People v. Mendez CA4/2

INTRODUCTION

Defendant David Mendez and his cohort, Jorge Esteban Cisneros, entered a check-

cashing business where Cisneros shot the clerk in the chest while defendant seized $600

from the cash drawers as the victim lay dying. Security cameras recorded the

coordinated attack. Defendant claimed Cisneros forced him to participate by threatening

him at gunpoint.

The jury rejected the defense of duress and convicted defendant of premeditated

murder and second degree robbery. (Pen. Code, §§ 187, subd. (a), and 211.)1 The jury

also found true, with respect to both counts, that a principal was armed with a firearm

within the meaning of section 12022, subdivision (a)(l), and, with respect to count 1, that

the murder was committed while engaged in the commission of a robbery within the

meaning of section 190.2, subdivision (a)(17). The court sentenced defendant to life in

prison without the possibility of parole.

On appeal, the People agree with defendant’s argument that the trial court failed to

instruct the jury properly, based on CALCRIM No. 703, on the elements of the special

circumstance that defendant committed the murder while engaged in the commission of…