McDaniels

Defendant James A. McDaniels appeals from a conviction of first degree murder. (Pen. Code, §§ 187, 189.)

Facts

On the afternoon of April 19, 1977, defendant, then age 16, and several of his “Cripts” gang friends drove in a three-car caravan to the area of Main and Allenhurst in south central Los Angeles; their purpose was to engage one or more members of the “Fives”—a rival gang whose territory included the Main and Allenhurst intersection—in a re tributive clash of some sort. Upon their arrival, four of the youths left their vehicles and proceeded, four abreast, to corner 15-year-old Bradley Phillips next to a parked car. As one of the four pointed a gun at him, Phillips, who was kneeling with his hands in the air, protested that he was not a gang member. Undaunted or unpersuaded, the gunman squeezed off five shots; the first two knocked Phillips to the ground, the third came in response to Phillips’ violent kicking, and two final shots to the head, fired from the distance of about a foot, were added even as the gunman’s friends had turned away.

The prosecution advanced two theories implicating defendant in the crime. One was simply that he was the triggerman; the…