Davies v. State

OPINION

By the Court,

Manoukian, J.:

Upon a jury verdict, appellant John Davies, 23, was convicted of the first degree murder of Michael Marcheschi, 19, and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. For the reasons expressed in this opinion, the judgment is reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.

On the evening of Wednesday, February 23, 1977, after a day of drinking beer and ingesting other intoxicants, appellant and his friend, Don Smith, 20, drove to Floriston, California to pick up a third friend, Calvin Brotzman, 17. Brotzman’s parents had recently given him a…