People v. Burke CA6

I. BACKGROUND

The Santa Cruz County District Attorney charged Burke with murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)),1 and alleged that he personally used a deadly weapon (a knife) to commit the offense (§ 12022, subd. (b)(1)). The district attorney further alleged a prior

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code. conviction for attempted murder (§§ 664, 187, subd. (a)), which qualified both as a strike offense (§§ 1170.12, 667, subds. (b)–(i)) and a serious felony (§ 667, subd. (a)(1)). A. Jury Trial

Neoklis Koumides, an unhoused person, was stabbed to death in a parking garage in Santa Cruz, where he sometimes stayed to keep warm. The sole disputed issue at trial was the identity of his killer. Video surveillance footage showed that shortly before the stabbing, S.O. was at the garage with Koumides but then biked to Burke’s nearby apartment building at 4:46 a.m.2 Burke’s cell phone records indicated that he answered a call from S.O. on his call box at about 4:48 a.m. At 4:54 a.m., video surveillance footage showed Burke leaving his apartment wearing a red hat, khaki pants, gloves, trench coat, and white “Croc” shoes bearing a black skull logo. Burke, on…