People v. Elias CA2/3

BACKGROUND

I. The prosecution’s case

A. Wendy C.’s testimony At Elias’s trial for Ahumada’s murder, Wendy C. was the prosecution’s main witness, and she testified under a grant of immunity. According to Wendy, she and Ahumada had met just a few months before March 2018 and would occasionally get together to drink and smoke marijuana. Although Ahumada wanted to be more than friends, Wendy refused. On the evening of March 5, 2018, Ahumada asked Wendy if she wanted to hang out. Wendy agreed but asked if her friend Elias could come with them, even though Elias and Ahumada had never met. Wendy had known Elias for about a year, and although she said they had

1 It is unclear if defendant’s surname is Cruz Elias or Elias. We refer to defendant as Elias, intending no disrespect.

2 not been intimate, she also testified that they had been intimate “[o]nly a little bit.” Ahumada picked up Wendy and Elias in his car.2 Wendy sat in the front passenger seat, and Elias sat in the backseat. After buying beer, they went to Ahumada’s “connect’s house” where he bought cocaine. Then they went to “the view,” a place off of Pearblossom Highway in the mountains where they parked on a dirt road.…