People v. Humes CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendants and appellants Lawrence Livingston Humes and Michael Guy were

tried together before separate juries and convicted of robbing two store clerks at a

Murrieta CVS store on May 5, 2009. (Pen. Code, § 211, counts 2 & 3.)1 Humes was

also convicted of falsely imprisoning the clerks (§ 236, counts 4 & 5), and possessing a

firearm as a felon (former § 12021, subd. (a), count 6). The juries found each defendant

personally used a firearm in committing the crimes. (§§ 12022.53, subd. (b), counts 2 &

3, 12022.5, subd. (a), counts 4 & 5.)2

The prosecution presented “other crimes” evidence that defendants robbed three

employees of another CVS store in Encinitas on May 16, 2009 (the Encinitas robbery),

11 days after the Murrieta robbery. The juries heard Guy was convicted of the Encinitas

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

2 Humes was charged in count 1 with kidnapping for robbery (§ 209, subd. (b)(1)), but count 1 was dismissed after the court found insufficient evidence to support the charge and granted Humes’s motion for acquittal on the charge (§ 1118.1). In count 7, Guy was charged with possessing a…