People v. Roberts CA2/3

BACKGROUND

I. The felony complaint and evidence at trial2

A felony complaint charged Roberts with the special circumstance murder of Sung Hee Hwang (§§ 187, subd. (a), 190.2, subd. (a)(17) [murder committed during robbery]; count 1) and with second degree robbery (§ 211; count 2). Two of Roberts’s

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code.

Effective June 30, 2022, section 1170.95 was renumbered to section 1172.6, with no change in text. (Stats. 2022, ch. 58, § 10.) 2 We grant Roberts’s request for judicial notice of the appellate record in the case on direct appeal, People v. Roberts (July 1, 1998, B110600) [nonpub. opn.]. (Evid. Code, § 452, subd. (d); see People v. Lewis (2021) 11 Cal.5th 952, 972 (Lewis) [appellate opinion generally part of record of conviction in § 1172.6 proceedings].) To the extent we rely on the opinion in Roberts’s prior appeal, we do so solely for procedural facts. (§ 1172.6, subd. (d)(3).)

2 accomplices, Tyrran Wilson3 and Walter Johnson, testified against him at trial. A third accomplice, Damian Hunter, did not testify. The following evidence was adduced at Roberts’s trial. A. The robbery and murder On the afternoon of February…