People v. Hajek and Vo

Summary

The court upheld the defendants’ convictions and death judgments in all respects except that it invalidated the lying-in-wait special-circumstance findings and ordered Hajek’s pellet-gun firearm enhancements replaced with deadly-or-dangerous-weapon enhancements. It concluded that the evidence was insufficient to show Su Hung was killed while the defendants were contemporaneously watching and waiting for an opportunity to attack, but sufficient to support torture murder, premeditated murder, attempted murder, and Vo’s knife-use enhancements. The court also rejected challenges to joint trials, second counsel, trial continuance, and the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the remaining convictions and enhancements.