People v. Wong CA1/1

I. BACKGROUND

Defendant was charged in an information, filed May 20, 2010, with two counts of murder. (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a).) With respect to both, it was alleged defendant personally and intentionally discharged a firearm, causing great bodily injury. (Pen. Code, §§ 12022.7, subd. (a), 12022.53, subds. (b), (c), (d), (g).) Special circumstances were alleged on the basis of the multiple murders. (Pen. Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(3).) David Wells, a food delivery driver, was found dead in his van about 8:00 a.m. on July 31, 2008. He had been shot twice in the left side of his face and head. Cash was scattered inside the van near the body. The van was parked, engine running, in a lot next to a soccer field in Alameda, along a route Wells frequently traveled early in the morning to make deliveries at the South Shore Safeway in Alameda. A passing police officer had seen Wells’s van in the lot earlier that day, about 4:15 a.m. The dome light was on, and a person sat inside, reading. Wells had long conducted a side business as a bookie among people he knew through his work and social activities. Among his biggest customers was a group of employees at the South Shore Safeway. Quang…