Horning

Appellant seeks reversal of a conviction of robbery (Pen. Code, § 211), claiming, inter alia, incompetence of trial counsel. In salient part the factual background is as follows.

During the summer of 1979, appellant performed general maintenance work for James Sears for about a month. While so employed, he occupied an apartment inside the barn located on Sears’ property in Monterey County.

Sears became dissatisfied with appellant’s work and fired him, whereupon appellant, angered, refused to leave the premises. After a week, appellant left, warning Sears that “he always got even with people he thought didn’t do him right.”

On March 5, 1981, just before noon, two men drove onto Sears’ property in a red Datsun pickup truck which looked to Sears like the one owned by appellant. Two men were in the truck; one of them, later identified by Sears as appellant’s brother Danny, approached Sears and asked for a job. The other, described by Sears only as having a dark, heavy beard, waited in the truck. Danny’s erratic, aggressive behavior frightened Sears. After a brief conversation, however, the two men left.

On the same day, between 6 and 6:30 p.m., Sears went to his barn to…