People v. Washington CA4/2

BACKGROUND

The facts of the offense are taken from our opinion on direct appeal in People v.

Washington, E062698 (August 5, 2016, nonpub. opn.), supplementing where needed with

current information.

A. The First Robbery

At around 9:30 p.m. on November 29, 2013, defendant and another man entered

Goody’s Food Store in Riverside wearing masks and gloves. One was wearing a

“skeleton mask” and the other was wearing a black mask. 1 Their faces were mostly

Although one witness identified the second mask as “red”, the other witnesses called it “black,” as confirmed by a review of surveillance footage. The evidence supported the identification of defendant as the black-masked robber, as explained below.

2 covered. Two customers, Justin and James Foster,2 storeowner Kahlid Ramahi, and

employee Jose Cruz were in the store at the time.

The black-masked robber pointed a gun at Justin and told him to get on the floor.

Both Justin and James were scared and got on the floor. Justin gave the robber a money

clip and James gave him his wallet. Justin only saw one robber, but James saw two.

The skeleton-masked robber then pushed Ramahi to the cash register and told

Ramahi to give…