Mai

FACTS

A. Guilt and special circumstance evidence. As to the criminal charge of first degree murder and the peace officer special circumstance allegation, defendant waived his jury trial, self-incrimination, and confrontation rights, and stipulated that the court would determine those issues from the preliminary hearing transcript. That transcript included the following evidence. About 8:30 p.m. on July 13, 1996, Bernice Sarthou pulled into the Pepe‘s Mexican Restaurant on North Placentia Avenue just south of its intersection with Nutwood Avenue in Fullerton. The sun was still up, so she was wearing her prescription sunglasses. She left her car and entered the restaurant, but saw it was full, so she returned to her car and got into the drive-through line. As she did so, she saw a patrol car, with its lights flashing, stopped behind a white BMW. A young Vietnamese male was sitting in the driver‘s seat of the BMW, and a uniformed officer was sitting in the patrol car. When Sarthou looked at the BMW‘s driver, he leaned forward, gripped his steering wheel, and gave her a ―hard stare.‖ As the drive-through line moved forward, Sarthou lost sight of the two cars she had seen. She ordered…