Full opinion text
Opinion GEORGE, C. J. Following the guilt phase of the trial, a Los Angeles County jury found defendant Abelino Manriquez guilty of the murders of Miguel Garcia, George Martinez, Efrem Baldía, and Jose Gutierrez, each murder having been committed on a separate date. (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a).) As to each of the crimes, the jury found that defendant personally used a handgun. (§§ 1203.06, subd. (a)(1), 1192.7, subd. (c)(8).) The jury found true the special circumstance of multiple murder. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3).) At the conclusion of the penalty phase, the jury returned a verdict of death. This appeal is automatic. (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 11; § 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in its entirety. I. GUILT PHASE EVIDENCE A. The Prosecution’s Case 1. Overview On January 22, 1989, at approximately 4:40 a.m., defendant was a patron at the Las Playas restaurant, located in Paramount. An argument ensued between defendant and Miguel Garcia, ending when defendant shot Garcia several times, after which defendant departed from the premises. On February 22, 1989, at approximately 10:00 p.m., defendant was a patron at Fort Knots, a topless dance bar, located in South Gate. While Daneen Baker, one of the dancers, performed on stage with her back to the audience, she felt a customer touch her thighs. Such conduct was prohibited, and believing that defendant had touched her, she asked the doorman, George Martinez, to evict him. Martinez did so, after which defendant attempted to reenter the bar on several occasions that evening, finally returning with a firearm and fatally shooting Martinez at point-blank range. On November 29, 1989, at approximately 2:00 p.m., defendant and his girlfriend, Sylvia Tinoco, were drinking beer and ingesting cocaine at the Rita Motel, located in Compton. Efrem Baldía (occasionally referred to by witnesses by his nickname, “Amulfo”) drove to the motel and defendant, knowing that Baldía had been romantically linked to Tinoco, left the motel room looking angry, confronted Baldía (who was unarmed) in the motel parking lot, and fatally shot him. On January 21, 1990, shortly after midnight, defendant was drinking beer at the Mazatlan Bar, located in Compton. Defendant approached the bar to order another beer and encountered Jose Gutierrez, who, according to one witness, had been sitting at the bar, asleep, with his head resting on his arm. Defendant grabbed Gutierrez by the neck and shot him repeatedly. Approximately one month later, on February 22, 1990, law enforcement officers arrested defendant at the Charter Suburban Hospital, located in Paramount, where he was being treated for a fresh gunshot wound in the shoulder. 2. The Murder of Miguel Garcia, January 22, 1989 John Guardado testified that after leaving a nightclub after 2:00 a.m. on January 22, 1989, he “ran into a couple of friends [Miguel Garcia, whom Guardado knew only as ‘Kaliman,’ and John Dórame] on the street where we hang out at.” Garcia and Dórame asked Guardado whether he wanted to go to the Las Playas restaurant, and Guardado joined his friends in walking there. Having already consumed beer and a “lot of mixed drinks” at the nightclub, Guardado described his own condition at the restaurant as “exhausted” and “dazed out, drunk.” At approximately 4:40 a.m., Guardado observed a “medium-buil[t]” man wearing a gray “Spanish style” suit walk by him, pull a gun from his waistband, and cock it. He then heard six or seven shots. Guardado did not see the man’s face, nor did he see him actually fire the gun. After the shots were fired, Guardado saw the assailant run out of the restaurant. Guardado ran toward the door, turned around, returned to the victim, felt him, and then departed. He explained: “He was dead. I closed his eyes, and I left. Because I was on probation.” Guardado believed the weapon had been a “chrome gun,” and when shown People’s exhibit No. 7, a darker firearm recovered from defendant that the prosecution theorized had been the murder weapon, Guardado testified that he did not recognize it. Guardado denied recognizing the shooter in a pretrial photo lineup, nor could he identify the shooter at trial. Angelica Contreras, a waitress at the Las Playas restaurant, testified that in the early morning of January 22, 1989, the victim and a few other individuals came into the restaurant. The victim told her to serve his friends and said he would pay for everything. After Contreras served the men, she returned to their table a few minutes later to find the victim arguing with another patron, a man she knew only as “El Gatito.” Contreras told the men to stop arguing and to pay her. The victim did so. Contreras thereafter went to a storage room and then heard some gunshots; when she emerged immediately thereafter, she saw the victim lying on the floor. She observed persons running toward the door, including one man (whom she recognized from his previous visits to the restaurant) holding a black gun in front of his chest with his arms almost completely extended. Contreras acknowledged not telling the police everything when they initially interviewed her, because the restaurant manager told her, “If I did not want to have any problems not to say anything.” Contreras subsequently identified defendant in a pretrial photographic lineup as the person she saw holding the gun, and at the preliminary hearing she again so identified defendant. Contreras also testified that People’s exhibit No. 7, a .380-caliber Llama semiautomatic pistol, resembled the gun she had observed in defendant’s possession. Laura Lozano, a waitress at the Las Playas restaurant, testified she was in the kitchen when the shooting occurred. She directed the restaurant manager, a man whom she knew only as “Santos,” “to take a look and see what had happened,” but Santos “said that he wouldn’t go.” Lozano looked toward the cashier and saw several persons leaving the restaurant, including one man who carried a gun; however, she did not observe the person’s face. She acknowledged untruthfully telling police investigators (“out of fear”) that she had not witnessed the foregoing events, and for a similar reason misled the investigators when they showed her a photographic lineup, informing them that she did not recognize anyone when in fact she had recognized one of the individuals depicted—defendant—as someone she saw at the restaurant shortly before the shooting, exchanging words with the victim and telling him to “leave me alone, I have nothing to do with you.” Ronald Riordan, a detective employed by the Los Angles County Sheriff’s Department, testified that he arrived at the Las Playas restaurant at approximately 6:30 a.m. on January 22. Riordan recalled that the victim’s body bore separate gunshot wounds to the right eye, right chin area, right neck area, upper left chest, right lower back, and left groin area. Riordan also testified that he attended the autopsy of the victim, that all of the victim’s wounds were consistent with having been inflicted by a .380-caliber firearm, and that there was no evidence indicating a different weapon had been used. Riordan recalled interviewing witness John Guardado on the day of the murder; contrary to Guardado’s testimony at trial (in which he recalled seeing a “chrome gun”), during the interview Guardado described the murder weapon as “a blue steel automatic pistol.” Dr. Christopher Rogers, a Los Angeles