Court Opinion

ID: 9883303
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:39:49.112311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:22.548441
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I dissent from the reversal of the convictions of murder and
attempted murder.
On this issue the majority draw some esoteric distinctions that are difficult to comprehend: they uphold defendant’s conviction of conspiracy to commit murder, but reverse his conviction of the murder and attempted murder that he conspired to commit and that actually took place.
At the outset, I concede the evidence is too thin to support the robbery conviction. Despite the melee at the liquor store, events there probably did not rise to the level of a robbery. Thus defendant could not be convicted of robbery and necessarily the felony-murder charge based on the robbery must fall. To that extent the majority opinion is sound. It does not follow, however, that defendant was improperly convicted of first degree murder and attempted murder under this evidence. Indeed, it seems to me that the evidence of guilt is overwhelming.
*27The majority cannot find an adequate showing of malice to justify the first degree murder and attempted murder convictions, despite the fact that the jury found defendant guilty of conspiracy to commit first degree murder, a conviction that must be bottomed on malice. As I read their opinion, the majority concede there was abundant malice when the conspiracy was initiated, but “we cannot know the length of the period during which the jury found appellant possessed malice” (maj. opn., ante, at pp. 16-17). In other words, there was malice when the conspiracy to murder was formed at 11 o’clock at night but since the actual murder and attempted murder did not take place until an hour or two thereafter, the malice may have dissipated. In my opinion the nature of the intervening acts demonstrate the malice was continually harbored by the defendant from the beginning of the conspiracy until the final shot was fired at the law enforcement officers.
The conspiracy began when the rowdy group became overtly belligerent and menacing. While the precise male who declared “I’m going to shoot the sheriff” was not identified, it was this defendant who said, “I’m going to get a gun” and who sought ammunition for the gun in his girlfriend’s residence. Certainly in that frame of mind at that time of night he was not seeking bullets for mere target practice; a fair inference is that he fully intended to shoot a peace officer and was initiating the process to do so.
From that point to the tragic denouement, there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that defendant’s malicious purpose was abandoned. Indeed everything points to the eagerness with which he and his confederates squared off to deliberately shoot and kill the pursuing peace officers. The officers shined high-beam spotlights on the scene and attempted to reason with the group. In refusing the opportunity given for a rational surrender and choosing the alternative of a gangster-type shoot-out, defendant and his confederates clearly demonstrated continued malice. It is fortuitous that only one officer was fatally wounded.
While it would have been preferable for the jury not to be instructed on felony murder based on an alleged robbery that is unsupportable, that error was not prejudicial for there was overwhelming evidence of all the ingredients of first degree murder: a wilful, deliberate and premeditated killing committed with express malice. (Pen. Code, §§ 187-189.) To hold otherwise, the majority must necessarily find the malice that evoked the conspiracy had miraculously dissipated while defendant and his confederates obtained lethal weapons, refused to surrender to the authorities, and maintained a steady barrage of fire at the police officers. That theory is difficult to swallow.
*28Because the victim was a peace officer, there is no question that the special circumstance requirements of the 1977 death penalty statute were met. (Former Pen. Code, § 190.2, subd. (c)(1).)
I would affirm the judgment in all respects, except as to the robbery count.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied March 20, 1986. Mosk, J., Lucas, J., and Panelli, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.