Staten

This is an automatic appeal (Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b)) from a judgment of death under the 1978 death penalty law (id., § 190 et seq.).

On April 9, 1991, the District Attorney of Los Angeles County filed an information against Deondre Arthur Staten in the superior court of that county. The information charged that between October 12 and October 13, 1990, defendant murdered Arthur Staten, his father, and Faye Staten, his mother. (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a).) It was alleged for death eligibility that he did so under the special circumstances of (1) killing for financial gain and (2) multiple murder. (Id., § 190.2, subd. (a)(1), (3).) It was further alleged that, in murdering his father, defendant personally used a firearm within the meaning of Penal Code section 12022.5, and that, in murdering his mother, he personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, to wit, a knife (id., § 12022, subd. (b)).

Defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied the allegations. Trial was by jury. The panel returned a verdict finding defendant guilty as charged of the murders of his father and mother and fixed the degree at the first. It found true the accompanying allegations of…