California v. Cook
Annotate this CaseDefendant-appellant Victoria Cook pled guilty to the misdemeanor offense of driving with a suspended license. A jury convicted defendant of three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter for the respective deaths of Zaria Williams, Christine Giambra, and Cedric Page.1 The jury additionally found true three allegations attached to the count 1 offense that defendant had personally inflicted great bodily injury upon Giambra, Page, and Robert Valentine. The court sentenced defendant to an aggregate term of incarceration of nine years, eight months, striking punishment for the enhancements as to Giambra and Page, but imposing a three-year consecutive term for the enhancement as to Valentine. On appeal, defendant argued: (1) the court erred in excluding evidence of the victims' propensity for reckless driving as a potential defense of legal necessity; (2) the State committed prejudicial prosecutorial misconduct in alluding to the pristine driving records of the victims and witnesses; (3) the enhancements should have been reversed because the statute explicitly forbade its application to cases of manslaughter; and (4) the trial court abused its discretion by denying defendant's request for release of juror information. After review, the Court of Appeal reversed the true findings on enhancements. The Court affirmed in all other respects.
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