D'Arcy

A jury found defendant Jonathan Daniel D’Arcy guilty of the first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187) of Karen Laborde and found true special circumstance allegations that the murder was intentional and involved the infliction of torture (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(18)) and was committed while defendant was engaged in the commission of mayhem in violation of section 203 (§ 190.2, former subd. (a)(17)(x), now subd. (a)(17)(J)).

The jury deadlocked at the penalty phase, and the trial court declared a mistrial. After retrial of the penalty phase, a different jury returned a verdict of death. The court denied defendant’s motion for new trial (§ 1181) and automatic application to modify the penalty verdict (§ 190.4, subd. (e)) and sentenced him to death. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).)

We affirm the judgment.

I. Facts and Proceedings

A. Prosecution Guilt Phase Case

1. Background

In 1992, Quintessence, a company located in Tustin, obtained contracts for providing janitorial services to various businesses and then sold the contracts to janitors who serviced the contracts as independent contractors. Quintessence collected payment from the businesses and then paid its…