RICHARD LACY LETNER and
CHRISTOPHER ALLAN TOBIN
Filed 7/29/10
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF
THE PEOPLE, )
)
Plaintiff
and Respondent, )
) S015384
v. )
)
RICHARD LACY LETNER and )
CHRISTOPHER
ALLAN TOBIN, )
) Tulare
County
Defendants
and Appellants. ) Super.
Ct. No. 26592
__________________________________ )
Story continued from part I…..
a. Incidents
Involving Both Defendants
David Bendowski
testified that he knew defendants when he lived in Napa
in 1978 and 1979. Bendowski
dated Tobin's ex-girlfriend for a period of time. Bendowski and his
sister, Julie Bryant, testified that approximately in June of 1978, defendants
appeared at Bendowski's residence and entered by
force. They confronted Bendowski in the hallway, and Tobin kicked Bendowski in the face, bloodying his nose. Tobin told Bendowski
he was angry that Bendowski had been dating Tobin's
ex-girlfriend.
Several months later, defendants,
accompanied by Letner's brother John, returned to Bendowski's residence.
John Letner asked Bendowski
to come outside to talk, and promised there would be no trouble. When Bendowski went
outside, however, defendants threatened to beat him up if he did not get into
their car. Bendowski
entered the vehicle, and Letner drove them out of
town. Defendants demanded that Bendowski pay them for his dates with Tobin's
ex-girlfriend. Tobin told Bendowski that â€
| Description | Defendants Richard Lacy Letner and Christopher Allan Tobin were convicted of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187),[1] burglary (§ 459), robbery (§§ 211, 212.5), attempted rape (§§ 664, 261, subd. (2)), and theft of an automobile (Veh. Code, § 10851, subd. (a)), arising from the murder of Ivon Pontbriant in her home in Visalia, California on March 1, 1988. As to each defendant, the jury found true three special circumstance allegations -- that the murder was committed in the course of the burglary, attempted rape, and robbery (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(A), (C), (G)) -- and returned a verdict of death. The trial court, having denied defendants' motions for new trial and the automatic applications to modify the verdicts (§ 190.4, subd. (e)), sentenced defendants to death and to consecutive prison terms of six years eight months for the noncapital offenses. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment as to each defendant in its entirety. |
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