Franklin

Defendant, McKenzie Franklin, Jr. (hereafter appellant or Franklin), appeals from a conviction entered upon a guilty plea.

On May 25, 1983, at approximately 8:30 a.m., two black men robbed Harud Piringian, the owner of a shoe store in Terra Linda shopping center, San Rafael, California. The first man entering the store (later identified as codefendant James D. Moss) was carrying a white tennis bag. While Moss was talking to the shopowner, a second man (identified subsequently as appellant) entered the store equipped with a large-barrelled shotgun displaying it in a menacing fashion. After Moss tied up Piringian, the pair walked around the shop, took money from the cash drawer and left the bound-up owner behind the counter. The holdup lasted about five minutes.

Soon after the robbers departed, the incident was reported to the police. Officer John Coen of the San Rafael Police Department received a radio dispatch about the robbery circa five minutes later. The first broadcast described the suspects as two male Negroes and alerted the police to the fact that a shotgun had been used in the commission of the crime. Following the radio dispatch, Coen drove to a position at…