California v. Dominguez
Annotate this CaseDefendants Luis Dominguez and Abraham Torres shot and killed Angel Sanabria and wounded Joseph Luna. They missed two others (Juan Coronado and Alberto Nava), who were in or near the same small enclosed area. All four victims were members or associates of the Eastside San Diego gang. Defendants were charged with the first degree murder of Sanabria and the premeditated attempted murder of Luna, Coronado, and Nava. Defendants were not gang members, but were admittedly part of a neighborhood “tagging crew” that had conflicts with the Eastside gang. Defendants admitted they were the shooters; the issue was their state of mind. Each testified he fired in a panic and fear when, while about eight feet away from them, Sanabria asked them where they were from, “This is Eastside,” and lunged at them while reaching for an apparent weapon in his waistband. The court instructed the jury on both self-defense and voluntary manslaughter based on imperfect self-defense. But it refused Defendants’ request to instruct on voluntary manslaughter based on heat-of-passion, determining there was insufficient evidence of the requisite provocation. Along with making true findings on certain gun enhancements, the jury convicted Defendants of second degree murder as to Sanabria and attempted murder as to Luna and Coronado. It found allegations that the attempted murders were premeditated to be "not true." It also acquitted Defendants of: (1) first degree murder as to Sanabria; and (2) both attempted murder and attempted voluntary manslaughter as to Nava. The court sentenced Dominguez to a prison term of 16 years, plus 65 years to life and Torres to 17 years, plus 65 years to life. On appeal, Defendants contended the trial court erroneously refused their request to instruct on voluntary manslaughter based on heat of passion. Additionally, they claimed that in light of California v. Canizales, 7 Cal.5th 591 (2019) (which was decided after trial), the court gave an erroneous “kill zone” instruction on the element of intent to kill for attempted murder. They further claimed the evidence was insufficient to support their convictions on that theory. The Court of Appeal concluded the trial court erroneously refused to instruct on voluntary manslaughter based on heat of passion. On the attempted murder convictions, the Attorney General conceded that “the trial court’s kill zone instruction was prejudicially erroneous” under Canizales. Judgments were reversed and the cases remanded for a new trial on the reversed convictions.
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