A state appellate court panel on Tuesday upheld the convictions of two gang members for a 23-year-old Inglewood woman’s shooting death.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that jurors in the murder trial of Clifton Gregory Brown and Casey Lee Rowland shouldn’t have heard evidence about a shooting in Compton six days after Ashley Cheval was killed in South Los Angeles.
“Here, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the similarities between the Los Angeles and Compton shootings were sufficient to show common plan or design and identity,” the appellate court panel found in a 24-page ruling.
“The most noteworthy is the use of the same 9 mm Glock in both shootings, but that was not the only common mark. Both shootings occurred in territory claimed by rivals to appellants’ gang. Both shootings took place in daytime. Both shootings involved multiple perpetrators, who wore clothing that blended in with the neighborhood of the targeted gang …”
Brown and Rowland were convicted of first-degree murder for the Aug. 25, 2006, killing of Cheval, who was shot once in the head as she sat in a vehicle. Jurors found true a special circumstance allegation that the murder occurred while the two were active participants in a criminal street gang.
Brown and Rowland were also found guilty of three counts of attempted murder involving two rival gang members who were wounded while standing near the car and a woman who was in the car with Cheval but escaped injury.
The two were sentenced in February 2013 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for Cheval’s killing. They were tried separately and convicted of the Compton shooting, in which six people were wounded on Aug. 31, 2006.
— City News Service