Opinion ID: 2507176
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence Concerning the Robberies Preceding the Murder

Text: The two couples began socializing early in 1983. Pamela Cummings, who had met Raynard Cummings in high school and subsequently wrote letters to him while he was in prison in Delaware, became his girlfriend upon his release on parole in February 1983. Robin Anderson met defendant in March 1983, after his release on parole, and was introduced to Pamela and Raynard a short time later. The two couples had a double wedding in Las Vegas on May 12,1983. Neither defendant nor Raynard Cummings had a job. Their preferred pastime was engaging in robberies, unusually brutal ones. Pamela often drove them, in Robin's green car, to the targeted business and acted as a lookout, and Robin sometimes accompanied them. They regularly used a particular seating arrangement in the car to avoid drawing attention to the fact that the Cummingses were a mixedrace couple. Defendant, who had a light complexion (his mother was White and his father was Black), sat in front with Pamela, who was White; Raynard, who was Black and was noticeably darker than defendant, sat in the back. The prosecution introduced evidence of four such robberies. The first one occurred at Kenn Cleaners in Granada Hills. After closing time on the evening of April 25, 1983, Raynard Cummings entered the shop with a gun in his hand and ordered owner Hagop Parunyan and another employee, Lisa Pina, to get on the ground and count to a thousand. Raynard took the money from the cash register, hit Parunyan in the neck with the gun for not counting slowly enough, and left. Meanwhile, another man outside the cleaners had stuck a gun behind the car of Parunyan's brother-in-law, Shahan Somounjian, forced him down to the ground, and stole his wallet. The man then used the gun to beat Somounjian about the head several times, breaking Somounjian's finger as Somounjian attempted to use his hands to protect himself. Somounjian could not identify his assailant, but a witness, Todd Husk, who spotted a woman waiting inside a car and two men exiting the area near the cleaners, identified defendant as one of those men. Husk's friend, Troy Gann, identified the other man as Raynard Cummings. Pamela Cummings confirmed that defendant and Raynard had committed the robbery at the cleaners. Raynard had taken $200 to $300 from the cash register, and defendant had hit a man over the head with a gun. Pamela had acted as a lookout. On the evening of May 13, 1983, defendant and Raynard Cummings entered a recreational vehicle repair shop in Reseda. The shop was closed and the owner, Richard Hallberg, was alone. Defendant demanded money from Hallberg at gunpoint and hit him repeatedly over the head with a revolver. So did Raynard. They hit Hallberg so hard the gun broke. Defendant stole a buck knife and about $1,600. Hallberg suffered injuries to his face, car, and hands. He identified defendant in court but not in any lineups. Pamela confirmed that defendant and Raynard committed this robbery. On May 20, 1983, Raynard Cummings entered Desire Florists in Chatsworth. He approached Carmen Rodriguez, the owner, and forced her into her office with a knife. When defendant walked in, he told Rodriguez not to look at him and struck her in the head with a gun. Defendant threatened to kill her if she did not open the safe, but Rodriguez was having trouble remembering the combination because of the blow to her head. She begged for more time, explained there was nothing in the safe, and asked the men to take her jewelry and the money from the cash register. Before leaving, Raynard instructed defendant to shoot Rodriguez. Defendant ordered Rodriguez to get on the floor and said, I hate to do this to you. Rodriguez begged him not to kill her. Defendant beat her with his fists and with the handle of the gun before leaving the store. Rodriguez suffered a concussion and received stitches over several parts of her head as well as her finger. She also experienced deficiencies in her memory that caused her to close her shop. Brett Sincock, who owned a nearby store in the shopping center, saw the two men leave Desire Florists and get into the green car driven by Pamela Cummings. Pamela testified that defendant and Raynard thought it was funny that Rodriguez had attempted to resist. On May 21, 1983, all four participated in a robbery at Artistic Mirror & Bath in Tarzana. Pamela Cummings and Robin Anderson entered the store first, around 5:00 p.m., asked what time the store closed, and left without buying anything. They were casing the store, looking for security buttons and cameras. Half an hour later, around closing time, defendant came to the back door of the store and asked for Epsom salts. Jeremy Glick, an owner of the store, said he had bath salts and let defendant inside. Defendant ordered Joyce Glick, Jeremy's mother and a co-owner, to the ground by placing a gun to the back of her neck. Then Raynard Cummings entered the store, held a switchblade against Jeremy's neck, and forced him to the floor, too. After telling the Glicks several times they would be killed if they said or did anything, the men went through Joyce's purse, where she had put the day's receipts, and removed the money. Defendant also took some jewelry from her person. Before the men left, defendant told the Glicks to stay face down and count backwards from a hundred. Pamela testified that defendant gave her a ring he had stolen during this episode, although she had testified at the prior trial that Raynard had given her the ring.