P. v. Torres
A birthday celebration degenerated into a violent argument over the relative merits of rival gangs. Shouting turned into fighting, and fighting turned into gunfire, resulting in the death of a gang member. An amended information charged defendants Edwin Arthur Stevenson and Panfilo Torres with murder for the benefit of a criminal street gang. A jury found Stevenson guilty of murder and Torres guilty of the lesser included offense of assault with a firearm. The court sentenced Stevenson to 60 years to life in state prison and Torres to 14 years.
Stevenson appeals, contending insufficient evidence supports his murder conviction, the court erred in admitting gang video recordings, comments made during voir dire tainted the jury pool, instructional error, and sentencing error. Torres appeals, arguing instructional error and sentencing error. We shall direct the abstract of judgment in Stevenson’s case be corrected to reflect accurate presentence credits and to delete the 10 year consecutive sentence for the gang enhancement on count one; in all other respects, we shall affirm the judgments.
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