P. v. Hill
Defendant was found guilty by jury trial of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187);[1] special circumstances allegations that the murder occurred during the commission of attempted robbery and burglary or attempted burglary (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(A) & (G)) were found true. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.[2] Defendant raises two issues on appeal: (1) that the trial court erred in admitting his statement to the police, as it was involuntary; and (2) that the trial court committed reversible error in failing to instruct upon the required elements for felony murder special circumstances if the jury determined that defendant was not the actual killer (those elements being that he either had the intent to kill, or that he was a major participant in the underlying felony and acted with reckless indifference to human life). The trial court’s determination that defendant’s statement was voluntary was not error. While we accept the concession of the Attorney General that the trial court erred in omitting the referenced elements of the felony murder special circumstances from its instructions to the jury, we find the error to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. (Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18 (Chapman).) Accordingly, we affirm.
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