People v. Ralph International Thomas (2 Cal. 4th 489, 1992)

Opinion

PANELLI, J.

A jury convicted Ralph International Thomas of the second degree murder of Mary Gioia and the first degree murder of Greg Kniffin (Pen. Code, § 187), finding true allegations that he used a firearm in the commission of each of the murders. (§ 12022.5.) The jury also found true a multiple-murder special-circumstance allegation and fixed the penalty at death. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3).) This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).)

We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

I. Guilt Phase

A. Evidence.

1. Prosecution’s case-in-chief.

a. Introduction.

During the early morning hours of August 16, 1985, Mary Gioia and Greg Kniffin were beaten and shot at point-blank range near the Rainbow Village compound in the City of Berkeley. Defendant was convicted of their murders. The prosecution’s case consisted entirely of circumstantial evidence falling generally into the following categories: defendant’s ownership of a rifle that could have inflicted the fatal wounds; defendant’s presence in the company of the victims not long before the killings; defendant’s conduct and statements after the killings, reflecting consciousness of guilt; and certain physical evidence.

The circumstantial nature of the evidence makes it necessary to set forth the facts of this case in unusual detail.

b. Victims’backgrounds.

Patricia Gioia, Mary’s mother, and David Kniffin, Greg’s father, testified regarding the victims’ backgrounds and how they came to be in Berkeley at the time of their deaths. Mrs. Gioia testified that Mary, 22 years old at her death, came to California to look for work as a baker. Mr. Kniffin testified that Greg, 18 years old at his death, quit his job in June 1985 and came to California to seek a new direction.

c. Forensic evidence.

Dr. John Iocco, a pathologist with the Institute of Forensic Sciences, testified that he performed autopsies on the bodies of the victims. Mary’s body was clothed in blue denim shorts over purple running pants, a blue sweatshirt, a white pullover shirt, a white slip, athletic socks and running shoes. The upper snap of the shorts was undone and the zipper was substantially down. The right side of her face bore a gunshot entry wound; the exit wound was on the left side of her face. There were multiple bruises and contusions and other signs of blunt trauma to the body, all of which appeared to have been inflicted before Mary’s death. Additionally, her back bore approximately 100 post mortem abrasions, probably the result of being dragged over asphalt or dirt. The gunshot entry wound had lacerated the carotid arteries and jugular veins; the neck and face showed multiple bony fractures as a result of the wound. The top of the voice box, or epiglottis, was lacerated. There was a hinging fracture of the skull and blood in the brain. There was also extensive fracturing of the jaw and teeth.

Dr. Iocco testified that there was a three-inch by seven-and-one-half-inch combined entry and exit gunshot wound on the left side of Greg’s neck. There were lacerations and bruises on the face, neck, and arm, and over each knee. All of these injuries were inflicted prior to Greg’s death. Dr. Iocco testified that bruising below the beard area on Greg’s neck could have been caused by a choking hold. Greg’s back bore scratch marks that could have resulted from falling down or being dragged. The cause of Greg’s death was the effects of the gunshot wound to his neck.

Toxicological tests showed that Mary’s blood-alcohol level at the time of her death was .06 percent. Similar tests showed that Greg’s blood-alcohol level at the time of his death was .11 percent. Both victims tested negative for narcotics and stimulants. Neither victim was tested for marijuana use. Swabs taken from the mouth, genital, and rectal areas of the victims tested negative for the presence of sperm and seminal fluid.

Jack F. Richardson, a firearms expert, described the differing ballistic properties of .44 magnum handguns and rifles. Based on his examination of post mortem photographs of Mary Gioia’s wounds, he opined that the exit wound would be normal for a high-powered rifle or shotgun, but was inconsistent with any he had seen made by a handgun. Richardson testified that the .44 magnum is the most powerful handgun on the market.

d. Defendant's ownership of .44 magnum rifle.

On August 14, 1985, Lenise Allen, defendant’s girlfriend, traded a Remington .44 magnum Model 788 rifle, serial number 041747, to defendant after he repaid a debt he had owed her. She had acquired the rifle in April 1985 from Martin Barbena.

