Watkins

In July 1990, defendant Paul Sodoa Watkins shot and killed Raymond Shield. A jury convicted defendant of the first degree murder of Shield (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)), and found true the special circumstance allegation that defendant did so while in the commission of an attempted robbery. (Pen. Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(A).) The jury further found defendant guilty of second degree attempted robbery of Shield (§§ 211, 213, subd. (a)(2)), and it found defendant guilty of three other second degree robberies of four other victims. After a separate penalty phase trial, the jury fixed the penalty for defendant at death. The trial court denied defendant’s motions for a new trial and to modify the verdict, and then imposed sentence—prison terms for the robberies, and death for the murder. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

I. Facts

A. Prosecution evidence

At approximately 3:30 a.m. on July 17, 1990, defendant, then 21 years of age, and his younger cousin, Lucien Martin, then 18 years of age (see ante, fn. 3), approached Anthony Orosco and his friend Juan Gallegos, who were seated in the cab of Orosco’s black Nissan…