People v. Salazar
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of first degree murder with personal use of a firearm and sentenced to death. Defendant admitted the truth of a special circumstance allegation that he had a prior murder conviction. Defendant was seventeen-years-old when he committed the prior murder, but was tried and convicted as an adult. The court concluded that when a murder committed by a juvenile results in an adult criminal conviction, there is no legal proscription against the use of that conviction as a special circumstance if the defendant murders a second victim after reaching the age of majority. In this case, defendant‘s argument fails to distinguish sufficiently between the permissible use of his prior juvenile murder as an aggravating circumstance and its allegedly improper use as a special circumstance. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
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