P. v. Chun
This case returns to this court on remand after the Supreme Courts decision in People v. Chun (2009) 45 Cal.4th 1172 (Chun). In our prior opinion, filed September 14, 2007, we reversed defendants murder conviction. We found two errors. The trial court erred in admitting into evidence defendants admission that he fired a gun. Although we found this error harmless beyond a reasonable doubt as a pure evidentiary matter, it contributed to the second error of instructing the jury on second degree felony murder. We found the second error required reversal.
In Chun, supra, 45 Cal.4th 1172, the Supreme Court addressed only the second error. It held it was error to instruct on second degree murder where the underlying felony is shooting at an occupied vehicle in violation of Penal Code section 246. The court found, however, that this error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt when considered individually. Because there was a second error in admitting defendants admission he fired a gun, the Supreme Court remanded for a determination whether the two errors, in combination, were prejudicial. Having considered the cumulative effect of the two errors, Court conclude the errors together were not prejudicial.
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