Abel

A jury convicted defendant John Clyde Abel of the first degree murder of Armando Miller (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)), also finding he had personally used a firearm in the commission of the offense (id., § 12022.5, subd. (a)) and finding true the special circumstance that defendant had committed the murder during the course of a robbery (id., § 190.2, subd. (a)(17)). It imposed a sentence of death. We affirm the judgment.

I. FACTS

A. Introduction

Armando Miller’s family owned the Alameda Market in the City of Orange. Every Friday morning, Miller or his father withdrew either $10,000 or $20,000 from the Sunwest Bank in Tustin to provide check-cashing services to the market’s customers. On Friday, January 4, 1991, Miller withdrew $20,000. A few moments later, an unidentified man in the bank’s parking lot shot Miller once in the head, killing him. The man left, carrying a paper bag. The money was never recovered. Defendant was linked to the crime by the descriptions provided by witnesses who saw the man in the parking lot, the witnesses’ selection of defendant’s photograph out of photographic lineups, one witness’s in-court identification of defendant, and a second…