People v. Turner CA3

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

The following evidence was presented to both juries, unless otherwise stated. Nessler shared a Stockton residence with the victim, Jeffrey Wheatley, and witness Drew Pyeatt. They all used drugs, and the victim sold methamphetamine from the house. Turner was Nessler’s friend and sometimes joined the residents with his friend, Allen “AJ” Periman (whose trial was severed and whose second-degree-murder

2 conviction we affirmed in a separate appeal (People v. Periman (Aug. 13, 2014, C071812) [nonpub. opn.]). Turner had been in the garage, where Pyeatt kept gasoline. In March 2010, the victim bragged to Nessler about having killed someone in 1994. Nessler told Turner, who probed for details and said it sounded like the circumstances surrounding the death of his own brother, William “Moose” Phillips, who had been shot in 1994. Pyeatt testified he “heard the talk around the house” about it. On the afternoon of April 6, 2010, Nessler warned Pyeatt it was not safe for him to be in the house. Turner phoned and told Pyeatt things were going to happen, and if Pyeatt said anything, he and his parents would be killed. Pyeatt warned the victim, who thought he could talk…