Opinion ID: 2613228
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Victim Castro's murder

Text: Defendant strangled Castro to death with a telephone wire and set her room, and probably her body, afire. The method of execution itself precludes any inference the murder was accidental or unintentional. As we have repeatedly held, this method of killing [strangulation] is indicative of at least a deliberate intent to kill. [Citations.] ( People v. Hernandez, supra, 47 Cal.3d at p. 349.) The jury's first degree murder finding reflected the jury's determination that Castro's murder was either (1) premeditated, (2) committed in the course of a burglary, requiring a preexisting specific intent to steal, and/or (3) committed in the course of a rape. On this record, the only reasonable conclusion one can draw from the evidence and the jury's findings is that defendant intentionally murdered Castro to facilitate his escape and preclude his apprehension after raping her and/or stealing her jewelry. Defendant, relying on an alibi defense, introduced no evidence which would have justified a finding of unintentional homicide.