People v. Ubando CA1/1

BACKGROUND

Defendant was charged with murder in an information filed March 25, 2011. (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a).)1 The information alleged the special circumstances of murder by means of lying in wait (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(15)) and murder involving torture (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(18)).

1 All further unspecified statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise noted.

1 The victim, Ritchie Campued, was a coworker of defendant whose common law husband lived in the Philippines. She and defendant began a romantic relationship around the beginning of 2010. By June or July 2010, defendant had filed for divorce from his wife of 13 years, explaining to her that he was in love with Campued. Shortly before the killing in September 2010, Campued’s husband arrived for a two-week visit. Following his departure, during a telephone call late on the evening before the killing, Campued told defendant she did not want to see him anymore and “wanted to be with her husband and to be with her kids.” Defendant was angered by the call. At 1:00 a.m. that morning, shortly after the call, he drove to a Walmart and purchased a metal baseball bat.2 Defendant then drove to his wife’s house, where he…