People v. Levitt5/29/1984
COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT, DIVISION FOUR
Crim. No. 43128
1984.CA.40701 ; 203 Cal. Rptr. 276; 156 Cal. App. 3d 500
May 29, 1984
THE PEOPLE, PLAINTIFF AND RESPONDENT,
v.
MAURICE LEVITT, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT
Superior Court of Los Angeles County, No. A-199695, Thomas W. Fredricks, Judge.
Dennis A. Fischer and Fischer & Hill for Defendant and Appellant.
John K. Van de Kamp, Attorney General, John R. Gorey and William V. Ballough, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Opinion by Kingsley, J., with Woods, P. J., and McClosky, J., concurring.
Kingsley
Defendant, charged with the murders of George Lusko (count I) and Robert Richards (count II), was tried by jury and convicted of two counts of voluntary manslaughter. (Pen. Code, § 192, subd. 1.) The jury sustained firearm-use allegations in each count. (Pen. Code, § 12022.5.) Defendant was sentenced to state prison for the upper term in count II and a consecutive term for count I. Additional consecutive terms were imposed for the two use enhancements. On this appeal from the judgment of conviction, we modify the sentence and otherwise affirm.
Defendant and Lusko were business partners, sharing a suite of offices in Torrance. Defendant's wife, Grace, worked in the business and had daily contact with Lusko, while defendant largely occupied his working days elsewhere in connection with his other, independent, business interests. Defendant, Lusko and Grace socialized together as a threesome.
In March 1981, Grace left defendant, without warning and without telling him where she was going, and moved into a condominium rented for her by Lusko. At the time, Grace was considering divorcing defendant and accepting Lusko's proposal of marriage.
Subsequently, defendant called the Torrance suite several times, attempting to locate Grace; pursuant to Grace's instructions, he was falsely told that she had stopped coming into work and that no one knew where she was. Defendant also hired a private detective to follow Lusko, but Lusko appeared to notice that he was being tailed, and failed to lead the detective to Grace.
On April 26, defendant bought a gun under a false name. The next day he went to the door of the Torrance suite, parking his car somewhere other than in the suite lot, but did not go in. The day after, on April 28, he again went to the suite and again parked his car elsewhere. This time he entered. According to prosecution witnesses, a brief series of shots was heard along with a woman's screams, within seconds after defendant's entry. A short time later, defendant approached two employees and asked them where Grace was; he pointed a gun, while pulling the trigger, at each of them, but the gun clicked without firing.
Defendant drove away, stopping to throw the gun in a trash can, and eventually arrived at a hospital, where he was examined and admitted. He was found to be dazed and confused, suffering from acute high blood pressure, and displaying a bruise on his head. Police arrested him at the hospital.
The shots that defendant had fired in the suite killed Lusko and Robert Richards, a customer of Lusko's who had entered the suite to pick up a receipt just before he was shot. The bodies lay in adjoin
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