People v. Scott CA4/2

FACTS

The People charged and tried appellant Javante Marquis Scott on three counts of

attempted willful, premeditated, and deliberate murder. (Pen. Code, §§ 664/187, subd.

(a), unlabeled statutory citations refer to this code.) The People also tried Scott for

personally and intentionally discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury or death

(§ 12022.53, subds. (d), (e)), inflicting great bodily injury and death on a person, not an

occupant of a motor vehicle, by discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle (§ 12022.55),

and acting for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in association with a criminal street

gang (§ 186.22, subd. (b)).

The trial court instructed the jury that to find Scott guilty of attempted murder it

would have to find “[t]he defendant took at least one direct but ineffective step toward

killing another person” and “intended to kill that person.” The trial court also instructed,

“If you find the defendant guilty of attempted murder under Counts 1, 2 and 3, you must

then decide whether the People have proved the additional allegation that the attempted

2 murder was done willfully, and with deliberation and premeditation. [¶] The…