People v. Bates CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Murder On March 4, 2006, at approximately 1:15 a.m., Jennifer Parsons (Parsons) was driving to her mother’s house with defendant, who was then her boyfriend. She and defendant had used crack cocaine earlier that night. The car Parsons was driving was nearly out of gas, but she did not have any money to refill the tank. She pulled into a gas station she was familiar with and told defendant she was going to ask the attendant, who she knew, if he would give her a small amount of gas so she could reach her mother’s house. After the attendant refused to give Parsons the gas, she went back to the car and told defendant they needed to see if they could find someone to ask for change. Parsons was successful in obtaining funds to pay for some gas, but when she returned to her car, defendant was gone. As she was pumping the gas, Parsons saw defendant running across nearby streets and saw a minivan driving along a similar route,

1 Undesignated statutory references that follow are to the Penal Code.

2 stopping and starting as if the driver were looking for someone. Defendant ultimately returned to the gas station and jumped into the back seat of the car Parsons was…