Sumagang

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The police found Sumagang asleep in the back of a car in a remote rural area. Carole Sangco’s deceased body was lying on top of him. The police took Sumagang into custody and a detective subsequently interviewed him in two stages—first without warning him under Miranda, and then again after warning him. In both parts of the interview, he admitted choking Sangco until she stopped breathing or moving. He claimed she had asked him to kill her, and he said he had intended to kill himself as well. Sangco, who was 20 years old, suffered from depression and had previously expressed suicidal thoughts. Toxicology tests showed she had a “potentially toxic” level of drugs in her body at the time of death. The prosecution charged Sumagang with the willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder of Sangco. (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a).) The jury found him guilty as charged. The trial court sentenced him to a term of 25 years to life in state prison. The jury heard the following evidence: A. Discovery of the Car On the morning of November 30, 2014, the police responded to a hang-up 911 call from a remote rural area in Monterey County. A sheriff’s deputy found…