People v. Price
Annotate this CasePrice, then age 20, Fells, and Brown participated in a robbery during which one of them shot and killed 22-year-old Merrill. The Contra Costa District Attorney entered into plea agreements with Fells and Brown that resulted in convictions for voluntary manslaughter and robbery and 15-year sentences. At Price’s trial, Fells testified with immunity. The jury convicted Price of robbery and first-degree murder and found a robbery-murder special-circumstance, but rejected allegations that Price personally discharged a gun. The court sentenced Price to life without parole as required by Penal Code section 190.2. The court of appeal affirmed, rejecting an argument that the state, by representing that her co-defendants committed voluntary manslaughter and prosecuting Price for murder, adopted versions of the law and facts that were irreconcilable and deprived Price of due process. Assuming that the prosecution’s factual contentions contained inconsistencies, they were justified in light of evidence available when they were made. The court also rejected arguments that: the prosecutor should not have been permitted to pursue an uncharged conspiracy theory; the instruction on robbery-murder special circumstance was unconstitutionally vague; the instruction on flight as a basis for inferring consciousness of guilt was inconsistent with the statute and lightened the prosecution’s burden of proof; and the prosecutor vouched for Fells.
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