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People v. Robinson12/11/2000
CERTIFIED FOR PARTIAL PUBLICATION *
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Cesar C. Sarmiento, Judge. Affirmed.
I. INTRODUCTION
Defendant Corey Robinson appeals from a judgment of conviction following a jury trial. The jury found him guilty of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a); count 1), found true a special circumstance allegation that the murder was committed while defendant was engaged in the commission of rape (Pen. Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(17)), and also found him guilty of forcible rape (Pen. Code, § 261, subd. (a)(2); count 2). Defendant was sentenced to state prison on count 1 for life without the possibility of parole, and was sentenced on count 2 to a determinate term of eight years in prison, which was to be served before the indeterminate life term in count 1.
Defendant contends on appeal that: (1) his convictions for murder and rape, and the special circumstance of murder during a rape, must be reversed because the evidence was insufficient to show that a rape was committed and that defendant committed the murder; (2) the trial court erred when it instructed the jury in the language of CALJIC Nos. 2.50.01 and 2.50.1 because the instructions allowed the jurors to convict defendant without finding him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and because the jurors were told they could find defendant guilty solely on the basis of disposition evidence; (3) the trial court erred when it allowed evidence showing that defendant had raped other women because the probative value of the evidence was substantially outweighed by the possibility it would create an undue prejudicial effect and require an undue consumption of time, and because Evidence Code section 1108 violates due process by allowing such evidence to be used to prove disposition and propensity to commit a charged sexual offense; (4) the trial court erred when it allowed evidence showing that defendant had choked other women since the prejudicial value of the evidence was substantially outweighed by its possible prejudicial effect, and because it was not admissible under Evidence Code section 1101, subdivision (b); (5) the trial court erred when it admitted evidence and argument that the DNA results did not exclude defendant from being the source of the blood found under the fingernail of the murder victim; (6) the trial court erred when it ruled defendant's statement to a woman in Oxnard, made only days after the instant murder, that if he ever wanted to get rid of her body he would "dump" it in Los Angeles, was admissible as an admission in the instant case where the murder victim was from Oxnard and her body was "dumped" in Los Angeles; (7) the prosecutor committed prejudicial misconduct by eliciting evidence of uncharged acts, by misstating the law during argument to shift the burden of proof and to vitiate the presumption of innocence, by asserting in argument factual matters not supported by the evidence, by misstating the evidence in argument, by misusing prior choking incidents as disposition evidence, by attacking the integrity of defense counsel during argument by informing the jury that they could consider the fact the defense expert was being compensated for his testimony, and by appealing to the jury's sympathy for the murder victim and her family; and (8) the cumulative effect of the errors deprived him of a fair trial. We reject each of these contentions and affirm the judgment of conviction.
II. FACTUAL SUMMARY
In April of 1996, Gloria De La Cruz was 18 years old and lived with her mother in Oxnard. She sang in a band which performed locally. She knew defendant and had gone out with him on April 7, 1996, which was East
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