California v. Garcia
Annotate this CaseDefendants Samuel Navarro and Joseph Navarro are brothers. Defendant Eric Garcia is the brother of Lizbeth Robles, who is Samuel Navarro’s girlfriend; thus, Garcia is Samuel Navarro’s de facto brother-in-law. At one time, Garcia and Joseph Navarro were friends with Luis Arceo, who lived next door to Samuel Navarro. However, during a party at Arceo’s home, Arceo got into a fistfight with them. Garcia threatened to “get” Arceo. Meanwhile, Robles and/or Joseph Navarro, along with others, accosted one of the party guests. Either Robles or Joseph Navarro threw the first punch. After that, each of the three defendants was seen with a knife, and each was seen hitting or stabbing someone. By the time defendants left, three party guests had been stabbed. Two died; one survived. After a jury trial, Garcia and Joseph Navarro were found guilty on two counts of first degree murder and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. Samuel Navarro was also found guilty on two counts of first degree murder; in addition, however, solely as to him, a multiple-murder special circumstance was found true, and he was found guilty on one count of unpremeditated attempted murder. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, plus nine years. Both appealed, raising a number of errors they contended warranted reversal of their convictions. The State conceded that the contentions regarding pretrial actual custody credit and the parole revocation restitution fine were well-taken. The Court of Appeal modified the judgment accordingly. Otherwise, the Court found no prejudicial error.
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