Martin Barbena described the peculiarities of the Model 788 rifle. On the basis of Barbena’s testimony, the prosecutor argued that only a person familiar with that model rifle could have committed the murders, hence that defendant, the owner of the rifle, was the killer. Barbena testified that the rifle had no clip, but could be fired by handloading each round into the chamber. The breech was recessed, so a user had to push each round fully into place, or there was a chance of jamming. If a bullet were half in and half out, Barbena testified, it would tend to simply hang; if it were out any more than that, it would fall out through the space foir the charge clip.

Defendant kept the rifle in a leather case either in the luggage rack on top of his car or behind the car’s bucket seats. He stored ammunition in a Tupperware container which he kept inside the car. David Bergman, a Rainbow Village resident, testified that about a month before the murders he saw defendant using the rifle for target practice at a dump site near the village.

e. Testimony of Rainbow Village residents regarding events of August 15 and 16.

The testimony of several Rainbow Village residents, although imprecise and somewhat inconsistent as to time, placed defendant in the company of the victims during the night of the murders and established that defendant had fired his rifle earlier that evening. One resident also testified that he saw defendant in the area where the victims were killed early the following morning.

Thomas Medlin, a Rainbow Village resident, testified that just before sunset on August 15, 1985, defendant fired his rifle at a Canadian flag that Harry Shorman, another village resident, had mounted on his bus.

Jim Prew testified that sometime after 10 p.m. on August 15, defendant and the victims were among a group of people that included Prew, Chris Campbell, and Paul Harter, who were drinking beer in Prew’s van at Rainbow Village. Defendant was wearing a dark jacket and jeans. About 1 a.m. on August 16, Prew agreed to drive Chris Campbell to his home in Richmond. All except Greg rode along. After dropping Campbell off, the group drove to a convenience store where they bought burritos, beer, and ale. On tiie way back to Rainbow Village, they picked Greg up along an access road near University Avenue, arriving about 1:50 a.m. or 2 a.m. The group stood around drinking for a while. About 3 a.m., Mary and Greg announced they were going to take a walk. Around that same time, defendant too left without saying where he was going.

Vincent Johnson testified that he spent the hours between midnight and about 2 a.m. on the night of August 15-16 visiting with a woman friend in his bus at Rainbow Village. Because the friend was afraid to drive on the access road by herself, Johnson rode along with her as far as University Avenue on her departure. After she dropped him off, Johnson walked back to the village alone. Near the landfill office, he saw defendant, who is Black, with a young White couple. Johnson passed within 15 to 20 feet of them. Defendant was standing and staring into space. He appeared to be angry.

Tracy Scarborough testified that at 9 or 9:30 p.m. on August 15, after spending the evening with a friend on University Avenue, he returned to Rainbow Village. He was “pretty drunk” at the time, and went to sleep in the front seat of defendant’s car, an inoperable blue Opel station wagon. Around sunrise on the morning of August 16, Scarborough was awakened by the slamming of the car’s hatchback door. He looked up and saw someone walking past the front of the car, but did not see who it was. He went back to sleep. Later that morning Scarborough woke again and saw defendant, who was then wearing camouflage pants.

Calvin Wylie testified that he worked as a carpenter in Oakland and stayed at Rainbow Village during the work week. He habitually left for work at 6:30 a.m. On the morning of Friday, August 16, 1985, while driving to work down the access road from Rainbow Village, Wylie saw defendant bending down near a weed cutter by the side of the road. He appeared to be looking through some plastic bags that had been dumped there. Defendant was wearing camouflage-type clothing. He looked at Wylie. Seeing that defendant did not want a ride, Wylie drove on.

f. Discovery of bodies.

Sometime after sunrise on August 16, a body was seen floating in the bay. Berkeley Police Detective Fred Eihl arrived at the Berkeley Dump landfill area shortly after 11 a.m. Other police officers, as well as a number of civilians, were already at the scene.

Detective Eihl testified that he was standing about 30 feet from the body, which was floating facedown. Some white of the upper clothing was visible, but neither the face nor the legs could be seen. Defendant was standing about 15 feet behind Eihl, or about 45 feet from the body. As personnel from the coroner’s office began to remove the body from the water, while the face was still not visible and before Eihl could tell whether the body was male or female, defendant said, “That’s Mary.”

