Opinion ID: 2567349
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Attempted murder of Steve Murphy

Text: On November 5, 1982, 16-year-old Steve Murphy attended a party at a friend's house in San Mateo. Leaving the party around 11:30 p.m., he walked another friend's home. Murphy was heading toward his own residence, 15 to 20 houses away, when he lost consciousness. He awoke after daylight the next morning near a large dirt area surrounded by trees. He fell unconscious again and next woke up in a hospital, discovering that his spleen and a kidney had been surgically removed. He spent the next three weeks in the hospital with broken ribs and a broken pelvis. His injuries caused him to miss several months of school. In October 1986, after obtaining a waiver of constitutional rights, San Mateo Police Officer Joseph Farmer spoke with defendant about the assault on Murphy. Defendant admitted he had been drinking alcohol on the beach before driving his car up the hill on 42d Avenue in San Mateo. He saw someone walking on 42d Avenue and made two or three right turns to encounter the person again. He deliberately ran over the person, put him in the back of his car, and drove him to an isolated area in Belmont at the Marburger turnaround. He took the person out of the car and laid him on the roadway. Defendant referred to the person as Steve Murphy, but did not explain how he had learned the victim's name.