Owens

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY2

On August 8, 1997, appellant and three other men committed a robbery at the Vandenberg Federal Credit Union in Lompoc. All four men used firearms. One of appellant’s accomplices, Bowen, took about $12,000 from the teller drawers of two tellers. Another accomplice, Adams, removed $200 from the hand of a third teller. Appellant, displaying a .38 caliber firearm, entered the office of a bank credit counselor and ordered her and a customer to get on the floor. When they failed to respond, appellant cocked his pistol and repeated his demand. The credit counselor and customer then complied with his demand. Moments later, one of appellant’s accomplices, Mitchell, shot a man in the leg as he entered the bank. Mitchell then fatally shot Christine O. in the back as she attempted to run from the bank towards her parked car where her 11-year-old son was waiting. After the shootings, appellant and his accomplices ran out of the credit union. As they ran past Christine O.’s body on the sidewalk, Bowen stooped down and took her handbag. The four men fled. A month later appellant turned himself in to the police and confessed.

2 We granted appellant’s request for…