On August 17, police divers recovered Greg’s body from the bottom of the bay at a point 30 feet from the shore.

g. Defendant’s statement to Detective Eihl on August 16.

Because defendant had made a tentative identification, Eihl asked him for more information. Defendant told Eihl that he knew the victim only as Mary and that they had washed dishes together at Rainbow Village two nights earlier. Asked when he last saw Mary, defendant said they had partied the night before in a van just outside the gate. Defendant’s account of the party was generally similar to that provided by Jim Prew. He named the others in the group and said that all except Greg had gone to Richmond with Chris. On the way back from Richmond, defendant said, they stopped to buy beer. Coming down the dump road, they picked Greg up and drove back to Rainbow Village. Shortly after that, according to defendant, the party broke up and everybody went their separate ways. Eilil asked defendant what he did after that. Defendant told him he saw Mary and Greg as he was walking out the dump road from Rainbow Village to Ledger’s Liquor Store. Mary and Greg asked him for a match; defendant stopped to give them one and smoked some marijuana with them. He then proceeded to Ledger’s, but found it closed and returned to the village. He got some money and went to various locations to try to purchase some marijuana. When it grew light out, he went to a laundromat in the area of University and San Pablo Avenues. After finishing his laundry, he returned to Rainbow Village. There he ran into Harry Shorman, who told him there was a body floating in the water. Defendant told Eihl he went down to observe.

h. Defendant’s statements to other Rainbow Village residents.

David Bergman testified that he saw defendant around 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. on August 16. Defendant told Bergman that his rifle was missing. Bergman was unsure whether defendant had told him this before or after Bergman learned that a body had been found in the water. Bergman advised defendant to report the theft to the police. Both Thomas Medlin and Tracy Scarborough also testified that on the morning of August 16 defendant told them his rifle was missing.

Later that day, Scarborough advised defendant that he had been awakened about 6 a.m. by the slamming of the hatchback door of defendant’s car. He asked if it was defendant who slammed the door. Defendant denied it, saying he was not around there at that time but was “uptown.” The following day, after Greg’s body was found, defendant told Scarborough he thought he would be in trouble because his rifle was missing; he was worried that his gun had been used to shoot both victims.

Thomas Medlin testified that after Mary’s body was found, defendant asked him to hold his gun cleaning kit for a while. Medlin took the kit and hid it in his car. Later, defendant asked Medlin to hide the Tupperware container that defendant used to hold his ammunition, but Medlin refused and gave him back both the gun cleaning kit and the container with the ammunition. Defendant told Medlin he had been “dumpster diving” (i.e., searching for salvageable items) all the previous night and had been back and forth from the village into town several times.

i. Defendant’s statement to Inspector Wolke on August 17.

On August 17, Berkeley Police Inspector Daniel Wolke interviewed defendant at Rainbow Village. The interview was not recorded. Defendant’s statement generally agreed with what he had earlier told Detective Eihl, with certain discrepancies. In the August 17 interview, defendant said that Greg was not at the party in Jim Prew’s van; in the earlier interview, he had said Greg was present. Additionally, he described his encounter with Mary and Greg near the landfill office somewhat differently to Wolke than he had to Eihl. When he met Mary and Greg about 1:30 a.m. on his way to Ledger’s Liquors, defendant told Wolke, they asked him for some marijuana and he shared some with them, smoking it in his corncob pipe. He said he also drank beer with them. Defendant claimed he must have lost his pipe at that time. Defendant said he got his laundry from his car about sunrise.

Defendant refused to tell Wolke whether he knew anyone at Rainbow Village who owned firearms. Asked if he owned any guns, defendant said he had a Remington .44 magnum bolt action rifle without a clip. He recited the serial number from memory. When Wolke asked to see the rifle, defendant told him it had been stolen late Thursday afternoon or Thursday evening. Defendant showed Wolke a lidded Tupperware container and claimed that the 10 or 11 bullets he had kept in it were missing. Wolke asked if defendant had made a police report or told anyone the gun had been stolen; defendant said no. Defendant said he had last fired it at Harry Shorman’s flag on Thursday evening.

j. Defendant’s statement to Inspector Wolke on August 20.

