People v. Bean CA2/5

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendant and appellant David Bean and his co-defendant Jenelle Williams were each charged with four murders occurring at different locations within a time span of two weeks in the summer of 2016. The same gun was used in all four murders. Other crimes and enhancements related to the same incidents, as well as priors, were also alleged. Bean and Williams were tried together by the same jury in 2023. Bean was convicted of first degree malice murder, first degree felony murder, and second degree malice murder, with various enhancements and special circumstances found true. He was acquitted of the remaining murder charge. He was also convicted of three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of assault with a firearm.1 Bean was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life without parole for the murders, plus 25 years to life for assault with a firearm, plus an aggregate firearm enhancement of 51 years and four months to life, plus an aggregate determinate term of six years and eight months. On appeal, Bean challenges only the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the three murder convictions, attempting to do so without confronting either…