People v. McDaniels CA1/1

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL

BACKGROUND

McDaniels was tried in the summer of 2019 with Julian Ambrose, another participant in the gun battle. Ambrose, who was 16 years old at the time of the murder and testified in his own defense, reached a plea agreement with the prosecution after the prosecutor presented his initial closing argument. Four other participants—Anthony Sims, Alex Davis, Michael Stills, Jr., and Jerry Harbin—were tried together for murder in 2017, and this panel affirmed the convictions of Sims, Davis, and Stills in two previous opinions. (People v. Sims (Sept. 4, 2020, A155339) [nonpub. opn.] (Sims); People v. Davis (Mar. 27, 2019, A152259 & A153136) [nonpub. opn.] (Davis).)

1 “After the jury indicated it was deadlocked on the murder charge against Harbin, he pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, and he was sentenced to 13 years in prison in July 2017. Davis and Stills were convicted of second degree murder and various firearm enhancements, and later that year they were sentenced, respectively, to 40 years to life in prison and 16 years to life in prison.” (Sims, supra, A155339.) Sims was also convicted of second degree murder but “was not sentenced until…