Wolke testified that on August 19, at Rainbow Village, defendant said he wanted to report his rifle as stolen. Wolke offered to take the report then, but defendant said he would come to the police department on the following day. Detective Wolke testified that on August 20, at 1:45 p.m., defendant came to the police department to make a formal report.

In an unrecorded statement, defendant described the rifle to Wolke and again recited the serial number from memory. He told Wolke he had purchased it for $125 in April 1985 from a White male named Bill on Durant, east of Telegraph Avenue. He was unable to describe Bill.

Defendant gave another account of the events of August 15-16, more detailed than his earlier statements and inconsistent with them in some respects. He told Wolke that just before dark on August 15, he had gone with David Bergman and Melody Medlin, Thomas Medlin’s wife, to liquor stores on University Avenue. Defendant purchased some ale. After returning to Rainbow Village, defendant ran into Tracy Scarborough. He and Tracy drank ale and smoked marijuana in defendant’s car. About 9 p.m., Scarborough fell asleep. Defendant joined Mary, Jim Prew, Chris Campbell, and Paul Harter at Jim’s van and drank with them. They were drinking whiskey, and defendant returned to his car to get a pint bottle of Wild Turkey.

Later in the evening, Chris asked for a ride to Richmond, so they all got in the van and drove out to Richmond. At the San Pablo Dam Road exit, they went to a convenience store and bought burritos and beer. It was 12:59 a.m. They dropped Chris off and returned to Rainbow Village, stopping to give Greg Kniffin a ride from University Avenue. They continued to drink together for 15 or 20 minutes. Then Jim said he was tired, Mary and Greg left, and defendant went back to his car to drop off his pint of Wild Turkey. At that time, defendant decided to go to Ledger’s Liquors to buy some beer. Walking out past the village, he saw Vivian Cercy’s car pointed north along the roadside. He also saw Mary and Greg near the concrete docks. Greg called him over to ask him if he had any matches. Defendant gave them some wooden matches in a leather-like pouch with a beaded design of deer mating, which defendant called “Peruvian love beads.” They asked him if he had any marijuana. Defendant said he did and took out a wooden pipe in which they all smoked the marijuana. They also drank some beer. Defendant told Wolke he also had a corncob pipe with a broken stem and must have left it behind for Mary and Greg or else lost it where they were. While defendant was with them, Vince Johnson passed by on his way to Rainbow Village and said hello. Defendant spent a total of less than 10 minutes with Mary and Greg before proceeding to Ledger’s Liquors. Finding the store closed, he returned to the village. He got his jacket and $20 from his car and noticed that Tracy Scarborough was still sleeping in the front seat. Defendant then walked to various locations in an unsuccessful effort to purchase marijuana. He did not see Mary and Greg on his way. He then returned to Rainbow Village, removed his jacket, got his laundry from his car, and walked to the laundromat at University and San Pablo Avenues. It was about daybreak when he got his laundry out of the car. Asked what time it was when he got to the laundromat and began to do his laundry, defendant said it was after 6 a.m. Wolke asked if he knew when the laundromat opened; defendant said it opened at 7 a.m., so he must have done his laundry after 7 a.m. While doing his laundry, defendant went across the street to a bakery and got some coffee. Defendant also said he ran into a man named Claude Roseman, who lived at the UC Hotel, and lent Claude a dollar.

On his return to the village, defendant stopped by the landfill office and noticed several people there. He then went to his car, opened the rear door, and noticed that his rifle was missing from its case, along with a white Thpperware container that had approximately eleven .44 magnum shells in it. Defendant told David Bergman of the apparent theft; Bergman advised him to notify the police.

Wolke told defendant that the police could not figure out the motive for the murders. Defendant said he could think of plenty of reasons why somebody would want to murder the victims. Wolke said, “Why don’t you tell me one?” Defendant paused, then said he could not think of any at the time. Wolke asked if he would be willing to take a polygraph test regarding his missing rifle. Defendant said he would have to think about it and get some legal advice.

k. Physical and other evidence.

Inspector Wolke testified that on August 16, he examined a sandpile north of where Mary’s body was found and adjacent to the spot where Greg’s body was recovered. He observed two sets of drag marks in the sand and bloodstains on some rocks near the water. Detective Eihl testified to the same observations. A corncob pipe with a broken stem was recovered from the area. Near a road grader parked to the west of the sandpile, Wolke found a “fist-sized” pool of dried blood buried an inch or two below the surface of the ground. The grader was spattered with blood. The next day, a small silver watch was recovered nearby. On August 18, officers, using bloodhounds, began an intensive search for the exact location of the shootings. Near the grader, officers found five teeth and a portion of an upper jaw.

