People v. Dunn

• Court: California Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Corrigan, J.
• Citation: 572 P.3d 19,334 Cal.Rptr.3d 723
• Docket Number: S184521
• Decision Date: 24 July 2025
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Aaron Norman DUNN, Defendant and Appellant.
• topic: Civil Rights,Criminal procedure,Criminal Law,Employment Law,Public Sector Law

572 P.3d 183

334 Cal.Rptr.3d 723

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.Aaron Norman DUNN, Defendant and Appellant.

S184521

Supreme Court of California.

July 24, 2025

[572 P.3d 33]

Sacramento County Superior Court, 06F02731, Michael W. Sweet, Judge

Dennis C. Cusick, Sacramento, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.

Xavier Becerra and Rob Bonta, Attorneys General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Ronald S. Matthias, Assistant Attorney General, Sean M. McCoy and Kari Ricci Mueller, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Opinion of the Court by Corrigan, J.

High on methamphetamine and angry over the breakup of his marriage, defendant Aaron Norman Dunn sped down a busy Elk Grove street one Saturday evening and shot bystanders with a 12-gauge shotgun. He killed two men, injured two others, and engaged in a shootout with the police. He was convicted of two counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder, with a multiplemurder special circumstance and enhancements for the personal and intentional discharge of a firearm.¹ The jury fixed the penalty at death. The court denied defendant’s motions for new trial and modification of the death verdict. It stayed two additional sentences of life with parole plus determinate terms totaling 45 years to life in prison. We affirm the judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Guilt Phase

1. Prosecution Evidence

a. Defendant’s Depression and Escalating Drug Use

After defendant and his wife, Sara Pack, separated in August 2005, Pack and their young daughter went to live with Pack’s parents in Yuba City. Defendant began abusing methamphetamine. He lost his home and was fired from his job. He drifted around, sometimes sleeping in his car or motels, and eventually went to stay with his uncle, Ernie Palacio, in Olivehurst. Palacio had long used methamphetamine, and he supplied defendant with large amounts of the drug.

Defendant learned that Pack had been dating Brian Clauson and Keith Berry, who both lived in Elk Grove. Berry was a Stockton police officer. Defendant resented these relationships and complained to friends that “his wife was cheating on him with cops.” In late November 2005, defendant called Berry and confronted him about dating Pack, angrily asking if Berry knew the Hank Williams song “Roasting the Pig.” Around the same time, defendant also spoke on the phone with Clauson and implied that he knew where Clauson lived. Another time, while impersonating Pack in an online chat, defendant told Clauson, “You’d better kiss your babies goodnight.” Clauson understood the remark

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as a threat to his children and briefly stopped seeing Pack. They resumed their relationship, however, and on the night of the murders Pack was at his apartment.

On Saturday, March 25, 2006, defendant babysat his sister’s children, although he seemed to be under the influence of methamphetamine. He was distant and seemed anxious to leave. He called Pack, seeking access to the couple’s storage unit, but she refused. He went to his uncle’s home, where Palacio and some friends were having a barbecue. There, he injected a large amount of methamphetamine and began carrying around a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun that his friend Kevin Rhoades had stored in Palacio’s trailer. Defendant gave Rhoades the keys to a storage unit and said he could take anything inside, including a Mossberg shotgun that was stored there. Defendant took Rhoades’s Winchester and left the barbecue, saying he “had to go handle business.”

About 7:00 p.m., defendant left Olivehurst. He called his friend Brad Allen from the car, saying he was leaving town. He said Allen had “been a good friend” and asked him to tell his kids goodbye. He did not sound distressed or intoxicated. Before hanging up, he told Allen, “ ‘Just watch the news tonight.’ ” Next, defendant called his sister. He left a voicemail saying he loved her and had “loved everybody, always, to the end.” He made several other rambling phone calls to Pack during the drive. In one call, he said someone was “giving him weird looks” and people were speaking in code. In another, he said he’d been in a fight with two people, that there was “ ‘nothing left,’ ” and it was “too late” for them as a couple. He repeatedly asked to speak with their daughter, saying he wanted her to know he loved her and he hoped Pack would “ ‘find a good father figure for her.’ ” About 15 minutes later, he called again and said he’d just killed two or three “drug people” in Marysville. Pack urged him to turn himself in, but defendant responded, “ ‘It’s too late for all that.’ ” He told Pack, “You’re gonna have to live with this for the rest of your life.”