County Deputy Medical Examiner, testified regarding the autopsy performed on Miguel Garcia. Rogers explained that the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds. The victim’s blood was determined to have “contained alcohol, cocaine, and a substance related to cocaine.” Donald Messer, a Long Beach police officer, testified that on March 2, 1989, he responded to a “shots fired” call at the La Ruleta bar, located in Long Beach. Shortly after he and other officers arrived at the bar, Messer observed one of his colleagues pull a handgun from defendant’s waistband, which precipitated a struggle between the officers and defendant. The officers eventually handcuffed defendant and placed him under arrest. At trial, Messer identified People’s exhibit No. 7 as the firearm confiscated from defendant, and testified that the weapon was loaded at the time. Officer Messer added that, during the booking process, officers discovered in defendant’s jacket pocket a “dollar bill folded up into a bindle that we booked ... as appearing to contain cocaine.” A similar bindle made from a folded dollar bill was recovered from the Las Playas crime scene; criminalists employed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department examined both bindles and confirmed that each one contained cocaine residue, a fact to which the parties stipulated at trial. Dwight Van Horn, a deputy sheriff and firearms examiner employed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, testified that, based on the ballistics testing he conducted in April 1989, the bullets recovered from the victim’s body during the coroner’s investigation and the shells recovered from the crime scene were fired from the Llama .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol seized from defendant at the La Ruleta bar. John Laurie, a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff, testified regarding an interview with defendant (conducted with the assistance of a Spanish-speaking detective, Deputy Joe Olmedo, who served as an interpreter), at the Los Angeles County jail on February 24, 1990. At the time of the interview, Laurie informed defendant he “had been identified as the suspect in [the Garcia] murder, and . . . had been arrested on a warrant based on that incident.” After advising defendant of his constitutional rights, Laurie further informed defendant that he was in jail in connection with the murder committed at the Las Playas restaurant, and asked defendant to comment upon that. Laurie testified defendant replied that he had gone to the Las Playas restaurant with a friend named Francisco Manzano, that the victim had tried to pick a fight with defendant, that defendant said he did not want to fight, and that a short time later, as defendant and Manzano were getting up to leave the restaurant, the victim attempted to pick a fight with defendant a second time, at which point Manzano shot the victim with a .380 semiautomatic pistol. Defendant admitted having been armed with a nine-millimeter semiautomatic handgun that evening and recalled having used that weapon to hold the other patrons at bay while the shooting occurred. Laurie added: “Mr. Manriquez told Detective Olmedo that he would have shot this person but he didn’t have to because his friend had already shot him.” On cross-examination, Laurie testified that he doubted defendant’s version of the events, in part based on information Laurie had obtained from other witnesses to the Las Playas shooting and in part because the investigation revealed defendant had used the alias “Francisco Manzano” on the occasion of “at least four other arrests.” Laurie, who did not understand the Spanish language, acknowledged lacking personal knowledge as to what defendant said during the interview, instead basing his trial testimony upon the notes he made of his conversation with Detective Olmedo, who acted as the interpreter. Laurie also confirmed that defendant denied shooting the victim at the Las Playas restaurant. 3. The Murder of George Martinez, February 22, 1989 Daneen Baker, a waitress and dancer at the Fort Knots bar, a topless dance establishment located in South Gate, testified that on February 22, 1989, at approximately 8:00 p.m., she was dancing on stage when a patron “reached up and touched me on the back of my thigh,” a violation of the establishment’s policy. Recalling that she was angry, Baker “bent down and I looked in his face, and I told him, ‘Don’t you ever touch me.’ And at that time I called over George [Martinez], [who] was the doorman, and I told him to get him out of there, I said because he’s touching me. . . . and I grabbed my top and I got off stage.” Martinez approached the patron, told him he had to leave and, with the help of the manager of the bar, escorted the customer from the premises. Baker remembered the patron’s face “very well” and identified him in a pretrial lineup and at trial as defendant. Approximately 90 minutes after this incident, Baker again was dancing when she heard gunshots, causing her to jump from the stage and hide near the jukebox. Baker did not see who fired the gun, but shortly thereafter saw Martinez “laying on the floor and he wasn’t moving.” Mario Medel testified that he was employed as the manager of Fort Knots on the evening of the shooting. He recalled responding to Baker’s complaint “that there was a patron reaching over the chain” and touching her. Because the patron indicated he did not understand English, Medel asked George Martinez to speak with him in Spanish. When the patron refused Medel’s request to leave, “we forcibly had to escort him out.” Outside, when Medel and Martinez attempted to explain to the patron why he was being thrown out, he “took a swing” at Medel, prompting Medel to hit him in the face. Medel and Martinez returned to the bar. When the patron reentered the establishment, Medel and Martinez “pushed him out. We just kept telling him, ‘Go on home. You had too much to drink. We told you, you can’t touch the girls. Just leave.’ ” Shortly thereafter, the patron returned again to the bar. Medel was in the back office, and “[o]ne of the girls came running back and said, ‘George is outside again with that guy.’ So I locked up the office, went outside, and George was wrestling with the guy. I broke that up. . .. and instructed George to go back inside. I was out there arguing with the guy. That’s when ... he started talking about coming back with a gun. I just kind of like blew it off, because you hear it all the time in this business. So then I went back inside, and I stayed there with George again.” Medel did not believe the patron would return, but “he came back again [and] .... I physically threw him out. Literally just threw him out.” Medel returned to the back office, and “[a]gain, they came back and told me George was outside in a fight. So I ran out there. If I remember right, he kind of like had George around the waist. . . . And George hit him with his [plastic] flashlight. ... So when I broke it up, he turned around and swung at me again; and I swung at him and hit him. He went backwards and ... his head hit the little wall, kind of knocked him out a little bit.” An unmarked police car arrived, Medel explained the problem to the officers, and they told the patron to leave. Observing the patron walk down the street, Medel reentered the bar. Medel further testified: “So then something told me to go around back and get up on top of the roof to see what was going on. I went on top of the roof, and I was looking down, and I noticed a white Camaro drive up. They opened the back hatch, and two guys were going through the back looking for something. ... So when I saw that, I came down off the roof; and me and George closed the front door. I was sitting there on the stool. . ., and George was standing against the mirrors. . . . And the next thing that happened was the guy—the door opened. George was looking down the hallway. Then he kind of turned to me; and he says, ‘Mario, he is back.’ The guy started walking up the hallway. ... I saw this in the mirror. He had a brown coat on. He reached inside his coat, just point blank just shot George with the first bullet. When I saw the first round go off, me and another patron just kind of like swung around behind the cigarette machine. Then I heard a second round go off, and that was it. Waited a few moments, got up, went to see George. George was staggering at me, and the guy was gone. ... At first he [Martinez] was kind of like holding onto himself. He was starting to fall, so I caught him and laid him down. ... I went out this side door very cautiously and went and looked around the side of the building to see if the patron was still out there. Himself and the car [were] gone. I ran back inside and called 911 to get help for George.” Medel testified he saw the patron’s face during each one of the arguments outside the bar, and that it was reflected in the mirror when the patron returned with the gun, which Medel saw him remove from underneath his jacket, “probably in his waistband.” In a pretrial photographic lineup, at the preliminary hearing, and at trial, Medel identified the patron as defendant. On the evening of the shooting, Mark Herbert was a patron at Fort Knots. Herbert’s testimony was substantially similar to that given by Mario Medel, namely that a dancer complained a patron had touched her; the patron, who was argumentative, was escorted out, only to return repeatedly and scuffle with the doorman; and eventually two gunshots were heard and the doorman fell, mortally wounded. In a pretrial photographic lineup, at the preliminary hearing, and at trial, Herbert identified the argumentative patron as defendant. Herbert, however, did not see who fired the weapon. Barbara Quijada, a waitress and dancer employed at Fort Knots, began her shift approximately one hour prior to the shooting and was unaware of the disturbances involving defendant. Quijada testified that immediately prior to the shooting, she was speaking with George Martinez about his baby. She saw a man walk toward Martinez, which led Martinez to declare: “Hey Mario, there’s that guy again.” Quijada saw the man open up his jacket, “reach like for a wallet, . . . there was a real like rapid fire, pop, pop, pop, and a whole bunch of smoke.” Quijada saw Martinez “holding his chest and sliding down the . . . wall . . . ,” Immediately after the shooting, Quijada crawled to a “far bathroom,” where she “started shaking apart.” Hearing someone yell for a paramedic, Quijada, who previously had received training as an emergency medical technician, splashed water on her face “and pushed my way through the girls and all the men around and told them that I was the closest they were going to get to a paramedic for the moment. ... I had to break through a mound of people hovering over him, and for someone that was shaking apart to an extreme I took charge as fast as I could. ... I got him some air. I pushed everybody out of his way, and I elevated his head and opened his airway and started monitoring his vitals. . . . [I]t was a dead-on heart shot. . . . The kind of heartbeat I was getting was not close to normal. . . . My friend was on his way out.” Quijada further testified: “When his vitals [reached] a severe point I very calmly told him to hold on, not to get any more scared but I was going to have to help him breathe for a little while until the ambulance got there. And I closed my eyes and asked if by chance was there anyone else in this bar that could handle two-man C.P.R. other than me. And there was a real firm hand on my shoulder, and I looked up, and I was surrounded by policemen. One officer told me that they had been there for five to 10 minutes. And I asked, ‘Why didn’t you help me?’ They told me that there was nothing that they could have done any better than what I had because he left with nice thoughts.” Because Quijada had been standing near the mirrored entry way when the shooting occurred, she saw the shooter “from every angle.” She recalled that the man’s face “looked like he had taken a few punches.” As part of the police investigation, she assisted in the production of a composite illustration of the shooter, which she testified was a “very close” likeness of him. Quijada identified defendant in a pretrial photographic lineup; asked why she picked that photograph, Quijada testified, “Because that’s the face that’s been haunting me. That’s the face I’ve tried to forget. . . . There is no doubt in my mind. I was too close and it was too much of a traumatizing series of actions for me to ever, ever forget it.” She also identified defendant at the preliminary hearing and at trial. Asked why she refrained from looking at defendant during her testimony, Quijada responded: “I can’t. It’s haunted me too long. I tried very hard to put the face out of my mind, and it’s very painful. . . . Seeing him in person . . . only confirms a nightmare that I have been living with for a long time.” Dr. Rogers testified regarding the autopsy performed on George Martinez. Rogers described the cause of death as “gunshot wounds of the chest.” On cross-examination, Dr. Rogers testified that the autopsy report indicated the likelihood that the victim’s four wounds (including two that appeared on the victim’s hands) likely were the result of only two gunshots. Renold Verdugo, a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff, testified regarding his participation as one of the investigating officers in the aftermath of the shooting at the Fort Knots bar. Verdugo testified that the crime scene yielded two expended shell casings, determined to have been fired from the same nine-millimeter firearm. One bullet was recovered the following day from the crime scene; the other was found during the coroner’s autopsy performed on the body of George Martinez, which Verdugo attended. Verdugo also supervised the collection of blood evidence (none of which subsequently was determined to have matched defendant’s blood) and interviewed various witnesses. On cross-examination, Verdugo testified that Mario Medel described the person who was thrown out of the bar as having been a “male Hispanic possibly in his 20’s or 21 years old, five five to five six, I believe it was a hundred and forty pounds, dark hair and a short trimmed mustache. He also described [the suspect] as having a roundish facet, and] Americanized, one who possibly was here long enough to, let’s say, have papers. Those were his impressions. Not a recent illegal alien or an undocumented alien.” In the ensuing months, Verdugo and law enforcement officials who were investigating defendant’s possible involvement in another case, compared defendant’s photograph with the composite drawing made with the assistance of Barbara Quijada, noted the resemblance between the two, and recontacted the Fort Knots witnesses for the purpose of showing them a photographic lineup that included defendant’s image. Gerald Jansen, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Inspector, testified that he showed the photographic lineup to certain witnesses to the Martinez killing. Barbara Quijada selected defendant’s image from the lineup. On cross-examination, Jansen recalled that Mario Medel did not select anyone from the lineup, and one other witness was unable to choose between the image of defendant and that of another individual. 