Defendant was arrested for the murders on August 26, 1985. That same day, police searched defendant’s car pursuant to a warrant and seized Levi’s and a blue shirt thought to have been worn by defendant on the night of the crimes, a pair of boots, and camouflage pants. Chemical testing failed to reveal the presence of bloodstains on any of these items. Police also seized a leather gun case, empty .44 magnum casings, a white Tupperware container holding wooden matches, some gun oil and a gun cleaning case, and papers with references to firearms and weapons and various other subjects. The police searched for, but were unable to find, defendant’s rifle, the serape or poncho that Greg was wearing when he was last seen alive, the pouch decorated with Peruvian love beads, and other items belonging to Greg and Mary.

1. Testimony casting doubt on defendant’s alibi.

Jim Prew testified that he left Rainbow Village about 9:15 a.m. on August 16. Shortly thereafter, he saw defendant near the intersection of Marina Boulevard and University Avenue. Prew did not notice that defendant was carrying anything. (Defendant told Wolke he was doing his laundry on the morning of August 16.)

2. Defense.

Vivian Cercy testified for the defense at the preliminary hearing. As she was unavailable at trial, her prior testimony was read to the jury. Her testimony, which obviously was disbelieved by the jury, suggested that a third person, a blond man, was responsible for the murders.

Cercy, who was Harry Shorman’s girlfriend, testified that she was in the vicinity of Rainbow Village on August 15 and 16, 1985. She and her two young daughters had no permanent address. Cercy drove a 1973 Dodge. On the night of August 15, she was parked outside the gates of Rainbow Village.

About 1:30 a.m. on the morning of August 16, Cercy moved her car to a dumpster across a parking lot from the village gates in order to remove trash from the car. She got out of the car and walked to the dumpster. She saw a woman and two men standing near an orange and red van. The woman, who seemed upset, resembled Mary Gioia. One of the men, who had dark hair and a beard, resembled Greg Kniffin. The other man, whom Cercy did not know, was blond and almost six feet tall. The blond man held an object in his hand and asked, “Do you think she’s seen anything?” The dark-haired man replied, “No, she couldn’t have.” They placed the object (which looked like a long stick) against the side of the car. Cercy testified that the stick could have been a rifle, but at the time she did not think of it as such. The woman said to the blond man, “You have to give it back.” He replied, “This could mean money to us, we need this.” The woman said, “I don’t want any part of this, I’m going.”

The woman began to walk down the hill and passed Cercy’s car. Cercy invited the woman to stay the night in her car with her and her two daughters. The woman refused, saying, “No, I’ll be all right.”

The woman continued down the driveway. The blond man told the dark-haired man, “I’ll take care of this.” He walked down the roadway.

Cercy drove back to her parking spot and prepared her children to go to sleep. About 15 minutes later, Cercy heard three noises that sounded like firecrackers.

Somewhat later, Cercy saw a man resembling the blond man coming up the road. An hour and a half later, Cercy saw the man resembling the blond man walk up the waterfront, wiping his hands on the vegetation growing there. Then he either put something into, or took something out of, his backpack, and walked toward the village.

Cercy drove up the hill. Just outside the gates of the Rainbow Village compound, she saw the blond man again. He was washing his hands and his hair in a sink. She saw him throw something over the fence and heard it make a noise like a tin can when it struck the ground. Cercy turned around and drove down the hill again.

About 4 a.m., a man knocked on the window of Cercy’s car. She could not describe him except to say that he was wearing a pea coat. The man asked her a series of questions and said he was going to kill her. Cercy remained there until about 5 or 5:30 a.m., when she gave a village resident named Anthony a ride to work.

3. Rebuttal.

Inspector Wolke testified that he interviewed Vivian Cercy on August 17 after Harry Shorman introduced him to her. She told Wolke that she had had quite a bit to drink on the night of the 15th. She did not mention seeing a rifle, but said that, while overhearing the conversation that she reported, she saw a person stick a 10- or 12-inch object down his waistband. She was positive it was not a rifle. She did not tell Wolke that someone had threatened to kill her.

