Banos

INTRODUCTION

In 2006, a jury convicted defendant Manuel Banos of the second degree murder of his ex-girlfriend, Mary Ann Cortez, and two counts of first degree burglary. On appeal, defendant challenges on Sixth Amendment grounds the admission into evidence of certain of Cortez’s out-of-court statements to police during prior domestic violence investigations. In an earlier opinion, we affirmed the judgment after upholding the admission of those statements under the forfeiture by wrongdoing exception to the confrontation clause as articulated by our Supreme Court in People v. Giles (2007) 40 Cal.4th 833 [ 55 Cal.Rptr.3d 133 , 152 P.3d 433 ], certiorari granted sub nom. Giles v. California (2008) 552 U.S. 1136 [ 169 L.Ed.2d 800 , 128 S.Ct. 976 ] (Giles I). Under that doctrine, a defendant may forfeit the right to confront a witness when he has killed that witness or otherwise made the witness unavailable at trial. (People v. Banos (Jan. 29, 2008, B194272) [nonpub. opn.].) The United States Supreme Court vacated our judgment and transferred the case back to us for reconsideration in light of its decision in Giles v. California (2008) 554 U.S._[ 171 L.Ed.2d 488 , 128 S.Ct.…