People v. King CA3

BACKGROUND

On December 9, 2012, defendant fatally shot his uncle, Willis Griffin, with a rifle.

1 The People’s theory was that defendant, who lived with his mother in a rural area, had been asked to leave, and his mother enlisted Griffin to help evict him. He had threatened to shoot Griffin the day before, and about a week before the killing threatened to beat Griffin because he thought Griffin was seeing defendant’s ex-girlfriend. When Griffin arrived at the residence on the day of the murder, defendant walked 75 feet from the residence towards him and shot him through the heart from 10 feet away. After the killing he had gunshot residue on his hand, hid the gun, and consistently denied shooting Griffin until his trial testimony. The defense theory was that Griffin--larger than defendant, and a drug-user with a violent past--arrived, asked if defendant was going to shoot him, then charged at defendant, who did not know whether the rifle he held was loaded. Defendant brought the rifle up and fired it accidentally. Defendant lied about the shooting because he was afraid. The People argued defendant’s claims of accident or self-defense should be rejected, because they were not…