A state appeals court panel Wednesday upheld a former Lake Elsinore resident’s first-degree murder conviction for stabbing his cousin 28 times at an apartment building in Long Beach.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s claim that the trial court erred in admitting evidence that Bryant Underwood had an affair with his cousin’s girlfriend.
Underwood was convicted in May 2015 of the April 8, 2014, murder of 27- year-old Ahkeem Johnson.
Underwood — who was covered in blood — was arrested near the scene by police responding to a 911 call reporting strange noises coming from an apartment in the 2000 block of Locust Avenue.
The prosecution had theorized that the killing was motivated by Johnson’s decision to tell Underwood’s wife two to three weeks earlier that her husband had an affair with Johnson’s girlfriend in December 2013.
The defendant’s wife initially told police that she had separated from him as a result, but denied at trial that the disclosure had caused marital problems or that the two had separated, according to Deputy District Attorney Kelly Kelley.
The appellate panel rejected Underwood’s assertion that the extramarital affair was inflammatory and denied him a fair trial.
“Testimony about the affair was far less inflammatory than the circumstances of the crime: appellant armed himself with a knife and gloves, entered the apartment, and stabbed Ahkeem 28 times while his children (ages 1 and 3) slept in the next room,” the ruling read. “The trial court concluded that the affair was relevant and admissible to show motive.”
The justices also rejected Underwood’s contention that the trial court erred in denying his request to represent himself at his sentencing in July 2015, when he was ordered to spend 26 years to life in state prison.
–City News Service