Combs

A jury convicted defendant Michael Stephen Combs of the first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187) 1 of Janine Lee. The jury found true special circumstance allegations of lying in wait (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(15)) and robbery murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)). It also found true an allegation that defendant committed the murder while released from custody on his own recognizance in an unrelated case (§ 12022.1). After a penalty trial, the jury returned a *828 verdict of death, and the trial court imposed that sentence. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

I. Facts

A. Guilt Phase

1. The Prosecution’s Case

a. Introduction

On October 24, 1990, defendant asked the victim, Janine Lee, to drive him and Cynthia Purcell to Calico Ghost Town in San Bernardino County. 2 Before giving them a ride, Janine came home to change her clothes and then left in her car. Janine’s father, Richard Lee, never saw her again.

The next morning, Richard Lee received a telephone call from a store in Lake Elsinore. Someone had tried to cash a check written on his and Janine’s joint checking account. That evening, the police found Janine’s body in a remote…

I agree with the majority, except for its summary rejection of defendant’s claim that the lying-in-wait special circumstance (Pen. Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(15)) does not adequately distinguish between cases in which the death penalty is appropriate and those in which it is not, a function required by the Eighth Amendment to the federal Constitution. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 868.) In previous decisions, I have expressed a “growing concern” that in expansively construing the scope of the lying-in-wait special circumstance, this court’s decisions “may have undermined the critical narrowing function of the lying-in-wait special circumstance: to separate defendants whose acts warrant the death penalty from those defendants who are ‘merely’ guilty of first degree murder.” (People v. Ceja (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1134, 1147 [ 17 Cal.Rptr.2d 375 , 847 P.2d 55 ] (conc. opn. of Kennard, J.); see also People v. Hillhouse (2002) 27 Cal.4th 469, 512 [ 117 Cal.Rptr.2d 45 , 40 P.3d 754 ] (conc. opn. of Kennard, J.).) Recently, a federal circuit judge concluded, albeit in dissent, that California’s lying-in-wait special circumstance is so broad that it violates the Eighth Amendment. (Morales v. Woodford…

A jury convicted defendant Michael Stephen Combs of the first degree murder (Pen.Code, § 187) [1] of Janine Lee. The jury found true special circumstance allegations of lying in wait (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(15)) and robbery murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)). It also found true an allegation that defendant committed the murder while released from custody on his own recognizance in an unrelated case (§ 12022.1). After a penalty trial, the jury returned a verdict of death, and the trial court imposed that sentence. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

On October 24, 1990, defendant asked the victim, Janine Lee, to drive him and Cynthia Purcell to Calico Ghost Town in San Bernardino County. [2] Before giving them a ride, Janine came home to change her clothes and then left in her car. Janine's father, Richard Lee, never saw her again.

The next morning, Richard Lee received a telephone call from a store in Lake Elsinore. Someone had tried to cash a check written on his and Janine's joint checking account. That evening, the police found Janine's body in a remote canyon area near Calico Ghost Town.

A week after Janine's death, the…