Becerra

Defendant Frank Kalil Becerra was convicted by jury of the first degree murders of James Harding and Herman Jackson, with the special circumstance of multiple murders. He was also convicted of first degree burglary with use of a knife and assault causing great bodily injury on George McPherson. The jury returned a verdict of death, which the court imposed, along with seven years in prison for the first degree burglary and enhancement. The assault sentence was stayed.

In this automatic appeal, defendant contends the trial court erroneously terminated his right to self-representation in violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution. (See Faretta v. California (1975) 422 U.S. 806, 807, 835 [ 45 L.Ed.2d 562 , 95 S.Ct. 2525 ] (Faretta).) We agree. The court’s rationale, that defendant had been “dilatory” and had been “stalling,” is not supported by the record. Faretta and its progeny require reversal of the judgment in its entirety.

I. BACKGROUND

On December 28, 1994, Harding and Jackson were found bound to each other and strangled to death with electrical cords in Harding’s room at the Pacific Grand Hotel, a residential hotel in downtown Los…