People v. Martinez CA2/3

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

1. The crimes, conviction, and appeal As the facts of Martinez’s crimes are irrelevant to our analysis, we summarize them only briefly.2 On the evening of July 22, 2001 a woman who was in her backyard in Downey heard two gunshots. She peered into the alley behind her yard and saw two men “ ‘casually’ ” walking away from a two-door car stopped in the alley. She called the police. A responding officer found the bodies of Rudy Estrada and his wife or girlfriend Gabrielle Almaraz in the driver’s and front passenger seats of the car. Each victim had been shot once

References to statutes are to the Penal Code. We previously granted Martinez’s request that we take judicial notice of “the entire record[ ]” in his direct appeal and the related habeas proceeding, People v. Martinez (Mar. 29, 2004, B164263, B171001) [nonpub. opn.] (Martinez I). As the truth of the facts of the crimes recited in Martinez I are not necessary for our resolution of this appeal, we summarize them only for the basis of Martinez’s conviction. (See People v. Woodell (1998) 17 Cal.4th 448, 459-460.)

2 in the head at the left ear. Estrada had been shot at point blank…