People v. Stamps CA2/7

INTRODUCTION

Santana Stamps appeals from the judgment after a jury convicted him of first degree murder; attempted willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder; and attempted robbery. Stamps argues the trial court erred in (1) admitting evidence of case-specific testimony from a deputy medical examiner who did not perform the autopsy of the murder victim; (2) admitting evidence of case-specific testimony from a detective who did not perform the ballistics testing of a gun that matched casings recovered at the scene of the murder; and (3) instructing on aiding and abetting liability for felony murder. We conclude Stamps’s arguments are forfeited, meritless, or both. Therefore, we affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Stamps Goes on a Shooting Spree At 11:00 a.m. on December 15, 2020 Stamps, who was 18 years old, got out of a car driven by Christyen Holmes at Harvard Boulevard and 27th Street in Los Angeles and fired shots at M.B.’s car. Bullets hit the trunk and a back tire of M.B.’s car, but did not hit M.B. Holmes drove Stamps to Melrose Avenue, where the two men got out of the car. At 12:55 p.m. Stamps fired his gun at Devonte Clepper and his younger brother K.C.,…