4. The Murder of Efrem Baldía, November 29, 1989 Nicolas Venegas testified he was employed as a caretaker and beer-delivery person at the La Luciérnaga bar, located in Compton, an establishment occasionally frequented by defendant. Venegas recalled seeing Sylvia Tinoco, who also worked at La Luciérnaga, speaking with defendant on a few occasions, and that the two appeared to have a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Venegas also recalled that Tinoco appeared to be “going around” with Efrem Baldía, whom Venegas knew as “Amulfo.” On November 29, 1989, Venegas drove Tinoco to see defendant at the Rita Motel, where he was staying in room 23. That morning, the three drank beer and ingested cocaine in defendant’s room; on the bed was a bag that Venegas believed contained kilos of cocaine. Defendant asked Venegas whether he knew anyone who “wanted to buy the coke.” Venegas did not respond. Beneath the pillow on the bed was a .45-caliber firearm. Not feeling well, Venegas walked outside to the parking lot, at which point Efrem Baldía drove into the lot with another individual, parked his car, and began conversing with Venegas. Sensing the possibility of trouble in view of Tinoco’s concurrent relationships with Baldía and defendant, Venegas suggested that Baldía depart from the premises: “I told him that I knew it was gonna be some problems up there, so I just tell him to just go—don’t stay there, just drive in his car and, ‘better get out of here,’ I told him. . . . [Bjecause [Baldía] was going around with Sylvia. ... I knew Lino [that is, defendant]. ... I didn’t know how he was gonna react. I seen the gun up there in the room. So I just tell him to just split, and he don’t want to. ... I just told him to split from right there where he was. I told him Lino was right there. I just told him to go, and he didn’t want to go. He stayed there. . . .” Venegas further testified: “[Within five minutes,] I see Lino was coming out of that room. And I just told the other guy just to split, and I went to another room,” next door, where Venegas knew that other friends were staying. Shortly after entering that room, Venegas heard three or four gunshots. He stayed in the room for “about eight minutes,” then saw a white car, similar to one he had seen defendant drive, depart from the premises. Venegas called Tinoco, and the pair immediately left, because Venegas “didn’t want any problems up there.” In his testimony at trial, Venegas recalled seeing Baldía and defendant conversing with each other prior to the shooting, but did not know what they were saying. He did not see the shooting and could not recall whether he shortly thereafter saw a body. He never saw defendant or the victim holding a gun. He acknowledged fearing for his safety and that of his family in connection with his testifying in court. Ramiro Salazar (occasionally referred to in the record as “Ramiro Salazar Gamboa”) had been employed at the La Luciérnaga bar, was acquainted with Sylvia Tinoco, and had seen her in the company of defendant and Baldía. He believed Tinoco was having simultaneous relationships with each of the men. Salazar testified that he accompanied Baldía to the Rita Motel on November 29, 1989, at approximately 2:00 p.m. Shortly after Baldía exited from the vehicle and spoke with Venegas, defendant emerged from one of the motel rooms, calling Baldía toward the room. Baldía declined. Defendant and Baldía conversed briefly. Salazar testified initially at trial that he did not hear what Baldía and defendant were saying and did not see them push each other or fight. The prosecutor thereafter asked the witness whether he had informed the investigating law enforcement officers that defendant appeared angry upon emerging from the motel and had grabbed Baldía, and Salazar acknowledged that he had so informed the officers. Salazar acknowledged telling the officers that Baldía asked defendant, “Why are you mad at me?” after which defendant let Baldía go and Baldía backed up with his hands in the air, asking defendant, “What’s your problem with me?” Salazar saw defendant unbutton his shirt, pull a pistol from the area of his waistband, and fire at least three times at Baldía from a distance variously described as “maybe some six feet,” “six to seven feet,” “three meters,” 12 to 15 feet (estimate offered by the court in attempting to characterize the witness’s description), and (on cross-examination) as “somewhat far away.” On cross-examination, Salazar testified he saw defendant pull out the firearm, but Salazar explained he looked away at that point and did not actually see the shooting, although he immediately heard the shots. Salazar later testified he was looking at defendant when the shots were fired. Neither Salazar nor Baldía was armed with a weapon, and no weapon was located in the car driven by Baldía. Immediately after the shooting, defendant drove away in his vehicle. Salazar departed to call an ambulance, returning a few minutes later. Salazar admitted giving investigating police officers and detectives a false name, “Antonio Sain,” because he was nervous and frightened after having told them who had committed the killing. Salazar denied telling the officers that defendant had threatened to kill him; the prosecutor then read into the record Salazar’s testimony given at the preliminary hearing, in which Salazar stated the reason he feared defendant was “because he was going to kill me,” and “I shouldn’t call the police, that if I called the police he was going to kill me.” Salazar denied fearing coming to court to testify. Cheryl Lyons, a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff, testified that she was one of the investigating officers who responded to the homicide at the Rita Motel. Lyons identified expended shell casings that were recovered from the parking lot, testifying that ballistics tests revealed all the shell casings to have been fired from the same .45-caliber weapon. Lyons further testified that during her interview with the witness who identified himself as “Antonio Sain” (that is, Ramiro Salazar), he told her the following: “[A]s the victim was parking the car, they saw the suspect, and that the victim got out of the car, went around to the back of the car and put his hands up . . . making statements, T don’t want any trouble,’ speaking to the suspect. And then ... the suspect grabbed the victim by the shirt; and then the victim started backing up . . . away from the suspect. . . . And the suspect took a silver—or a metallic, he said—a light-colored gun—he unbuttoned his shirt, took it from his waistband, and fired at him several times at close range. . . . [The witness] said he was told by the suspect . . . ‘Don’t talk to the police,’ or, ‘Don’t tell the police.’ [The witness said he lay] down on the front seat of the car for fear of his life.” On cross-examination, Lyons testified that, in her report of the interview, the firearm was identified as a semiautomatic pistol, and that Baldía asked defendant, “What is your problem with me?” Beatriz Escamilla testified that she and her husband, Jose Campista, were residing at the Rita Motel on the day of the shooting, that she believed but was not certain that Campista was defendant’s uncle, and that she knew defendant, Sylvia Tinoco, Nicolas Venegas, and the victim. Escamilla was in her room when she heard gunshots; because her child was outside, she looked out the window, and she saw defendant drive away in his vehicle, “which was right next to the person [who] had been shot,” and also saw Tinoco and Venegas depart from the premises. Dr. Rogers testified regarding the autopsy performed on Efrem Baldía, and described the cause of death as having been multiple gunshot wounds. None of the wounds indicated that the gun was fired directly in front of the victim. The victim’s body bore a small amount of benzoylecgonine, a substance related to cocaine. Alan McRoberts, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Latent Print Examiner, testified that he matched defendant’s fingerprints to those found on two of the kilo-sized packages that Nicolas Venegas saw in defendant’s room at the Rita Motel. McRoberts further testified that the packages had “a distinct odor”—“a smell of cheese that was deteriorating and becoming quite rank.” Kelley Archer, a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff and one of the first law enforcement officers to arrive at the crime scene, initially believed the packages contained kilos of drugs, and caused them to be examined at the Lynwood sheriff’s station. In the course of that examination, investigators discovered that the packages contained “provolone cheese laced with cocaine on the top . . . .” 5." The Murder of Jose Gutierrez, January 21, 1990 Beatriz Escamilla, who testified regarding the shooting at the Rita Motel, also testified regarding defendant’s involvement in the shooting death of Jose Gutierrez at the Mazatlan Bar, located in Compton, at approximately 12:40 a.m. on January 21, 1990. Escamilla, who was employed at the bar as a cashier, was not working on that occasion, instead having gone there “to drink some beers,” and had been there for “several hours” prior to the shooting. Defendant was sitting at a table, drinking beer. Escamilla “chatted with” defendant, who did not appear to be drunk; on cross-examination, she acknowledged having offered to “take some beers to him,” to which defendant replied, “No, I will go get them myself.” Shortly after midnight, defendant walked from his table to the cashier behind the bar, and requested more beer. At approximately the same time, “the young man who died, he came out of that other comer to ask for beers. This young guy got close to [defendant], and [the victim] went directly to [defendant] and started offending him. . . . The man started to ask [defendant] if he had a pistol, to take it out and use it; and he started insulting him, you know, his mother. And Lino told him to calm down, that he didn’t want any problems. He said [that] to him two or three times. And that’s what happened with that young man.” Escamilla testified defendant repeatedly shot the man in the back, from a distance of approximately four feet. She did not see the victim attempt to grab or stab defendant or to hold a weapon, nor did he see a weapon fall to the ground. On cross-examination, Escamilla further testified: “I just looked at Lino. I was not able to see the victim. On seeing the pistol in his hand, what was I going to do? Again, turn around and look at him, not the victim. He was about to do something.” Asked if she was looking at defendant when the first shot was fired, the witness responded affirmatively. Adela Lopez (occasionally referred to in the record as Adela Lopez Ontiveros) was employed as a bartender, waitress, and cashier at the Mazatlan Bar on the night of the shooting. She testified that defendant sat with “two or three guys ... in the back of the bar.” Lopez was familiar with defendant from his previous visits, recalling that “he used to go there all the time,” and that on this occasion, he had arrived at the bar approximately 20 minutes prior to the shooting. In response to the prosecutor’s inquiry whether she saw defendant stand up at his table and appear to have a gun underneath his shirt, Lopez testified: “No. When I see him—I look because he was already shooting that person. ... He arrived [at the bar] and touched the [victim], and the next thing I know he shot. He fired.” After the first shot was fired, the victim was “thrown on the floor,” and defendant “kept right on firing.” In response to the prosecutor’s inquiry as to what the victim had been doing at the bar, Lopez replied: “He was asleep. . . . That person was asleep. ... I didn’t see the guy who fell down say anything.” Asked whether she saw the victim holding any weapon at all, Lopez testified: “No. . . . That man had been leaning against the bar asleep for at least two hours.” Lopez further testified that immediately after the shooting, “[defendant] went out through the door. He left. And he left with a pistol in his hand and then the security went after him with their pistol[s] out.” Lopez identified defendant as the shooter in a pretrial photographic lineup and at trial. On cross-examination, Lopez testified that immediately prior to the shooting, she saw defendant grab the victim without exchanging any words. She looked away, heard the first shot, and then “I just looked and saw the guy on the floor, and I watched [defendant] keep on shooting him.” She acknowledged leaving the bar just as the police arrived, and without speaking to the investigating officers. Stoney Jackson, a police officer employed by the City of Compton, testified that he arrived at the crime scene shortly after the shooting and observed the victim’s body lying on the floor, bearing multiple gunshot wounds. He recovered four shell casings, described as .38-caliber “super autos,” that likely were fired from the same firearm. He also identified certain beer containers that had been collected for fingerprint evidence. Dwight Dobbin, a Compton Police Department investigator, testified that a left thumbprint lifted from a Budweiser can collected from the Mazatlan Bar timing the investigation matched defendant’s. Dr. Rogers testified regarding the autopsy performed on the body of Jose Gutierrez. He described the cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds to the back. The victim’s body had a blood-alcohol content of .30 percent, as well as a small amount of a cocaine-related substance, benzoylecgonine. 