Lopez-Barraza

BACKGROUND

I. Procedural Background Lopez-Barraza was charged, along with codefendants Fernando Lopez- Castillo (Fernando) 2 and Jose Carraballo-Mejias (Mejias), 3 with murder (§ 187, subd. (a)), conspiracy to commit robbery (§§ 182, subd. (a)(1), 211) and robbery (§ 211), with allegations including that the murder was committed while the three codefendants were engaged in the commission of a robbery (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)), that Fernando personally used and discharged a firearm (§ 12022.53, subds. (b), (c) & (d)) and that a principal was armed with a firearm (§ 12022, subd. (a)(1).) Lopez-Barraza and Mejias were tried jointly, but with separate juries. (People v. Lopez-Barraza (Feb. 16, 2017, A138550) [nonpub. opn.]) Lopez-Barraza’s jury found him guilty of murder and robbery and found the robbery special circumstance true, but found him not guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery. We affirmed the murder and robbery convictions but reversed the special circumstance finding for instructional error. (People v. Lopez-Barraza (Feb. 16, 2017, A138550) [nonpub. opn.].) On remand, the People elected not to retry the special

2 Fernando is the brother of another participant in these…