Brown

INTRODUCTION

Appellant/defendant Eddie Alfonso Brown (defendant) was charged with and convicted of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)) in the homicide of his former girlfriend, Bridget Colmore (Bridget). 1 Bridget disappeared on September 11, 2001. She was last seen entering defendant’s apartment. Her body was found one month later, buried in a cornfield. Defendant admitted to his half sister that he strangled Bridget, but claimed he had to defend himself because she attacked him with a hammer. At trial, *1225 defendant again claimed Bridget attacked him with a hammer, but asserted that she died accidentally when he pushed her away and she flipped over a couch.

During trial, the superior court granted the prosecution’s motion to introduce evidence about the prior acts of domestic violence that defendant committed against Bridget and against four other girlfriends in the years prior to his relationship with Bridget. In so ruling, the court relied on Evidence Code 2 section 1109, subdivision (a)(1), which states that “in a criminal action in which the defendant is accused of an offense involving domestic violence, evidence of the defendant’s commission of…