Opinion ID: 2632308
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Burglary and robbery special circumstances

Text: Before the murder occurred, defendant told four people (Mark Herbert, Joseph Paulk, Kimberly Pratt, and Velinda Davis) that he was going to tax someone in Escondido. He told Pratt he was going to get jewelry from an old lady, and that Pratt should meet him in a bar at closing time if she wanted a good deal. He offered Herbert $5,000 to participate, and promised Popik his choice of items from the Clemons's apartment. The murder scene showed signs of a robberyfurs were spread on the couch, and a purse was found with its contents dumped out. When Popik was arrested, he had a Walkman radio and three sets of earrings from the apartment. Defendant in his confession said that he took nothing from the apartment. He later remarked to Kimberly Buckhalter that he had furs and jewelry she might want. There is, however, no evidence that anything was missing from the apartment other than the items found with Popik. The evidence of burglary and robbery is uncontested. Defendant recruited Popik by promising him that he could have his choice of property from JoAnn's apartment. Defendant opened the apartment door for Popik, and the two together subdued and killed JoAnn. Popik was later arrested with property taken from JoAnn. On these facts, it is clear that Popik is guilty of burglary and robbery, and that defendant was his accomplice. The prosecution, however, did not try the case on a theory that defendant was an accomplice to Popik's burglary and robbery. Neither does the Attorney General defend the verdict on such a theory here. Instead, he maintains that the defendant entered the apartment and killed JoAnn with the intention of stealing her property, but was interrupted when the police arrived and escaped without taking anything. (See People v. Zapien (1993) 4 Cal.4th 929, 984, 17 Cal.Rptr.2d 122, 846 P.2d 704, upholding a special circumstance finding based on robbery although the defendant fled without taking any property.) Defendant said his reason for killing JoAnn was to protect Christina, his girlfriend, from abuse by her mother, JoAnn. The Attorney General agrees that this was one reason, but argues that defendant had a separate, independent felonious purposeto steal her property. Such a concurrent intent will support the felonymurder special circumstance. ( People v. Zapien, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 984, 17 Cal.Rptr.2d 122, 846 P.2d 704; People v. Bonin (1989) 47 Cal.3d 808, 850-851, 254 Cal.Rptr. 298, 765 P.2d 460; People v. Murtishaw (1981) 29 Cal.3d 733, 752, fn. 13, 175 Cal.Rptr. 738, 631 P.2d 446.) Defendant here responds that even if he planned a robbery, the robbery was merely incidental to the murder. (See People v. Green (1980) 27 Cal.3d 1, 60-61, 164 Cal. Rptr. 1, 609 P.2d 468 [robbery to conceal identity of murder victim and thus facilitate killer's escape]; People v. Thompson (1980) 27 Cal.3d 303, 323-325, 165 Cal. Rptr. 289, 611 P.2d 883 [threat of robbery to conceal that a defendant's goal was murder after the killing the defendant left without taking the property the victim had given him].) He claims that he had no motive to steal from JoAnn other than to reward his accomplices, because once he had killed JoAnn, Christina, his girlfriend, would inherit JoAnn's property and could simply enter the apartment and take whatever she wanted. The question whether the burglary and robbery in this case were merely incidental to the murder was submitted to the jury under proper instructions, so the issue is simply whether substantial evidence supports the jury's verdict. We conclude that it does. Defendant is in effect arguing that we should believe his confession, in which he said his only motive was to protect Christina, and should disregard as boasting the comments he made before and after the murder. Defense witnesses described defendant as given to boasting to protect his image, but the jury could conclude otherwise and could infer from the evidence that defendant had an independent, if secondary, purpose of taking property from JoAnn.