P. v. Trayers
After defendant Jennifer Michelle Trayers[1] suspected her husband, Frederick Trayers (Dr. Trayers), was having an extramarital affair and then confirmed her suspicion by reading his e-mail correspondence with his girlfriend, Jennifer killed him with a knife as they lay in bed by stabbing him numerous times. When the police forcibly entered the Trayers' home, they found Dr. Trayers dead on the bedroom floor on one side of the bed, and Jennifer, who was close to death with numerous lacerations later determined to be self-inflicted, on the floor on the other side of the bed near a military-style knife.
A jury convicted Jennifer of second degree murder (Pen. Code,[2] § 187, subd. (a)) and found true an allegation that she personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon (a knife) in committing the murder within the meaning of section 12022, subdivision (b)(1). The court sentenced her to an aggregate prison term of 16 years to life.
Jennifer appeals her conviction based on three contentions. First, she contends the court deprived her of her federal constitutional rights to due process and a fair trial by erroneously admitting evidence of her own extramarital affair, which she asserts was irrelevant and prejudicial character evidence the court should have excluded under Evidence Code sections 1101, 1102, and 352. Second, Jennifer contends the evidence is insufficient to support her conviction of second degree murder because no rational trier of fact could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that she killed her husband with malice rather than in the heat of passion, and thus there is no substantial evidence she committed any crime greater than voluntary manslaughter. Last, she contends the prosecutor misstated the law and committed prosecutorial misconduct during her closing arguments by arguing that the degree of provocation required to reduce the unlawful killing of her husband to voluntary manslaughter was provocation that would cause a reasonable person to kill, thereby lowering the People's burden of proof in violation of her due process right to a fair trial. We affirm Jennifer's conviction of second degree murder. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment.
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