In re Jenkins on Habeas Corpus CA2/1

BACKGROUND

I. Trial

In the evening of January 19, 2018, Brittneeh Williams drove to Jenkins’s apartment with her young daughter to allow the daughter to visit her father, Kayuan Mitchell, Jenkins’s current boyfriend. At the apartment, Williams and Mitchell got into a fight that resulted in Mitchell beating Williams and causing her to bleed from her forehead. Jenkins arrived in her car, with her young son by Mitchell in the backseat, and taunted Williams. Mitchell got into Jenkins’s car and they drove away but Williams, who had by now called her sister, Sade Williams, gave chase, sometimes driving erratically. Mitchell instructed Jenkins to pull into a gas station, where Williams followed. Williams left her car, approached Jenkins’s car, and shouted at Jenkins and possibly punched her through the open window. Mitchell exited Jenkins’s car and tried to restrain Williams but had difficulty doing so, in part because Jenkins taunted Williams from her car. Sade Williams arrived, and after back-and-forth scuffles between Mitchell and Williams, Jenkins exited her car with a large kitchen knife and stabbed Williams, killing her. Jenkins was charged with murder. (Pen. Code, § 187).1 A.…