People v. Henslee CA2/6

FACTS

Appellant and victim Tyler Hanks were half brothers. One evening, Hanks jokingly told appellant he was fat and called him a "fag." Appellant stated, "I am going to whack him." He repeated this statement four or five times. Early the next morning, Hanks was bludgeoned with a baseball bat and stabbed 20 times in the head with a screwdriver. He died. Around 4:30 a.m., a guest staying in the garage, Steven Smith, heard a loud ruckus of trash cans being jumbled around in front of the house and saw appellant wheeling a green waste can towards the backyard. When Smith asked appellant what he was doing, appellant told him, "this doesn't concern you." Appellant told Smith that the backyard was "off limits." Around the same time, appellant mopped the living room floor even though he usually did not clean the house. The next day, the green waste can was no longer in the backyard. When appellant's mother's husband, Michael Coffin, asked him where it was, appellant told him, "No worries. I will get it back." The following evening, several neighbors heard a heavy trash can being moved towards and later away from a nearby preserve. It was several days before the garbage was…