In Re Grissom

After defendant’s conviction for second degree murder the trial court granted defendant’s petition for habeas corpus relief and ordered a new trial on the basis of incompetency of defendant’s trial counsel, Arnold Johnson. The People appeal the trial court order (Pen. Code, § 1506). We vacate the order and reinstate the conviction.

Facts

In the early morning hours of August 11, 1975, defendant and Richard Singleton, Negroes, followed three Mexican-American women home to their apartment building, and there got the worst of a fight with three Mexican-American men. An hour later defendant and Singleton returned to the scene of the fight, Singleton now armed with a shotgun. After knocking and kicking doors of several apartments in the building and questioning the occupants, defendant and Singleton confronted two Mexican-Americans seated in a truck, who had not been involved in the prior incident. Without provocation, Singleton shot and killed one of them. At a joint trial of 24 days in November and December 1975 Officer Renk testified that Singleton told him that immediately before the shooting defendant had said, “Don’t do it.” The jury convicted Singleton of second degree…