People v. Gray CA3

BACKGROUND

Following a dispute with H.D. over money, defendant searched for H.D. for several days. (People v. Gray (Feb. 8, 2013, C064105) [nonpub. opn.] (Gray II).) Regarding H.D., defendant told a mutual acquaintance, “ ‘I want my money’ ” or “ ‘I am going to kill him.’ ” (Ibid.) He repeated this threat on multiple occasions and stabbed H.D. to death with a pair of scissors. The acquaintance saw defendant take scissors, hold them over H.D.’s head and say, “ ‘ “I told you I was going to kill you.” ’ ” (Ibid.) Additional neighbors saw defendant “sitting on top of [H.D.] stabbing him ‘too many’ times to count” and saw that H.D. was face down on the ground, trying to escape. (Ibid.) Defendant threatened others who attempted to intervene. “An autopsy showed [H.D.] had been stabbed 49 times on his head, chest, arm, back, and eyes.” (Ibid.) In defense, defendant “claimed he had been attacked a few days or weeks before the stabbing, possibly by [H.D.], and also that he killed [H.D.] in self-defense.” (Ibid.) Defendant was charged with murder with malice aforethought. (§ 187, subd. (a).) It was further alleged that defendant had personally used a deadly weapon (i.e., scissors) to commit…