MEJIA-LENARES

Certified for Partial Publication. [*]

On April 21, 2003, an information was filed in Kern County Superior Court, charging appellant Jose Luis Mejia-Lenares with murder involving the use of a knife. (Pen.Code, [1] §§ 187, subd. (a), 12022, subd. (b)(1).) A jury subsequently acquitted him of first degree murder, but convicted him of second degree murder and found the knife use allegation to be true. The jury further found him to have been sane at the time he committed the offense. He was sentenced to prison for 15 years to life, enhanced by one year for the knife use, and filed a timely notice of appeal.

In the published portion of this opinion, we hold that so-called imperfect self-defense cannot be based on delusion alone; hence, the trial court did not err in rejecting appellant's requested modification of CALJIC No. 8.73.1. In the unpublished portion of the opinion, we reject appellant's claims of evidentiary error. Accordingly, for the reasons which follow, we affirm the judgment.

As described at length in the statement of facts, ante, appellant presented evidence that he fatally stabbed Howard out of fear that Howard was transforming into the devil and wanted…