Opinion ID: 2584939
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence of Lying in Wait

Text: Defendant contends there was no evidence of any of the elements of lying-in-wait other than concealment of purpose, and `mere concealment of purpose' is not enough to establish that a murder was committed while lying in wait. He urges that, Here, [defendant] did nothing to `place himself in a position of advantage.' The crime was committed from the back seat of a police car in which he had been ordered to sit. It was sheer misfortune, and not planning, that led to his discovery of Deputy Perrigo's fanny pack, and the weapon inside, at a time when he was handcuffed in the back seat of a patrol car, when he [was] drunk, hurt, angry, confused, and frightened. Defendant's argument belies the facts, even as related in his own confession to police, which we have found was free from constitutional infirmity and properly introduced into evidence below. ( Ante, at pp. 662-667.) [T]he lying-in-wait special circumstance requires `an intentional murder, committed under circumstances which include (1) a concealment of purpose, (2) a substantial period of watching and waiting for an opportune time to act, and (3) immediately thereafter, a surprise attack on an unsuspecting victim from a position of advantage....' ( People v. Morales, supra, 48 Cal.3d at p. 557; People v. Carpenter (1997) 15 Cal.4th 312, 388 [63 Cal.Rptr.2d 1, 935 P.2d 708]; People v. Sims, supra, 5 Cal.4th at p. 432.) Furthermore, the lying-in-wait special circumstance requires `that the killing take place during the period of concealment and watchful waiting ....' ( Gutierrez, supra, 28 Cal.4th at p. 1149.) All of those elements are established on this record. In his statement to police, defendant related that after being returned to the patrol car for transport to Redding, and while his hands were handcuffed behind him, he began kicking the front seat of the vehicle and a fanny pack with a weapon fell out. He retrieved the handgun, worked the action and saw that it was loaded and functional, then hid the gun behind him near where the seatbelt attaches to the seat. According to defendant, he and Estrada considered shooting Deputy Perrigo in the parking lot of the substation and escaping, but decided not to because there were other deputies present. Ultimately they decided to wait until they were on the road where there were no houses and shoot Deputy Perrigo, then escape. Defendant claimed that once the three were a short distance outside of Burney, in an area where defendant thought there were no houses, Estrada gave him hand signals and told defendant to shoot him. Defendant stated he put the gun up against the Plexiglas, aimed at the back of Deputy Perrigo's head, closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. When asked why he shot Deputy Perrigo, defendant initially candidly stated, so that they could escape. Together, the physical and circumstantial evidence, the testimony of Deputy Pitts, and defendant's own confession established that defendant obtained Deputy Perrigo's backup handgun by kicking the front seat until his fanny pack fell to the floor of the patrol car, then pulling the fanny pack through the opening between the floor of the vehicle and the bottom of the Plexiglas safety barrier and retrieving the gun from within, all while still handcuffed. Defendant then secreted the gun on the seat behind him, waited until Deputy Perrigo got back into the patrol unit, waited until they had driven two miles from the substation and were on a relatively secluded section of the highway with no houses insight, then removed the weapon from its hidden location and intentionally shot Deputy Perrigo in the back of the head by surprise with no opportunity [for the officer] to resist or defend himself ( People v. Hillhouse, supra, 27 Cal.4th at p. 501) for the admitted purpose of escaping, which purpose was accomplished. Several decisions of this court have recognized that waiting for an opportune time to launch a surprise attack from the backseat of a vehicle against the driver or front seat passenger can constitute lying in wait. (See, e.g., People v. Jurado (2006) 38 Cal.4th 72, 119-120 [41 Cal.Rptr.3d 319, 131 P.3d 400]; People v. Combs (2004) 34 Cal.4th 821, 853 [22 Cal.Rptr.3d 61, 101 P.3d 1007]; Morales, supra, 48 Cal.3d at p. 554.) We conclude the evidence in this record is sufficient to support all of the requisite elements of the lying-in-wait special-circumstance finding.