Vincent Johnson testified that, in September or October, he had a conversation with Cercy in which she said she had not seen anything on the night of the murders, but was speaking out because Harry told her to do so.

B. Issues.

1. Sufficiency of evidence.

Defendant contends that the evidence adduced by the prosecution was insufficient as a matter of law either to support the convictions or to establish that he premeditated the murder of Gregory Kniffin. On appeal, we review the whole record in the light most favorable to the judgment below to determine whether it discloses substantial evidence—that is, evidence that is reasonable, credible, and of solid value—from which a reasonable trier of fact could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. (People v. Johnson (1980) 26 Cal.3d 557, 578 [162 Cal.Rptr. 431, 606 P.2d 738, 16 A.L.R.4th 1255]; see also Jackson v. Virginia (1979) 443 U.S. 307, 317-320 [61 L.Ed.2d 560, 572-574, 99 S.Ct. 2781].) In cases in which the People rely primarily on circumstantial evidence, the standard of review is the same. (People v. Bean (1988) 46 Cal.3d 919, 932 [251 Cal.Rptr. 467, 760 P.2d 996]; People v. Towler (1982) 31 Cal.3d 105, 118 [181 Cal.Rptr. 391, 641 P.2d 1253].) “Although it is the duty of the jury to acquit a defendant if it finds that circumstantial evidence is susceptible of two interpretations, one of which suggests guilt and the other innocence [citations], it is the jury, not the appellate court which must be convinced of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If the circumstances reasonably justify the trier of fact’s findings, the opinion of the reviewing court that the circumstances might also reasonably be reconciled with a contrary finding does not warrant a reversal of the judgment. [Citations.]” (People v. Bean, supra, 46 Cal.3d at pp. 932-933, internal quotation marks omitted.) “ ‘Circumstantial evidence may be sufficient to connect a defendant with the crime and to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” (Id. at p. 933 [quoting People v. Pierce (1979) 24 Cal.3d 199, 210 [155 Cal.Rptr. 657, 595 P.2d 91].)

The jury in this case heard evidence tending to show that defendant had the opportunity and the means to commit the murders. Defendant, looking “grim,” was with Mary and Greg when they were last seen alive, near the landfill office outside the Rainbow Village compound, during the early hours of August 16, 1985. A corncob pipe with a broken stem was found near the spot where police found blood and drag marks, not where defendant claimed to have smoked marijuana with the victims using such a pipe. Defendant was in possession of a .44 magnum rifle and ammunition at sunset on August 15th, when he fired a shot at Harry Shorman’s flag. The following morning, he reported that the rifle had been stolen. He asked Thomas Medlin to hide his ammunition, but told police that the cartridges had been stolen along with the rifle. From the fact that defendant was trying to hide his ammunition after the murders, the jury could reasonably infer that he had possession of the rifle when Mary and Greg were killed and later disposed of it. Expert opinion established that Mary’s fatal wound was of a kind normally inflicted by a high-powered rifle such as the .44 magnum.

Greg was killed by a massive contact gunshot wound to the neck, pictures of which were shown to the jury. Defendant urges that because no expert gave an opinion as to the type of weapon that wounded Greg, the jury could not rationally conclude that defendant’s rifle killed both victims. We disagree. “[W]hat the pathologist can say from a laboratory examination is more limited than what a reasonable trier of fact may find beyond any reasonable doubt, after considering the evidence as a whole.” (People v. Chambers (1982) 136 Cal.App.3d 444, 455 [186 Cal.Rptr. 306].) The bodies of both victims bore similar wounds and were disposed of in the same manner within the same time span. From these facts the jury reasonably could believe that the same weapon killed both Mary and Greg.

