People v. Patton CA4/2

BACKGROUND

In 1996, defendant and his codefendants, Robert Lee Smith (also known as Tushay

or Touché) and Ruman Abdul Richardson (also known as Diamond) decided to rob a

convenience store. Richardson drove defendant and Smith to the store and waited outside

while defendant and Smith went into the store. During the robbery, Smith shot and killed

the 34-year-old store owner, Kyung Rim (the victim), because the victim refused to give

Smith the store’s telephone.

A witness, Lawrence S. Chamalbide, who was in his car on his way to the victim’s

store, saw two people wearing dark clothes running out of the store and saw one of those

persons had a gun. He tried to pursue them but stopped when he heard the person

standing outside of a waiting car shout, ‘“Shoot him. Shoot him”’ followed by the sound

of gunfire. After the shot was fired, the two running men got into the waiting car and

drove off.

The defendant and his codefendants were arrested in April 1997 and charged with

murder (§ 187). The information also alleged that the murder was committed by

defendant and Smith in the course of a robbery (§§ 211, 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(A)), that a

1 Section 1170.95 was renumbered as…