People v. Romansky CA2/7

INTRODUCTION

Defendant and appellant Jerry Lee Romansky appeals from his second-degree murder conviction (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a))1 after a jury found he fatally stabbed his roommate at Pacifica Hospital of the Valley (Pacifica).2 Romansky contends the trial court erred when it did not instruct the jury sua sponte on imperfect self-defense and voluntary manslaughter. Specifically, he argues the trial court should have modified its jury instruction on hallucinations (CALCRIM No. 627) to inform the jury that it could consider the delusions he suffered at the time he killed his roommate to find that he acted in imperfect self-defense; a finding that would have reduced the homicide from second- degree murder to voluntary manslaughter. He urges us not to follow People v. Mejia- Lenares (2006) 135 Cal.App.4th 1437 (Mejia-Lenares), in which the Fifth District held that imperfect self-defense cannot be based on an insane delusion alone, where the defendant’s unreasonable belief that he faces an imminent threat of death or bodily injury finds no basis in the objective facts or circumstances surrounding the killing. (Id. at p. 1461.) While this appeal was pending, the California…