PEOPLE v. COOK III PART - I
Trial court did not abuse discretion in denying severance motion of defendant facing three murder charges. The were offenses of same class of crimes. None of the cases was especially weak because defendant admitted to shooting one of the victims and there was strong eyewitness evidence as to the other victims. None of the three killings, all of which were committed for seemingly trivial reasons and involved excessive force, was especially likely to inflame jury's passions and joining murder charge for beating victim to charges for shooting victims, which sufficed to support multiple-murder special circumstance, did not expand defendant's death penalty liability.
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