State of Arizona, Appellee v. Benjamin Bernal Cota, Appellant

Summary

The court affirmed Cota’s convictions and death sentence, rejecting challenges to the admission of flight evidence, jury composition and juror rulings, interrogation statements, discovery sanctions, evidentiary rulings, jury instructions, prosecutorial argument, and the sufficiency of the evidence. The court held that Cota’s post-invocation interrogation statements were admitted in error but that the error was not fundamental because the statements caused no prejudice. The court remanded for resentencing on the non-capital counts because the trial judge mistakenly believed consecutive sentences were mandatory. No separate opinions were filed.