California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Casares, 198 Cal.Rptr.3d 167, 364 P.3d 1093, 62 Cal.4th 808 (Cal. 2016):
of the lying-in-wait special circumstance. We disagree. "A killer need not view his intended victim during the entire period of watching and waiting." (People v. Edwards (1991) 54 Cal.3d 787, 825, 1 Cal.Rptr.2d 696, 819 P.2d 436 (Edwards ).) The purpose of the "watchful waiting" requirement" to distinguish those cases in which a defendant acts insidiously from those in which he acts out of rash impulse " (Mendoza, supra, 52 Cal.4th at p. 1073, 132 Cal.Rptr.3d 808, 263 P.3d 1 )is satisfied here despite the circumstance that the victims were out of defendant's sight for a few moments. If the jury accepted the prosecutor's "ruse" theory, it could reasonably have concluded that nothing occurred during that interval to indicate either an abandonment of the plan, an alteration in defendant's purpose, or a dawning awareness of that purpose on the victims' part.
The above passage should not be considered legal advice. Reliable answers to complex legal questions require comprehensive research memos. To learn more visit www.alexi.com.