People v. Donahue CA2/5

I. INTRODUCTION

At trial, defendant Ronald Titus Donahue admitted that, during a murder-for-hire gone awry, he shot two people, killing one. On appeal from his murder conviction, he raises three claims of instructional error related to voluntary intoxication and also challenges the admission of preliminary hearing testimony. We affirm.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. The Shooting

In October 1982, Vaughn Stokoe was separated and living apart from his wife, Alice, and in a relationship with fellow postal worker Julia Crandell, the murder victim. Early in the investigation, detectives suspected that the crime was a murder for hire and that Alice and her brother Rami may have been involved. They also believed that the murder victim was not a target, but rather an “innocent bystander who was at the wrong place at the wrong time . . . .” According to defendant, an older acquaintance named “Beto” hired him to kill Stokoe in exchange for $5,000. When defendant agreed to kill Stokoe, Beto advised that he would supply the weapon and “do the driving.” Prior to the shootings, Beto drove defendant on a number of occasions to the area where Stokoe lived and showed him the specific street…