The People v. Vance CA1/2

BACKGROUND

The parties‘ briefs demonstrate that they have no substantive disagreement about the details of the retrial record, which mirrored that of the original trial. Moreover, neither of the contentions defendant now advances is dependent on the trial record. We therefore adopt what we said in Vance I: ―Except in one particular, the jury was not presented with material conflicts in the evidence, only the strength of the incriminating conclusion to be drawn from the largely undisputed testimony and trial exhibits. “It appears accepted that the victim, Dipak (Deuce) Prasad, died on June 2, 2006. It further seems that it all began with Prasad telling defendant‘s girlfriend, Jennifer Delong, that he, defendant, was sleeping with another woman. Delong confronted defendant with this report, and its source, and left town, much to defendant‘s distress. ―On the afternoon of June 2, defendant confronted Prasad about what he, Prasad, had told Delong. Prasad thought what he told defendant had defused defendant‘s anger. The two thereafter spent several hours getting and consuming methamphetamine, all the while Prasad unaware that defendant was bent on revenge. ―Defendant intended to teach…