People v. Crew

• Decision Date: 07 August 2012
• Docket Number: E053522
• Parties: THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. ARRION LEE CREW, JR., Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.ARRION LEE CREW, JR., Defendant and Appellant.

E053522

COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION TWO

Dated: August 7, 2012

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for

publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication

or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

(Super.Ct.No. RIF139980)

OPINION

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Eric G. Helgesen, Judge. (Retired judge of the Tulare Super. Ct., assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant to art. VI, § 6 of the Cal. Const.) Modified and affirmed with directions.

Waldemar D. Halka, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Kelley Johnson, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Defendant and appellant Arrion Lee Crew, Jr., appeals his conviction on two counts of first degree murder with the special circumstance of multiple murder. We will affirm the judgment.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Defendant was charged with two counts of first degree murder (counts 1 & 2) and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon (count 3). (Pen. Code, §§ 187, subd. (a), former 12021, subd. (a)(1).)¹ The information alleged personal discharge of a firearm (§ 12022.53, subd. (d)) as to both murder counts, and alleged the special circumstance of multiple murder as to count 2 (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)). The prosecution did not seek the death penalty.

A jury convicted defendant on all three counts and found the special circumstance allegation and the firearm allegations true.

The court sentenced defendant to life without the possibility of parole for the multiple murder special circumstance, with consecutive terms of 25 years to life on both count 1 and count 2, plus consecutive terms of 25 years to life on counts 1 and 2 for the firearm discharge enhancements, and a concurrent term of three years on count 3.

Defendant filed a timely notice of appeal.

FACTS

Kimberly Harris, the victim in count 2, known as "Cozy," lived in Moreno Valley with her 18-year-old son Arthur and two younger sons. Her friend, Raquel Reliford Robinson, the victim in count 1, also lived with Harris.² All five were at home on the night of October 22, 2007. Two of Arthur's friends were spending the night as well. Harris's friend Ramona Williams, also known as "Bons" or "Bonswi," was also at the house. Harris, Robinson and Williams often got together to "party," drinking alcohol and using drugs, specifically "weed" and cocaine. Defendant, known as "E," was Harris and Robinson's drug dealer. Robinson regularly bought approximately $150 worth of drugs from him, and Harris regularly bought $80 worth of drugs from him.

Around 10:00 p.m., defendant and "some other guy" came to Harris's house. After the two men left, Harris and Robinson told Williams that "something went down" with defendant and defendant "ha[d] to bring them back some money." Williams later learned that Robinson had paid defendant $100 for some drugs, and defendant owed her $20 in change. Robinson had been drinking and was "all hyped up" and saying that defendant owed her $20. Robinson kept calling defendant and making unspecified threats, as well as telling him that she was going to get her husband and some other people to beat him up. Robinson kept calling defendant "cuz." Williams testified that she thought defendant might be a "Blood ex-gangbanger." If he was, calling him "cuz"would be insulting, because that is a term Crips use to refer to one another. She did not know whether defendant was a Blood, however.

Over the course of the evening, Robinson drank about a pint of cognac. She was intoxicated,³ and was very agitated about the $20 defendant owed her. Harris repeatedly tried to calm her down.

Around 4:00 a.m., Arthur was awakened by voices outside the house, near his bedroom. He looked out the window and saw his mother and Robinson standing on the driveway. Robinson was asking his mother for money, but his mother refused to give it to her. His mother went inside the house, while Robinson approached defendant, who was standing nearby, next to his white SUV. The conversation went on for a few minutes. At one point, defendant became upset and walked away while Robinson was still talking to him. Robinson grabbed defendant by the shoulder. He shrugged her off and said, "Bitch, get the fuck off me." He got into the SUV and drove away.

Around 6:00 a.m., defendant knocked at the outside door to Harris's bedroom. Williams answered the door and saw defendant and his girlfriend. Both were wearing "hoodies" with the hoods pulled up over their heads. Defendant said, "I thought you was coming to pick up this money," and that he had come to pay Robinson the $20. Harris told Williams to let them in.

