People v. Hernandez CA5

INTRODUCTION

Sometime after midnight on May 8, 2006, a gunman entered James Rodriguez’s (James) apartment and fired multiple shots killing James and his girlfriend, Nicole Allen (Nicole), and critically wounding James’s brother, Joseph Rodriguez (Joseph).1 About

1 Given the multiple parties with the same last names, we will refer to certain people by their first names for ease of reference; no disrespect is intended. one week later, the family of appellant/defendant Martin Villalobos Hernandez spoke to the police and revealed that defendant admitted he shot the victims, based on his erroneous belief that the victims were responsible for the disappearance of his mother’s Chihuahua dog. Defendant disappeared for two years. In 2008, he was arrested in Mexico and brought back to Fresno County for trial. After a jury trial, defendant was convicted as charged of counts I and II, the first degree murders of James and Nicole (Pen. Code,2 § 187, subd. (a)); count III, attempted premeditated murder of Joseph (§§ 664, subd. (a)/187, subd. (a)); and count IV, assault with a firearm on Joseph (§ 245, subd. (a)(2)), with the special allegation he personally used a firearm (§ 12022.5, subd.…