Opinion ID: 2581763
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence Supporting Special Circumstances

Text: Defendant asserts that the evidence at trial was insufficient to support the jury's findings of the special circumstances that he killed multiple victims (Pen.Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(3)) and that he did so for financial gain ( id., subd. (a)(1)). In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a special circumstance finding, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the People. ( People v. Alvarez (1996) 14 Cal.4th 155, 225, 58 Cal.Rptr.2d 385, 926 P.2d 365.) The special circumstance focuses on the defendant's intention at the time the murder was committed. ( People v. Howard (1988) 44 Cal.3d 375, 409, 243 Cal.Rptr. 842, 749 P.2d 279.) With regard to the multiple-victim special circumstance, defendant contends that even if there was sufficient evidence that he killed his father, the testimony concerning his loving relationship with his mother precludes a finding that he could have stabbed her repeatedly. He is unpersuasive. The jury was not required to believe that testimony, or to accept the inference that his feelings for her made it impossible for him to kill her or aid and abet her killing. With regard to the financial-gain special circumstance, defendant asserts that his failure to recover on the insurance policies precludes a finding that he was motivated by financial gain. Again, he is unpersuasive. Proof of actual pecuniary benefit to the defendant from the victim's death is neither necessary nor sufficient to establish the financial-gain special circumstance.... `[T]he relevant inquiry is whether the defendant committed the murder in the expectation that he would thereby obtain the desired financial gain.' ( People v. Edelbacher (1989) 47 Cal.3d 983, 1025, 254 Cal.Rptr. 586, 766 P.2d 1.) His failure to recover insurance benefits after the killings does not undercut evidence of a financial motive at the time of the killings. The jury could reasonably have viewed such failure either as an abandonment of his plan or as an attempt to deflect attention from himself as the perpetrator after the murders.