People v. Williams CA2/4

BACKGROUND

I. Factual Background

Because appellant did not proceed to trial, the relevant facts considered by the trial court were drawn from the transcript of appellant’s preliminary hearing. We briefly summarize this evidence here. Appellant stipulated to the preliminary hearing transcript as the factual basis for his eventual no contest plea and his counsel relied on the transcript for his factual recitation on appeal. At the preliminary hearing, Detective Eric Crosson of the Los Angeles Police Department testified that he investigated the February 23, 2009 murder of Edward Walker on a bus in Los Angeles. He interviewed appellant several weeks later, after appellant was arrested in Arkansas for an unrelated robbery. After appellant waived his Miranda rights, he told Crosson that he got onto a bus on the day of the incident and noticed the victim seated in the back of the bus. Appellant recognized the victim as someone he knew from childhood and also as a rival gang member. Appellant sat down near the front of the bus, but he and the victim made eye contact and appellant heard the victim make a derogatory comment referring to appellant’s gang affiliation. When the bus…