People v. Rosales CA6

I. INTRODUCTION

Around 6:15 p.m. on a Saturday in July 2011, defendant Cesar Rosales committed a drive-by shooting in the parking lot of a Target shopping center, killing Gustavo Diaz Zargoza and wounding Zargoza’s cousin, Esparanza Salazar. Defendant was the passenger in a vehicle driven by fellow gang member Miguel Rodriguez, who testified against defendant at trial. A jury convicted defendant of special circumstances murder (Pen. Code, §§ 187, 190.2, subd. (a)(21), (22)),1 two counts of shooting from a motor vehicle (§ 12034, subd. (c)), assault with a deadly weapon (§ 245, subd. (a)(1)), and active participation in a criminal street gang (§ 186.22, subd. (a)). The jury also found various sentence

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated. enhancement allegations true. The trial court sentenced defendant to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) consecutive to 55 years to life. Defendant contends that insufficient evidence corroborates the accomplice testimony; the gang-murder special circumstance finding must be reversed because insufficient evidence corroborates the accomplice testimony that the murder was committed to…