The People, Plaintiff and Respondent v. Ruben Becerrada, Defendant and Appellant.

Summary

The court affirmed the murder, kidnapping, rape, witness-dissuasion, and death-penalty judgments but reversed the lying-in-wait special-circumstance finding for insufficient evidence. Although the evidence showed defendant intended to kill the victim if she continued pursuing the rape charge, it did not establish that he knew before her fatal trip that she had not abandoned the charge or that he had lured her to the scene after a substantial period of watching and waiting. The court rejected the remaining guilt-phase, penalty-phase, instructional, evidentiary, and constitutional challenges. No separate opinions were filed.