Jones

Marshall Jones killed his four-month old son, Wolfgang, and then buried him in an empty dirt lot. At the time, Jones did not have legal or physical custody of the child. The jury found Jones guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, and assault on a child under eight years of age (Pen. Code, §§ 187, subd. (a), 207, subd. (a), 273ab), and found trae a special circumstance allegation that the murder was committed while Jones was committing or attempting to commit kidnapping (Pen. Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(17)). The court sentenced Jones to life without the possibility of parole on the murder during a kidnapping special circumstance, and stayed the sentences on the kidnapping and assault counts.

On appeal, Jones argues the kidnapping conviction is factually and legally unsupported and therefore the kidnapping and first degree murder convictions and special circumstance finding must be reversed. For the reasons explained below, we reject Jones’s contentions and affirm the judgment after modifying the abstract of judgment to correct a clerical error.

Factual Summary

In 1998, 17-year old Benjamie Winffee (Benjamie) began dating 29-year-old Jones. One year later, in November…