Holliday

I.

INTRODUCTION

Defendants Jeff Shai Holliday and Jose Oscar Esqueda, Jr. were jointly tried before separate juries on charges related to three separate assaultive incidents that occurred in 2017. For the first two incidents, the men were charged with accosting strangers in Pacific Beach and Chula Vista, respectively, and taking or attempting to take the victims’ property. In the third incident, which occurred approximately seven months after the second, the defendants approached an inebriated man in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego. According to the prosecution evidence, a fight ensued when Holliday punched the man, and the man’s friends came to his aid. During the resulting brawl, Esqueda used a knife in his possession to stab two men, one of whom died at the scene. The defendants’ juries found them guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery and one count of robbery in connection with the Pacific Beach and Chula Vista incidents. Esqueda’s jury found him guilty of premeditated

2 murder, attempted murder, and assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury in connection with the Gaslamp Quarter melee. As to that incident, Holliday’s jury convicted him of the…