and directed her at gunpoint to put money in a paper bag. Perez, the unmasked robber, approached another clerk with what appeared to be a sawed-off shotgun. After the clerks put money into paper bags, defendants took the bags and left the store. When the two robbers reached an area clear of bystanders, Slagle confronted them. While defendant fled, Perez aimed his gun at Slagle. Slagle fired two shots at Perez, wounding him. Perez then shot at Slagle, who ducked behind the car, and the two men continued to exchange fire. At some point in the shooting Jennifer Slagle stood up and was hit by two bullet fragments. Shortly thereafter, defendant arrived with a car; Perez got in and the two men drove off. Jennifer Slagle died from a gunshot wound to the head. A chemical analysis of a bullet fragment suggested that the fatal shot probably came from Slagle's gun. Contending that the foregoing evidence did not show that he intended to kill or to aid in a killing, defendant moved pursuant to Penal Code section 995 to set aside the special circumstance allegation. [6] (See Ramos v. Superior Court (1982) 32 Cal.3d 26 [184 Cal. Rptr. 622, 648 P.2d 589]; Ghent v. Superior Court (1979) 90 Cal. App.3d 944 [153 Cal. Rptr. 720].) The superior court denied the motion, and defendant sought review by writ of prohibition.