People v. Brown

*440Opinion

LUCAS, C. J.

This is an automatic appeal from a judgment of death under the 1978 death penalty legislation. (Pen. Code, §§ 190-190.5.)1 We affirm.

I. Facts and Procedure

In June 1980 defendant was a wanted man; he had failed to appear for a jury trial and another criminal hearing, and two bench warrants were issued for his arrest. After telling his former live-in girlfriend he was not going back to jail and did not want to die in prison, defendant bought a gun and changed his name to Gordon Mink.

Meanwhile the Garden Grove police were looking for him. At an evening prepatrol briefing on…