People v. Huante CA3

BACKGROUND

In 2011, in retaliation for the Flores brothers robbing him of drugs, defendant and codefendant Vincent Rivera committed two separate shootings. First, mistaking Paul Amaro’s 1996 black Chevy Impala for Frankie Flores’s, defendant shot at the Amaro brothers and injured Paul. Then, a few weeks later, the Flores brothers were at a mall in Frankie’s Impala. Defendant and Rivera pulled up alongside them. Rivera had a gun. Rivera and defendant got out of their truck and, as the Flores brothers tried to leave, Rivera started shooting. Michael was shot twice, and Frankie was shot six times, including fatal shots to his lung and heart. In 2013, a jury found defendant and his codefendant, Vincent Rivera, guilty of one count of first degree murder, three counts of attempted murder, and one count of shooting into an occupied motor vehicle. Defendant appealed. We affirmed the attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle convictions. However, we conditionally reversed the first degree murder conviction based on instructional error that permitted the jury to find uncharged conspiracy liability for first degree murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine. We…