People v. Pec CA4/3

FACTS

An information charged Pec with Willis’s murder and alleged the special circumstances that the murder was committed during the commission of attempted rape. I.

THE CRIME SCENE

In the early morning hours of January 1, 2018, a witness called the police because she heard someone screaming, “‘[H]elp,’” and “‘[N]o, please,’” and what sounded like a scuffle in a parking lot adjacent to her backyard. Police officers arrived and found the body of Willis, a transient woman in her 70’s. The body was on the ground, next to a make-shift transient encampment with blankets. There was blood in and around Willis’s ear. When a police officer shined a spotlight on the area, he witnessed Pec rise from where Willis’s body was laying. Pec’s pants were unbuttoned and partially down, exposing his buttocks. Pec moved quickly behind a cement pillar and attempted to jump over the shopping center wall before police detained him. Willis’s daughter went to the scene the same day with a police detective and the coroner. She identified Willis and gathered Willis’s belongings from her shopping cart. While going through her belongings, her daughter found a jacket that she did not recognize as Willis’s.…