Opinion ID: 2575903
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant's Prior Street Crimes

Text: At the second and decisive penalty phase trial, Doris Dantes testified that she awoke about 2:00 a.m. one morning in 1981 to find defendant standing on a stepladder and shining a flashlight through her first floor apartment window in San Francisco. The two of them were looking at each other through the window, separated by only a couple of feet. Paralyzed by fear, shock, or both, she was unable to scream; instead, she told him to go away. After unsuccessfully trying to reach a telephone to call police, she fled. As she ran for the front door, defendant hurled a brick through the window, almost striking her, and she was injured by flying shards of glass. Only then did she begin to scream, and she left the apartment and sought help from a neighbor. When she returned later, she found someone else's blood on the window frame and saw that her purse, which had been lying on a couch near the window, was missing. The police escorted her to an area some blocks away where defendant, who had been chased by Dantes's neighbors, had been apprehended in possession of her purse. She identified defendant and her stolen purse. All of her money had been taken from the purse, and credit cards may have been taken as well. One of the pursuers also testified. In trying to escape, defendant threw his flashlight at the pursuer. Defendant also threatened to take revenge on him as he was holding defendant on the ground and awaiting the police. Semadar Barzel testified that on an evening in 1984, in San Francisco, she was at her doorstep when an African-American man pointed an object at her (she thought it might have been a toy gun or a knife), grabbed her purse, and ran away. Defendant was arrested the next night and the registration slip to Barzel's automobile, which had been in her purse, was found on him, along with a .25-caliber gun. A year later, in 1985, defendant committed two violent purse-snatchings in one evening. He resisted arrest and had to be physically subdued. One victim, Regena Mannello, suffered facial injuries, had to be treated by emergency medical personnel, later required reconstructive surgery, and was left permanently injured. The other, Linda Incardine, was also assaulted. Defendant hit her four times to force her to relinquish her purse, causing substantial injuries and emotional trauma.