Wednesday, September 28, 2016

People v. Windfield (Cal. Ct. App. - Sept. 28, 2016)

X goes to a gang party in Rialto.  Some members of the gang see X at the party and threaten him with guns and sucker punch him.  The person who had taken X to the party -- his close friend, M -- does nothing to protect or assist X.  Oh, the people who had assaulted X were M's cousins.

X isn't happy about that.  Some months later, X sees M near an apartment and expresses serious anger that X didn't help him in the Rialto fight.  X tells M that he wants to go over to Ramona and kill the people who assaulted him.

M tells X that he's drunk, and that, no, he's not going to help X kill his cousins, and that X should just mellow out.  At which point X -- still incredibly angry at M -- takes off his sweater and pulls out a gun.

A van then pulls up near X and M.  Coincidentally enough, in the van are members of the same gang that had previously assaulted X.  So X, with his gun already out, decides he's had enough.  X begins chasing two of these gang members, with his gun pointed at them, all the time taunting them as they try to run away from him.  X then puts his gun in the face of one of the occupants of the van.

Now, I know what you're thinking.  X pulls the trigger, and we're currently reviewing X's conviction for first-degree murder.

Nope.  Not here.  We're actually reviewing a conviction for the murder of X.  Because X did not, in fact, pull the trigger.  Instead, his conduct simply made M and the gang members he taunted really, really mad.  So later that evening, the gang members retaliate, and shoot X ten times, killing him.

It's truly the Wild West in some places, eh?