Ayala

Discussion. ** Retired Judge of the Imperial Superior Court, assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant to article VI, section 6 of the California Constitution. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, A. Natasha Cortina and Christine Levingston Bergman, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

A jury convicted Gabriela T. Rangel Ayala 1 and Raymundo Ortega

Ramirez (together defendants) of murdering Samuel G. (Pen. Code, 2 § 187, subd. (a)), also finding true the special circumstance allegations that defendants killed Samuel while lying in wait (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(15)) and that the murder involved the infliction of torture (id. at subd. (a)(18)). The trial court sentenced Ayala to prison for life without the possibility of parole, and Ramirez to prison for life without the possibility of parole, plus 10 years. The key witness for the prosecution was Breanna S., but she did not testify at trial. Instead, the jury heard only a reading of her testimony from the preliminary hearing years earlier. Defendants collectively maintain the court violated their right to confrontation by…