6. Defendant’s Arrest and Interview, February 22, 1990 Beatriz Escamilla testified that sometime in February 1990, defendant, who was armed with a pistol and had suffered a gunshot wound, arrived at her residence and requested that she and her husband take him to the hospital. Escamilla’s husband did so. On cross-examination, Escamilla testified defendant had a gun in his possession, which she recalled was the case “sometimes, not regularly.” John Laurie, one of the Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs who testified in connection with the investigation of the shooting at the Las Playas restaurant, testified defendant was arrested at the hospital. Joe Olmedo, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Detective (who also was fluent in Spanish), advised defendant in Spanish of his constitutional rights and, with another law enforcement officer present, thereafter interviewed defendant at the hospital emergency room, apparently after defendant’s gunshot wound had been treated. The interview was conducted in Spanish. Because Detective Olmedo died (of natural causes) prior to defendant’s trial, his videotaped testimony given at the preliminary hearing was played for the jury. Detective Olmedo testified that defendant was placed under arrest for the murder committed at the Las Playas restaurant. According to Detective Olmedo, defendant denied committing any murders; however, after Detective Olmedo informed defendant that witnesses had identified him as having committed the murder at the Rita Motel, defendant “indicated that he had killed a person by the name of Amulfo, that is the only name he knew the person by, at that location. . . .” According to Olmedo, defendant also told him the following: “He indicated that he was staying in Room 23 at the Rita Motel and that at about 9:00 a.m. in the morning a person by the name of Sylvia Tinoco and a person [by the] name of Nicholas Venegas had arrived at the room to visit him and he said sometime in the afternoon he had heard a vehicle pull up into the parking lot and he had looked out and seen Amulfo and a male Latin who he described as being 22 years of age in the vehicle. He said at that time he armed himself with a .45 semiautomatic pistol by placing it underneath his shirt. He said that he had heard that Amulfo, referring to the victim, had made some threats against his life and he left the room and confronted him in the parking lot. He indicated that as he was walking towards the victim, and the victim was exiting the car, he told the victim that he wanted to talk to him. And that he basically just wanted to talk to him, didn’t want any problems with him and if he wanted the girl [Sylvia Tinoco] that he could have her because his intentions, meaning Mr. Manriquez’s intentions, were to return back to Mexico. At the same time he indicated that the victim was walking towards him and that the victim had indicated, T don’t want to talk to you,’ something to the effect, calling him stupid. And at that point, . . . Mr. Manriquez drew his weapon from his waistband and placed the barrel of the weapon into the victim’s stomach, pushing him backwards and at the same time the weapon discharged. He said as the victim had stepped . . . backwards as the weapon discharged and at the same time he remembered what the victim had said to him and he fired several more times as the victim was falling to the ground.” Detective Olmedo further testified that he asked defendant whether the killing at the Rita Motel had anything to do with any type of narcotics transaction, and that in response defendant “said it had nothing to do with the narcotics, that it was over the young lady, over the woman [Sylvia Tinoco].” On cross-examination, Detective Olmedo was asked whether defendant had said he had been afraid of Baldía as Baldía walked toward defendant, to which Detective Olmedo replied, “No. He—he never said he was afraid of him. And I don’t recall him saying that.” Detective Olmedo further testified that he did not recall asking defendant whether defendant had feared Baldía. B. The Defense Case The defense presented a minimal case during the guilt phase of the trial, comprised entirely of the testimony of Clara Miller, who was employed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and whose testimony comprised six pages of the reporter’s transcript. Miller was one of the law enforcement officers who responded to the request for help in the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Efrem Baldia at the Rita Motel. When Miller arrived at the crime scene, she spoke in Spanish with a witness who identified himself as Antonio Sain. The witness informed her that he had driven to the motel with the victim, and that the victim had exited from the vehicle, had proceeded directly toward the motel room in which defendant was staying, and then had encountered defendant. Miller testified: “I believe [Sain] said there was an argument [that] ensued between him—between the victim and the suspect. The suspect grabbed ... the victim by the shirt, and then the victim began to walk back towards his car. As he approached the car, the suspect called out to the victim; and the . . . victim ignored the suspect.” The fatal shots ensued immediately thereafter. II. PENALTY PHASE EVIDENCE A. The Prosecution’s Case 1. The Three Paramount Murders The prosecution presented evidence establishing defendant’s involvement in three additional killings committed on the morning of February 22, 1990, the same day that defendant arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound and was placed under arrest. On that morning, defendant and his half brother, Paciano Jacques (“Mingo”) Ochoa, armed themselves with a .45-caliber handgun and a .38-caliber handgun—the latter weapon being the same firearm used by defendant at the Mazatlan Bar one month earlier—and took four kilos of cheese wrapped in tape to a residence located in Paramount. According to the prosecution’s theory of the case, defendant and his half brother intended to effect a “drug rip-off,” whereby they would obtain the cash from their buyers, who presumably believed they were purchasing four kilos of cocaine. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department responded to a “shots fired” call at approximately 10:45 a.m. Investigating officers discovered the bodies of three persons—Solticio Martinez, Juan Parra Gomez, and Everado Cervantes—at the residence, each of the victims having suffered multiple fatal gunshot wounds. One victim was found with a nine-millimeter firearm in his waistband, the second was found with a .380-caliber firearm and a single .380-caliber expended shell beneath him, and the third victim was found unarmed in a separate room. Nine shell casings fired from the same .38-caliber firearm that had been used in the Mazatlan Bar were found at the crime scene, as were six .45-caliber shell casings. Defendant’s fingerprints and those of his half brother were recovered from beer cans found inside the entranceway of the room where the bodies were found. Investigators examined the four kilos of cheese and determined they contained “some cocaine.” Later that day, defendant arrived at the Charter Suburban Hospital with a gunshot wound to the left chest area; Kathleen Estavillo, the emergency room nurse, asked defendant where he had suffered his injury, and defendant replied, “Paramount.” She explained to defendant in Spanish: “I am very glad it happened in Paramount as opposed to Compton. If it happened in the City of Compton, it could be hours before a police agency would be here to interview you.” Approximately one-half hour later, Estavillo overheard defendant inform a deputy sheriff that he had been wounded by a “Black man in the City of Compton.” Defendant’s hospital armband bore the name, “Norberto Marquez Nevarez.” His wallet contained identification for “Abelino Martinez.” An investigating officer at the hospital, who previously had seen defendant’s picture, recognized him, however, and defendant, for whom a warrant already had issued in connection with the La Playas restaurant murder, was arrested. 