People v. Hasley CA5

INTRODUCTION

On July 15, 2022, a jury convicted defendant Gerrell Hasley, Jr., of, among other offenses, the first degree murder (Pen. Code, §§ 187, subd. (a), 189; count 1) and aggravated kidnapping (§ 209, subd. (b); count 3) of Moises Leon.1 (Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.) Subsequently, as to count 1, defendant was sentenced to an indeterminate term of 25 years to life, and as to count 3, he was sentenced to a consecutive indeterminate term of life with the possibility of parole after seven years. On appeal, defendant contends: (1) the trial court prejudicially erred when it denied his severance motion and allowed introduction of evidence that he “was in possession of another firearm, not the murder weapon, four days after the homicide” (capitalization omitted); (2) that “[a]side from the accomplice statements and testimonies, there is a lack of evidence connecting [him] with the murder itself or with the predicate felonies of robbery, kidnapping, and torture”; (3) the trial court prejudicially erred when it “improperly failed to instruct that the suspect witnesses were accomplices as a matter of law” and when it “instructed that [he] had the burden…