PEOPLE v. COWAN
Filed 8/5/10
IN THE SUPREME
COURT OF CALIFORNIA
THE PEOPLE, )
)
Plaintiff
and Respondent, )
) S055415
v. )
)
ROBERT WESLEY COWAN, )
) Kern
County
Defendant
and Appellant. ) Super.
Ct. No. 059675A
__________________________________ )
STORY CONTINUE
FROM PART II….
Defendant argues in effect that the prosecutor caused Prospective Juror
No. 041853's tears by questioning her aggressively and cutting off her
responses. Although defendant's
interpretation of the record is plausible, there is another equally plausible
interpretation: Prospective Juror No.
041853's inability to finish her answers to the prosecutor's questions may well
have been due to a preexisting state of great emotional conflict. We note in this regard that Prospective Juror
No. 041853 indicated on her questionnaire that someone close to her had been
murdered. Under these circumstances, we
defer to the trial court's implied determination that the questioning was fair
and did not cause the substantial impairment.
Defendant argues that Prospective Juror No. 041853's voir dire responses suggested she could serve on the jury
and impose the death penalty. But
Prospective Juror No. 041853's â€
| Description | A Kern County jury found defendant Robert Wesley Cowan guilty of the first degree murders of Clifford and Alma Merck (Pen. Code, §§ 187, subd. (a), 189)[1] and found true the special circumstance allegations of multiple murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)) and murder during the commission of robbery and burglary (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(A), (G)).[2] As to both murders, the jury found that a principal had been armed with a firearm (§ 12022, subd. (a)(1)), and the court found that defendant had suffered a prior serious felony conviction (§ 667, subd. (a)). The jury was unable to reach a verdict on a murder count involving a third victim, Jewell Russell, resulting in a mistrial on that count. At the penalty phase of the trial, the jury returned verdicts of death for Alma's murder and life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for Clifford's murder. The trial court denied defendant's automatic application to modify the verdict (§ 190.4, subd. (e)) and imposed the death sentence with a one-year arming enhancement for Alma's murder, a consecutive sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus a one-year arming enhancement for Clifford's murder, and a five-year enhancement for the prior serious felony conviction. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) Court affirm the judgment. |
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