2. The Rape of Patricia M. Patricia M. testified that in the early morning hours of January 26, 1988, she was babysitting for a friend who resided in Paramount, when her friend’s husband arrived with defendant. The husband went to a bedroom, and Patricia, who had been sleeping on the couch in the living room, thought she heard defendant depart from the residence. Patricia began to fall back asleep when “this guy [defendant] came over, and all I remember was he was on top of me. ... I felt something cold on my stomach. And he threatened me by saying that he will shoot me a few times if I will not give him sex. I tried to move, but he stuck the gun at my head and he threatened me, you know, not to scream or not to say anything. And he put it back on my stomach. All I kept thinking was, my children, I have to be there for my children. ... He went inside of me. He put the gun on the side of the couch, and he started having intercourse with me against my will. I tried not to think of anything but my children and my life, because he threaten[ed] it. I tried to reach for the gun, and I was thinking I could kill him. But I couldn’t reach the gun. It was underneath the couch and it kept sliding away. When he was done, he took off real fast. . . ; and I ran to the bathroom to urinate so I wouldn’t get pregnant. I took a shower angrily because I feel dirty. I felt I was real[ly] violated. I thought that I would get even someday, because it was not right what he did to me. ... I am still afraid. I am still afraid because he is still alive. He is still there. He can do something to me still, or my family.” B. The Defense Case The defense evidence in mitigation was introduced through the testimony of five of defendant’s relatives, each of whom described the deprivation and abuse defendant suffered as a child in rural Mexico. The witnesses testified that defendant’s childhood was marred by extreme cruelty, vicious beatings, grinding poverty, forced labor, and a lack of care, education, affection, or encouragement by the adults in defendant’s life. Cecilia Manriquez Solis, defendant’s first cousin, testified that she and defendant resided as children on a ranch they shared with her grandmother and defendant’s father, in Mexico. The area in which the ranch was located lacked electricity, a school, church, store, or regular law enforcement, and none of the residences on the ranch had windows or doors. The children worked from 3:00 a.m. to approximately 5:00 p.m.—farming, planting, and collecting firewood and water, every day of the year except Good Friday. During the few years that Solis and defendant resided together at the ranch, she observed him beaten several times, “sometimes two to three times per day.” These beatings included one occasion when defendant was seven years of age: he was tied to a tree and beaten with a whip, and Solis recalled that “my grandmother got tired of hitting him, so my uncle, his father continued to hit him.” On other occasions defendant was beaten with a whip or a belt. Such beatings occurred on a daily basis. Once defendant was hog-tied and left all night in a storage bin for com. Solis never saw defendant receive any sign of love or affection from his grandmother or his father. Cresencia Tamayo, defendant’s aunt, also resided at the ranch when defendant was a young child, and testified that defendant’s chores also involved retrieving the “cattle, beasts, burros . . . .” Defendant was sent on errands, and if he failed to perform he “would be hit or beaten” by his father, uncles, or grandmother, several times “all over with the belt” or with a rod or stick. Defendant and the other children worked each day of the year and never were allowed to play except “for a little while” on Good Friday. “There were no toys, [and] [t]here was no Christmas.” Rarely was any sort of affection shown to defendant. Joaquina Ward, who described herself as a half sister to defendant’s cousin Cecilia Manriquez Solis, testified that she also resided at the ranch for a few months when defendant was a child. She recalled that the children “were treated poorly” and that “[w]hen they didn’t do what they were told to do, they were hit,” defendant more often than the other children. On one occasion, Ward encountered defendant “tied by the legs and the hands,” because “he had been sent up to the hills to retrieve some firewood; and because he did not bring the kind that his father had asked for, he was punished.” Ward untied defendant, after which “he went down and turned into a little ball, and he stayed there crying.” She never saw anyone act affectionately toward defendant. Juan Manriquez, defendant’s cousin, testified that he resided with defendant at the ranch and that the children were prohibited from playing; when they did, they were beaten with “either a rod or a whip.” Manriquez recalled that defendant was beaten “for any reason,” two or three times per day, “and we could hear his screaming when he was being beaten.” On one occasion, defendant was caught bathing with his cousin, which led to another beating while defendant was tied up. When the boys’ grandmother caught them eating fruit, she “burned our feet so we couldn’t run away and so we wouldn’t do it again.” Defendant attempted to run away numerous times, which in turn led to his being beaten. Ultimately, defendant was able to run away and find his mother. Lorenza Sanchez, defendant’s half sister, testified that when defendant was approximately 12 or 13 years of age, he came to live with her and their mother at the home where their mother was employed, at which time Sanchez first learned she had a half brother. They resided together for approximately four or five years, during which time they moved to a larger ranch—one that had a school—but defendant did not attend the school, because he spent his time assisting other individuals in harvesting com. During this period, defendant’s mother cohabitated with a man who beat Sanchez and her sister, actions that defendant’s mother witnessed, angering defendant who once threw a brick at the man. Sanchez did not recall her mother showing any affection toward defendant. HI. DISCUSSION A. Motion for Severance Prior to the commencement of trial, defendant moved to sever the case filed against him into “five separate matters,” that is, one proceeding for each of the charged murders described above (ante, at pp. 553-567) and one proceeding for the Paramount triple murder that the People ultimately introduced as evidence in aggravation at the penalty phase of defendant’s trial (ante, at pp. 568-569). Defendant contended that the five incidents were factually unrelated and not cross-admissible, and that a joint trial would engender minimal savings to the judicial system while being severely prejudicial to defendant. Defendant acknowledged that pursuant to section 954, “[t]he charges in the instant case are of the same class of crime and . . . therefore, properly joinable,” but asserted that the court had discretion to order separate trials in the interest of justice, and urged the court to do so. At the hearing on defendant’s motion, defendant reiterated the foregoing points, emphasizing that the court had discretion to sever the proceedings, notwithstanding the circumstance that “there is no question they are join-able.” In response, the prosecution argued that separate trials would be an inefficient use of judicial resources. The trial court ordered the three Paramount murders to be severed and tried separately from the other four charged murders, and denied without prejudice defendant’s motion for separate trials on each of the four charged murders. Approximately 14 months later, defendant appeared before the same judge to renew his motion to sever the four charged murders into four separate proceedings, arguing that joinder of the four counts was prejudicial because “[although the court is going to instruct ... the jury that [it] can’t use unrelated evidence of this crime to prove another