Farnam

Defendant Jack Gus Famam was convicted by a jury of one count of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)), one count of rape (§ 261), and one count of sodomy (§ 286). The jury found true the special circumstances that defendant committed the murder while engaged in burglary, robbery, rape, and sodomy (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)), and that defendant previously had been convicted of first degree murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(2)). After a penalty trial, the jury returned a verdict of death and the trial court imposed that sentence. Appeal to this court is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).)

We find no prejudicial error at the guilt or penalty phase of defendant’s trial, and affirm the judgment in its entirety.

I. Facts

A. The Guilt Phase

On November 19, 1982, Lillian Mar, a 55-year-old Asian widow, was brutally murdered in her home. The prosecution theorized that defendant, then 18 years old, used a knife to cut an opening in a locked screen door and thereby gained access to the downstairs living room through an open, adjacent, sliding glass door. He attacked Mrs. Mar in her upstairs bedroom, bludgeoning her head before raping and sodomizing her. Mrs. Mar then moved or was…