People v. Cook

Opinion

KENNARD, J.

A jury convicted Walter Joseph Cook III of three counts of first degree murder for killing Ernest Sadler, Michael Bettencourt, and Ronald Morris (Pen. Code, § 187), 1 and it found true a multiple-murder special circumstance (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)). It further found that the murder of Sadler was committed with a deadly weapon (§ 12022, subd. (b)), that defendant personally inflicted great bodily injury, on Sadler (§ 1203.075), and that defendant personally used a firearm in murdering both Bettencourt and Morris (§§ 1203.06, subd. (a)(1), 12022.5, subd. (a).) At the penalty…