Opinion ID: 2611109
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lack of Instruction on Grand Theft.

Text: (3) Defendant contends that the trial court prejudicially erred in failing to instruct sua sponte on the crime of grand theft as a lesser included offense of the crime of robbery. His argument fails. The court has a duty to instruct sua sponte on lesser included offenses when the evidence raises a question as to whether all of the elements of the charged offense were present, but has no such duty when there is no evidence that the offense was less than that charged. In the present case, there was no evidence that the offense, if committed by defendant, was other than robbery. The victim had been brutally murdered and some of his property was missing. He was in possession of his car when last seen alive, and it was missing when his body was discovered. Defendant's reliance on People v. Ramkeesoon (1985) 39 Cal.3d 346 [216 Cal. Rptr. 455, 702 P.2d 613] is misplaced, for there a grand theft instruction was warranted by the evidence, in the form of defendant's own testimony, that he did not think of taking any of the victim's property until after the victim was dead. In other words, there was substantial evidence supportive of a theft instruction. Here, by contrast, there was no evidence whatsoever to support a theft instruction. There was nothing more than sheer speculation to support the scenario now advanced by defendant that the idea of taking the victim's property did not arise until after the victim was dead. Indeed, all of the evidence in the case pointed to a robbery as the motivating factor for the murder. Defendant was seen looking at the victim's car in front of the victim's house an hour before the latter's ex-wife was unable to reach him by telephone, presumably because he was dead.