At 7:48 p.m., defendant left Pack a five-minute voicemail. In the message, which was played for the jury, defendant shouts “Woo!” as rock music plays in the background. His exclamation is followed by the sounds of a car crashing, sirens, and repeated gunshots.

b. Shooting of Michael Daly

Mike Daly and his extended family had spent the evening celebrating his mother’s birthday at a Chili’s restaurant in Elk Grove. Afterward, Mike got in his car and prepared to leave.² Mike drove, with his wife Roberta in the passenger seat and their two children, ages three and six, strapped into rear car seats.

It was 7:41 p.m., and traffic was fairly heavy as Mike waited to turn right from the parking lot onto Laguna Boulevard. Suddenly, there was a loud noise and the car filled with a strong smell of gunpowder. The driver’s side window was shattered. Mike slumped over the steering wheel, blood pouring from his head. He had been shot in the face. Roberta pulled the emergency brake to keep the car from rolling into traffic, then jumped from the car screaming for help. She had noticed nothing unusual before the shot was fired.

A patrol car pulled up behind the Dalys’ car. A community service officer with the Elk Grove Police Department had heard a loud “bang” while backing out of a parking stall and stopped to investigate. Roberta ran to the officer for assistance. Additional officers soon arrived, helped get the children out of the car, and secured the scene.

Meanwhile, others from the Daly family were still in the area. Mike’s 16-year-old niece left the restaurant, saw Roberta in distress, and ran to get her mother. Mike’s sister Maureen rushed to the scene and told officers she knew first aid and could assist. Mike’s appearance was shocking. There was a three-inch hole in his cheek, and his eyes bulged from their sockets. But, detecting a strong pulse, Maureen acted to staunch his bleeding. At the hospital, he was treated for “devastating injuries to the bones of the face and the mouth,” massive hemorrhaging, and severe injuries to both eyes. Unable to

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breathe on his own, he suffered seizures caused by brain swelling. He died four days later.

c. Threats and Shooting at Bystanders

People traveling on Laguna Boulevard near Chili’s noticed a car speeding and weaving aggressively through traffic. Witnesses saw defendant driving while holding a shotgun out the open driver’s window. Without slowing, he approached several cars stopped at a traffic light. One was the marked patrol car of Elk Grove Police Officers Tisha Smith and Janell Bestpitch. Defendant pulled alongside, leaned out his window, and fired, shattering the patrol car’s rear passenger window and the interior Plexiglass partition. Almost immediately afterward, he crashed into a truck that was stopped at the light.

Believing she and her partner were under attack, Officer Smith maneuvered around stopped traffic and drove away. Defendant jumped from his car and grabbed the shotgun. Without a word, he made eye contact with the occupants of a car that had stopped behind the police cruiser and pumped his shotgun. He aimed at passenger Adam Wheeler and fired through the windshield. Wheeler ducked and grabbed the head of the driver, Stefanie Cartwright, pulling her down as the windshield shattered. He told Cartwright to “punch it.” She swerved around defendant and sped away. A sliver of glass pierced Wheeler’s cornea and was removed at the hospital.

After shooting at Wheeler, defendant ran in place and raised the shotgun overhead with both hands, signaling “victory.” He then walked toward another stopped car. He stared at the driver, pumped the shotgun, and raised it to shoot. The terrified driver ran a red light and fled. Defendant then ran toward a restaurant called Mandango’s.

d. Shooting of Jon Johnson

Karen and Jon Johnson had finished dinner at Mandango’s and walked outside. Karen got in their car while Jon stood outside taking a phone call. Defendant ran into the parking lot, still holding the shotgun. Karen heard Jon say, in a joking tone, “ ‘Man, get that out of my face.’ ” Then she heard a loud “pow” when defendant shot Jon in the face. After Jon fell, defendant “strutt[ed]” behind the car, holding his arms up in a “V” posture for “victory.” When he looked in Karen’s direction, she ducked, and he walked away. Karen found Jon bleeding on the ground. His face was nearly obliterated. She ran back into the restaurant screaming for help. Jon was rushed to the hospital but died later that night.

e. Shootout with Police and Defendant’s Apprehension

Less than a minute after driving away from the intersection, Officers Smith and Bestpitch heard a radio dispatch about the Daly shooting and sped back to the scene. There, they saw that defendant’s car had crashed into a truck. Officer Smith got out of the car with her gun drawn and instructed Officer Bestpitch to draw her weapon and stay down.

Bystanders yelled and indicated that defendant had gone toward the Mandango’s parking lot. Officer Smith initially saw no one, but someone yelled, “ ‘He’s behind you. He’s got a shotgun.’” She turned and saw defendant shift the shotgun from the patrol car and point it directly at her. Smith pointed her weapon, stepped toward defendant, and ordered him to drop...