Opinion ID: 2543856
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prior uncharged acts

Text: The prosecution presented evidence of three criminal acts committed by defendant involving the use, or attempted use, of force or violence. (§ 190.3, factor (b).) Norman Hughes testified at defendant's trial that on May 29, 1979, defendant was at Hughes's house drinking beer when Hughes asked defendant to leave. Somewhat later that night, a boulder was thrown through Hughes's window. The next night, another boulder came through the window, and Hughes saw defendant fleeing the area. Hughes and his brother Darryl gave chase, eventually joined by their friend, Kenneth Merritt. When defendant emerged from a nearby apartment building, they grabbed him. While Merritt left to summon the police, two or three of defendant's friends then came out of the apartment building and began circling the Hughes brothers. One of the men handed defendant a pocket knife. He approached Norman Hughes, making a slashing motion with the knife. When police arrived, they arrested defendant and retrieved the knife. The second incident occurred January 26, 1988, when Johnny Westbrook, an inmate at Folsom State Prison, was stabbed in the neck by defendant while in the exercise yard. An inmate-manufactured weapon was found at the scene. The third incident involved the September 15, 1989 stabbing of inmate David Snidow at Folsom State Prison. After the attack, a prison-made weapon flecked with blood was found lying next to Snidow. Correctional officers searched the area and found additional weapons. Correctional Officer Robert Buda testified at defendant's capital trial that he interviewed inmate Riley Jones after the incident. Jones provided information that prompted Officer Buda to search the cell shared by defendant and another inmate. Officer Buda found evidence that weapons had been manufactured in the cell. Jones testified at defendant's trial that he and defendant were in the same black prison gang and that they planned to kill Snidow because he was White and in a rival gang. Defendant and another inmate manufactured the weapons, and defendant brought three knives into the work center. Jones distracted Snidow so defendant and a fellow inmate could attack him. The men stabbed Snidow at least seven or eight times. An administrative charge of conspiracy to commit assault was lodged against defendant, but the charge was dismissed for insufficient evidence because inmate Jones refused to implicate defendant. [2] Michele Leathers testified that when defendant telephoned her from jail on the day he was arrested for Ernestine Campbell's murder, he admitted having stabbed many people while in prison. Defendant did not answer when she asked if any of those individuals died.