People v. Lopez CA6

I. BACKGROUND

A. Lopez’s Conviction, the Preliminary Hearing, and the Parole Board Hearings

Luis Sandoval was killed in front of the Watsonville Public Library on November 2, 1988. The Santa Cruz County District Attorney charged Lopez with murder (§ 187). After the trial court rejected a plea agreement, a jury found Lopez guilty of second degree murder. In 1990, the court sentenced Lopez to 15 years to life in prison. The transcripts from Lopez’s jury trial have been destroyed. But the transcripts of his preliminary hearing, held in 1989, were included in the record. So were the transcripts of four parole board hearings. 1. The Preliminary Hearing

a. Eyewitness Testimony Jose Gomez was walking with Sandoval on Main Street in Watsonville on November 2, 1988. While Gomez and Sandoval were in the crosswalk, the driver of a moving car with three or four occupants shouted, “ ‘Poor Side,’ ” waved a blue bandana out the window, and “[t]hrew a P”—a hand gesture signaling affiliation with Watsonville’s Poor Side gang. Sandoval ran after the car but stopped when another car nearly hit him. Gomez and Sandoval walked to the library. About 15 to 30 minutes later, Gomez was…