crime, the problem is I think this jury is going to have much difficulty doing that and they are going to mix these two things together.” Defendant further argued that when a prior murder is alleged as a special circumstance, section 190.1, subdivisions (a) and (b), require that the question of defendant’s guilt of the charged murder be determined prior to the determination of the truth of the special circumstance alleging a prior murder, in order to avoid the sort of prejudice that defendant would face in one trial for separate, factually unrelated murders. Defendant also hypothesized that if he were tried separately on each of the counts and convicted of first degree murder in the first trial and second degree murder in all subsequent trials, he never would be eligible to face the death penalty, whereas if convicted of one count of first degree murder and three counts of second degree murder in a single trial, he would be eligible for the death penalty; he argued that such dissimilar results violated his right to equal protection of the laws. The trial court rejected defendant’s arguments and denied his motion to sever the trial of the charges. On appeal, defendant reiterates and expands upon the arguments that were made and rejected in the court below, contending the trial was “fundamentally unfair” because defendant “was forced to defend against the combined weight of the four charged homicides at once.” Defendant further contends “[t]he inflammatory impact of a joint trial overwhelmed the jurors’ ability to weigh the evidence on each charge, so that they returned first degree murder verdicts on charges with extremely weak evidence.” He asserts that he would have fared better had the charges been tried separately, and that the single trial violated his rights to due process of law and a fair and reliable determination as to guilt and punishment. “The law prefers consolidation of charges. (People v. Ochoa (1998) 19 Cal.4th 353, 409 [79 Cal.Rptr.2d 408, 966 P.2d 442].) Where, as here, the offenses charged are of the same class, joinder is proper under section 954. (People v. Kraft (2000) 23 Cal.4th 978, 1030 [99 Cal.Rptr.2d 1, 5 P.3d 68] (Kraft); People v. Bradford (1997) 15 Cal.4th 1229, 1315 [65 Cal.Rptr.2d 145, 939 P.2d 259] (Bradford).) Defendant can predicate error in the denial of the motion only on a clear showing of potential prejudice. (Kraft, at p. 1030; Bradford, at p. 1315.) We review the denial of defendant’s motion for an abuse of discretion, that is, whether the denial fell 1 “outside the bounds of reason.” ’ (Ochoa, at p. 408, quoting People v. DeSantis (1992) 2 Cal.4th 1198, 1226 [9 Cal.Rptr.2d 628, 831 P.2d 1210].)” (People v. Ochoa (2001) 26 Cal.4th 398, 423 [110 Cal.Rptr.2d 324, 28 P.3d 78] (Ochoa II)) As we further explained in Ochoa II, “We have developed criteria to guide evaluations of trial court decisions on severance motions. ‘ “ ‘Refusal to sever may be an abuse of discretion where: (1) evidence on the crimes to be jointly tried would not be cross-admissible in separate trials; (2) certain of the charges are unusually likely to inflame the jury against the defendant; (3) a “weak” case has been joined with a “strong” case, or with another “weak” case, so that the “spillover” effect of aggregate evidence on several charges might well alter the outcome of some or all of the charges; and (4) any one of the charges carries the death penalty or joinder of them turns the matter into a capital case.’ ” ’ (Kraft, supra, 23 Cal.4th at p. 1030.) [][] Cross-admissibility of evidence is sufficient but not necessary to deny severance. (Bradford, supra, 15 Cal.4th at p. 1316.) As the four-part test is stated in the conjunctive, joinder may be appropriate even though the evidence is not cross-admissible and only one of the charges would be capital absent joinder. (People v. Musselwhite (1998) 17 Cal.4th 1216, 1244-1246 [74 Cal.Rptr.2d 212, 954 P.2d 475] (Musselwhite)) Even where the People present capital charges, joinder is proper so long as evidence of each charge is so strong that consolidation is unlikely to affect the verdict. (People v. Arias (1996) 13 Cal.4th 92, 130, fn. 11 [51 Cal.Rptr.2d 770, 913 P.2d 980] (Arias); People v. Lucky (1988) 45 Cal.3d 259, 277-278 [247 Cal.Rptr. 1, 753 P.2d 1052] (Lucky).)” (Ochoa II, supra, 26 Cal.4th 398, 423.) In the present case, the trial court correctly recognized the law’s preference for joinder and properly exercised its discretion in denying the severance motion. (See ante, at p. 573, fn. 13; Ochoa II, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 423.) Although defendant contends the trial court believed it had no discretion, that position is belied by the passages from the hearings noted above. Defendant’s position is further belied by the circumstance that, because the judge who granted defendant’s motion to sever the Paramount triple murders from the four murders for which defendant was tried and convicted was the same judge who denied defendant’s motion to sever the four charged murders into separate proceedings, the judge clearly understood that he had discretion to sever. With regard to defendant’s alternate contention that the trial court abused its discretion, we observe that although the prosecution did not make a showing of cross-admissibility in support of joinder, the absence of such a showing did not require severance. (Ochoa II, supra, 26 Cal.4th 398, 423.) In view of the circumstance that each of the four homicides involved a charge that defendant, armed with a concealed and loaded firearm, initiated a fatal attack upon an unarmed individual, no particular killing was “significantly more egregious” than any other (contrary to defendant’s assertion otherwise), and therefore none were “unusually likely to inflame the jury against the defendant.” The suggestion that defendant also was linked to the cocaine recovered from the Las Playas and Rita Motel crime scenes was hardly inflammatory relative to the homicides charged against him. Thus, a “weak” case was not joined to a “strong” one. Although none of the individual homicides carried a special circumstance that might have converted the matter into a capital case, and joinder did effect such conversion (in view of the multiple-murder special circumstance), we conclude that as a practical matter joinder had a minimal effect, because the evidence as to each homicide indicated that defendant intentionally killed with premeditation and deliberation, providing a compelling basis for four convictions of first degree murder and a true finding as to multiple murder even if defendant had been tried separately for each homicide. Defendant’s speculative and unconvincing contentions to the contrary—that had he been tried individually, he “probably” would have been acquitted of the murder of George Martinez at the Fort Knots bar and “probably” would have been convicted, of only second degree murder in the killing of Efrem Baldía at the Rita Motel—never were presented to the trial court at the time of his motion to sever. Moreover, separate trials would have given the prosecution multiple opportunities in which to convince a jury to impose the death penalty upon defendant. (See People v. Carter (2005) 36 Cal.4th 1114, 1158, fn. 17 [32 Cal.Rptr.3d 759, 117 P.3d 476].) No abuse of discretion or abridgment of defendant’s right to due process of law appears. (People v. Box (2000) 23 Cal.4th 1153, 1195-1197 [99 Cal.Rptr.2d 69, 5 P.3d 130].) In sum, defendant fails to establish that he made “a c