People v. Lookadoo

This is an automatic appeal (Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b)) from a judgment, after trial before the court without a jury, finding defendant guilty of murder in the first degree and imposing the death penalty.

Facts: Early in the morning on Sunday, October 25, 1964, defendant took his .22 caliber rifle, left his apartment, and drove to a service station in Modesto operated by John Arthur Inman. He bought a dollar’s worth of gasoline and a quart of oil. He then asked for a package of cigarettes, and when Inman went back into the living area of the station to get the cigarettes, defendant picked…