Opinion ID: 1182062
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence of Robbery and Robbery-murder Special Circumstance

Text: (26) Defendant maintains the evidence of the crime of robbery and of the robbery-murder special circumstance was insufficient to sustain the jury's findings of guilt. To the contrary, there is substantial evidence sustaining the verdict. Viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict ( People v. Johnson (1980) 26 Cal.3d 557, 576 [162 Cal. Rptr. 431, 606 P.2d 738, 16 A.L.R.4th 1255]), the substantial, credible evidence at trial included the following: While the victim's car was waiting at a fast-food, take-out stop, defendant approached her. He sought money from her in a manner that induced fear and caused her to tremble. Later, defendant went to his car, removed a gun from the glove compartment, and approached the victim a second time. Defendant leaned his head and shoulders well inside the open driver's side window and remained there for 30 to 45 seconds. He shot the victim three times from the driver's side, then walked away and returned, shooting her twice from the passenger side. At the time of his booking, defendant was in possession of an envelope containing $208.23. The victim's practice was to segregate money in envelopes for special purchases. Defendant points to various alleged contradictions or inconsistencies in the evidence and urges many of the same inferences he argued to the jury. It was within the province of the jury as the trier of fact to assess the credibility of the witnesses and weigh the available inferences. ( People v. Ozene (1972) 27 Cal. App.3d 905, 910 [104 Cal. Rptr. 170].) Although the evidence of robbery-murder was not conclusive, the jury could infer that defendant had the opportunity to steal (he leaned into the victim's car), did steal (he was found in possession of an envelope with money), and killed his victim to accomplish his crime. Both the actual taking of property and the intent to steal are established by substantial, although not uncontradicted, evidence. This evidence is sufficient to sustain the robbery conviction and the robbery-murder special circumstance. ( People v. Johnson, supra, 26 Cal.3d 557, 575-579.) Significantly, defendant does not challenge the admission of Pasnick's spontaneous statement that defendant approached her and asked for money in a manner that caused her to fear for her safety. Nor does he raise any issue with respect to the further evidence that Pasnick had cash in her hand when defendant first approached her and failed to obtain her money. Even if defendant took no money from Pasnick, the jury could infer that defendant's decision to get his gun, and his return, armed, to Pasnick's car where he leaned through the driver's window, all constituted an attempt to commit robbery. From this evidence, the jury could reasonably conclude, at a minimum, that Pasnick's murder was carried out in the course of an attempted robbery. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(i).)