Mejorado

Filed 1/3/

CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

THE PEOPLE, B308926

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. TA079230) v.

ERNESTO MEJORADO,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles. Ronald S. Coen, Judge. Reversed and remanded with directions.

Jean Ballantine, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Assistant Attorney General, Idan Ivri and Thomas C. Hsieh, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

_______________________________

SUMMARY

Defendant Ernesto Mejorado is serving three terms of life without parole, plus more for various enhancements, after a jury convicted him in 2009 of the first degree murder of Raymundo Flores, and of the later first degree murders of two other victims. Only the Flores murder conviction is at issue in this appeal. The jury found true the special circumstance allegation that defendant committed the Flores…