Other circumstantial evidence is indicative of defendant’s consciousness of his guilt. Calvin Wylie testified that about 6:30 a.m. on August 16, he saw defendant in the general area of the homicides, bending over what appeared to be garbage bags. When the police recovery team was beginning to lift the body of one of the victims from the water, before a face or clothing could be seen, defendant—standing about 45 feet away—commented, “That’s Mary.” Officer Eihl, present at the scene and closer to the body than was defendant, could not then tell whether the victim was male or female. The jury could have reasoned that only Mary’s killer would have been able to identify her at that moment. Defendant gave an apparently false reason for stopping to talk with the victims at the landfill office: he said they asked him for a match, and told Wolke he gave the victims a beaded pouch containing wooden matches, but a waterlogged book of matches was recovered from Mary’s clothing. Defendant provided inconsistent descriptions of his activities on the night of the killings. From this the jury could infer that he was lying to conceal his guilt. When Officer Wolke told defendant that the police could not figure out any motive for the murders, defendant replied that he could think of plenty of reasons. Wolke asked defendant to name one; he said he could not think of any at that time. Defendant’s statement hinted that he himself had a motive or motives for the murders. Defendant lied to the police about how he had acquired his rifle. He told Scarborough he thought he would be in trouble because his rifle was missing and was worried that his gun had been used to shoot both victims.

Defendant compares the evidence adduced against him with that held insufficient to support a murder conviction in People v. Blakeslee (1969) 2 Cal.App.3d 831 [82 Cal.Rptr. 839]. When we decide issues of sufficiency of evidence, comparison with other cases is of limited utility, since each case necessarily depends on its own facts. (People v. Chambers, supra, 136 Cal.App.3d at p. 455.) However, we address the Blakeslee case because defendant places heavy reliance on it. In Blakeslee, proof of guilt consisted principally of evidence of opportunity and motive, together with a false alibi indicating consciousness of guilt. The court reversed Teresa Blakeslee’s conviction because the evidence was insubstantial in light of what was not proven, principally the prosecution’s failure to produce the murder weapon or to link a specific weapon with the crime, and because the evidence could plausibly be interpreted as consistent with the guilt of the defendant’s brother. The Blakeslee court discounted the false alibi as evidence of consciousness of guilt, finding it to be of less than solid value because the defendant plausibly explained why she lied (i.e., she wanted to protect her brother). (People v. Blakeslee, supra, 2 Cal.App.3d at p. 839.) In contrast, the many inconsistencies in defendant’s statements are not so easily resolved. No plausible explanation for them appears, apart from defendant’s wish to shift suspicion away from himself. Comparison of the evidence in this case with that in Blakeslee, for whatever such a comparison is worth, thus fails to reveal any deficiency of proof warranting reversal.

Defendant urges that the verdict of first degree murder for the killing of Greg Kniffin be reversed for want of sufficient evidence of premeditation and deliberation. He relies on the discussion contained in People v. Anderson (1968) 70 Cal.2d 15 [73 Cal.Rptr. 550, 447 P. 2d 942], and cited in many subsequent cases. (See, e.g., People v. Hernandez (1988) 47 Cal.3d 315, 349-350 [253 Cal.Rptr. 199, 763 P.2d 1289]; People v. Bloyd (1987) 43 Cal.3d 333, 347-348 [233 Cal.Rptr. 368, 729 P.2d 802]; People v. Haskett (1982) 30 Cal.3d 841, 849, fn. 1 [180 Cal.Rptr. 640, 640 P.2d 776]; People v. Murtishaw (1981) 29 Cal.3d 733, 749-750 [175 Cal.Rptr. 738, 631 P.2d 446].) We said in Anderson that “[t]he type of evidence which this court has found sufficient to sustain a finding of premeditation and deliberation falls into three basic categories: (1) facts about how and what defendant did prior to the actual killing which show that the defendant was engaged in activity directed toward, and explicable as intended to result in, the killing—what may be characterized as ‘planning’ activity; (2) facts about the defendant’s prior relationship and/or conduct with the victim from which the jury could reasonably infer a ‘motive’ to kill the victim, which inference of motive, together with facts of type (1) or (3), would in turn support an inference that the killing was the result of ‘a pre-existing reflection’ and ‘careful thought and weighing of considerations’ rather than ‘mere unconsidered or rash impulse hastily executed’ [citation]; (3) facts about the nature of the killing from which the jury could infer that the manner of killing was so particular and exacting that the defendant must have intentionally killed according to a ‘preconceived design’ to take his victim’s life in a particular way for a ‘reason’ which the jury can reasonably infer from facts of type (1) or (2). [