Gray

MEMORANDUM **

Jack Gray, a state prisoner, appeals the district court’s denial of his habeas corpus *757 petition filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 . A jury convicted Gray of first degree murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Gray contends that the trial court violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel in failing to grant his request for a new attorney to represent him for his motion for a new trial involving allegations of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. We disagree and affirm.

I.

Gray was convicted of first degree murder for the killing of Gary Kuhns, a security guard at a freight yard in Paramount, California. On the night of the murder, Kuhns and a fellow security guard, Joseph Hensley, were on overnight duty at the yard. Both guards were seated in a panel truck when at approximately 4 a.m., the passenger window shattered and a large man wearing a ski mask shouted at them to get their hands up.

The attacker inserted the barrel of a pump shotgun through the broken window. Hensley testified that he saw, through the mask’s openings, the gunman’s eyes and a portion of his mouth. Fearful the attacker would shoot,…