Colleen Mary Rohan v. Jill Brown

INTRODUCTION

14 In 1981, Oscar Gates was convicted, inter alia, of first-degree murder accompanied by the 15 robbery-murder special circumstance and received a death sentence, all affirmed on appeal. 16 People v. Gates, 43 Cal.3d 1168, 1176 (1987). He now seeks a writ of habeas corpus and, in 17 support of that effort, requests an evidentiary hearing on several claims presented in his petition. 18 This order grants an evidentiary hearing on some of those claims.

STATEMENT

20 The pertinent facts underlying petitioner’s conviction and sentence have been previously 21 summarized and are repeated here as follows:

On December 10, 1979, Maurice Stevenson and his uncle, Lonnie Stevenson, waxed his car in front of Maurice’s grandfather’s house in Oakland at about 3:30 p.m. Petitioner appeared, holding a gun with the hammer cocked. Petitioner herded Maurice and Lonnie to the side of the house and ordered them to put their hands on 25 the wall, empty their pockets, and remove their jewelry. After Maurice and Lonnie complied, petitioner frisked them, then asked Maurice as to the whereabouts of Maurice’s father, James Stevenson. Maurice…