People v. Lane CA6

I. Background

In the morning on April 23, 2010, police responded to a report of a suspicious death at the St. Francis Motel in Santa Clara. They found the body of a white male “on the bed all bloody” in an upstairs room. There was “blood spatter, blood transfer, all over the room” and blood smears on the bathroom counter and light switch. A floor lamp by the door was broken, but the room had not been ransacked. The TV was on. There were several vodka bottles on the dresser, one of them unopened. A backpack in the middle of the floor contained a wallet, a checkbook, bank cards, and other items. The backpack was unzipped, and blood and an empty leather sheaf for a buck knife were found in one of the pockets. A bloody towel from the motel was found half a block away. The knife was never recovered. The victim was identified as Matthew Brettner. An autopsy determined that he had been stabbed in the neck with a “sharp force instrument” that the medical examiner believed severed an artery. Brettner also had two “slashing” or “slicing” wounds to his neck. His thyroid cartilage was fractured consistent with strangulation or attempted strangulation, although that was not the cause of…