People v. Brooks CA1/1

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Brooks was charged by second amended information with conspiracy to commit premeditated murder (§§ 182, subd. (a)(1), 187, subd. (a)) (count 1); attempted murder of his son and Asala Odom—the mother of his son—on April 4, 2017 (id. §§ 187, subd. (a), 664, subd. (a)) (counts 2 & 3); and attempted murder of his son on April 17, 2017 (count 4). Count 4 also included a special allegation that Ibe was armed with a firearm (§ 12022, subd. (a)(1)). Ibe was charged by the same information. Ibe had a five-year old child with Brooks and was pregnant with another child of his at the time of the charged offenses. Odom testified at trial that she had applied for MediCal benefits in late 2016 and named Brooks as the father of her son who had been born in April. Alameda County subsequently sought child-support payments from Brooks. Brooks was upset and he believed the child was not his. After a DNA paternity test affirmed he was the father, Brooks’s attitude changed but his interest in his son stopped around March 2017. That same month, Brooks was ordered to pay $523 a month in child support. Brooks testified that he was initially resistant about being the…