People v. Grays
Annotate this CaseIn 2011, Grays was charged for the first-degree murder of Brown with the use of a firearm; being a felon in possession of a firearm, and receiving stolen property. In 2013, a jury acquitted Grays of first-degree murder, convicted him of the lesser-included offense of second-degree murder and found true the firearm allegation, convicted him of being a felon in possession, and acquitted him of receiving stolen property. The court sentenced him to prison for 40 years to life. The court of appeal affirmed. While the court too narrowly defined “residence” and erred in refusing to instruct the jury under Penal Code 198.5, which provides that a person using force within his residence against a person who forcibly entered the residence shall be presumed to have held a reasonable fear of injury to self or another, but found the error harmless. While a reasonable jury could have found that the apartment was Grays’ residence, it could not have concluded that he was in that residence at the time of the shooting. The court rejected claims concerning an instruction about the unavailability of self-defense for a person who provoked the fight; excluding certain defense exhibits; and excluding evidence of the victim’s prior acts.
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