Robinson and Williams were seated in chairs near Harris's bed, and Harris was lying on her bed with her feet at the head of the bed.⁴ Defendant asked why they were "blowing [his] phone up," meaning why were they calling him so much. Robinson replied, "I'm calling you for my money." Defendant said that he was going to bring it by, but that Robinson could have come to pick it up, or could have sent someone to pick it up. At that point, the conversation was "fine." Defendant was calm and was not disrespectful.

At some point during the conversation, Robinson jumped up and became confrontational, saying, "I just need you to pay my money, cuz." Williams jumped in between them and attempted to calm Robinson down. Harris also told Robinson to calm down. Defendant just stood there with his hands in his pockets. Robinson eventually sat back down.

Defendant asked Harris how she could allow Robinson to talk to him like that, "disrespecting" him in her home. Robinson jumped up again and charged toward defendant. Williams again inserted herself between them, putting a hand on each of their chests to keep them separated. She told defendant that Robinson was drunk, and asked him just to leave. But Robinson said, "He's not going nowhere. He still ain't paid me my money." She kept calling him "cuz" and threatening to "do this and that" to him. She kept trying to jump over Williams to get to defendant.

Harris kept telling Robinson to sit down, but Robinson would not listen. She became combative with Williams, and Williams had difficulty keeping her from defendant.⁵ Defendant backed away from them as far as he could, and Robinson lunged toward him, reaching toward him with her right hand. Her hand was open, but she had something in her left hand. Williams thought it was her cell phone. As Robinson reached toward defendant, defendant pulled two guns out of his pockets and shot Robinson "point blank." Williams heard about eight gunshots.

Williams was "surprised" when defendant pulled out the guns. She did not view the situation as "life or death," and she did not anticipate it at all.

Thinking that she herself had been shot, Williams fled. As she was leaving the room, she saw defendant approach Harris and say angrily, "You letting her talk to me like this in your house?" She then heard eight more gunshots. According to Williams, Harris never left her bed during the incident. Williams saw defendant and his girlfriend run out of the house, down the driveway and to the street.

Arthur was awakened by the gunshots. He heard four gunshots separated by a second or two. He opened his bedroom door and saw Williams running down the hall. He asked, "Is my mom shot?" Williams said she didn't know and told him to call 911. She then ran out the front door and disappeared.

Arthur entered his mother's bedroom and found both of them injured but apparently still alive. He called 911. When sheriff's deputies arrived, they found Robinson on the floor at the foot of the bed. Harris was face down on the bed with her feet at the head of the bed. She was bleeding from her ear, and there was a pool of blood on the bed. Paramedics arrived shortly thereafter and pronounced both women dead.

Three Winchester .45-caliber bullet casings were found near Robinson's body. All three were fired from the same gun. A pair of scissors was found close to Robinson's right hand, and a carpet knife or box cutter, in an open position, was found in or near Robinson's left hand. Robinson had two gunshot wounds, including a fatal wound to her chest and a wound to her abdomen. The bullets entered from the front of her body. The trajectories were consistent with Robinson leaning forward when she was shot. Harris had a gunshot wound to the head, apparently fired from close range, and a gunshot wound to her thigh.

Blood samples taken from both women during the autopsy tested positive for cocaine. Robinson's blood alcohol content was 0.22.

The day after the shooting (October 24, 2007), Shawn Sinclair, the manager of the apartment complex where defendant lived, noticed that defendant's door was standing open. He knocked but received no answer. He went inside and saw that the apartment appeared to have been "went through." He saw bullets on the floor and .45-caliber bullets on a table. Near the complex's Dumpster, he found a magazine that containednine Winchester .45-caliber rounds. He called the police and gave them the magazine. The rounds in the magazine matched the casings found in Harris's bedroom.

The next day (October 25, 2007), defendant's mother, Troylyn Gammage, came to defendant's apartment and took a box of ammunition that had a few rounds missing, as well as the .45-caliber rounds that Sinclair had seen on the table the day before.

On November 1, 2007, police arrested defendant and his girlfriend, Wanda Mitchell, on outstanding felony warrants unrelated to the homicides....