People v. Molina CA2/4

BACKGROUND

The Stabbing Around 2 p.m. on February 21, 2012, at Normandie Park in Los Angeles, defendant stabbed Jose Perez to death. Both men were at the park with their young daughters.

1 Undesignated section references are to the Penal Code. 2 Before trial, defendant pled no contest to a separate charge of carjacking (§ 215, subd. (a)). 2 David Lopez, who was working in the maintenance shed at the park, heard a little girl outside crying, “Daddy, Daddy.” Lopez looked outside and saw two men, defendant and Perez, wrestling with each other in the sandbox of the playground. They worked their way to standing positions, and Lopez saw that defendant had a knife in his left hand. Perez was unarmed. Defendant repeatedly attempted to stab Perez (perhaps 20 or 30 times), and Perez defended himself by covering his face and grabbing at defendant’s knife hand. However, Perez lost his grip, and Lopez observed defendant stab Perez perhaps six times in the head, stomach, side and shoulder. The fight moved to another part of the sandbox and defendant continued to stab at Perez, who tried to block the knife. Perez never tried to strike defendant. Lopez went back inside the shed and told his…