Coleman v. Superior Court

Opinion

FEINBERG, J.

This petition challenges the trial court’s refusal to sever a murder prosecution from a prosecution for sex crimes committed upon two minors, neither of whom was the victim of the charged murder.

On March 20, 1980, an information was filed charging petitioner with murder (Pen. Code, § 187) 1 with special circumstances that it was committed during the commission of rape (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(iii)) and during the commission of sodomy (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(iv)). Rape (§ 261, subd. 2) and sodomy (§ 286, subd. (c)) charges accompanied the murder charge, the victim of which…