Opinion ID: 2572600
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Penalty Phase Prosecution Case

Text: The prosecution introduced evidence of prior criminal acts by defendant involving force or violence. (§ 190.3, subd. (b).) William Davis, who in 1977 was a security guard for a Torrance grocery store, testified that while he and a partner were questioning defendant in a store interview room about a suspected shoplifting, defendant suddenly pointed a handgun at Davis's stomach. During the ensuing struggle, defendant fired one shot before Davis and his partner overpowered him. At the police station defendant threatened Davis, saying, I'm going to kill you, motherfucker. George Watford testified to a January 1987 incident at a bar in Cottonwood, where he was working as a janitor. Hearing a knock on the locked door about 4:00 a.m., Watford opened the door to discover defendant pointing a handgun at him. Defendant ordered Watford and a female employee onto the floor, told them to cover their eyes, and kicked Watford in the head and ribs with his cowboy boots. Threatening to kill Watford, defendant put his .45-caliber pistol close to Watford's head, and Watford heard the click of the hammer being cocked. Two members of murder victim Oberta Toney's family, her daughter and her sister, testified as to the grief Toney's death caused them and her two young grandchildren. A fingerprint expert testified that defendant's fingerprints matched those on documents from the Department of Corrections pertaining to two of defendant's prior convictions found true by the court.