People v. Enraca

In People v. Enraca (2012) 53 Cal.4th 735, the evidence showed the defendant shot two victims at close range in the back of the head, execution-style. The defendant's version of events established the victims were entitled to use deadly force to meet his deadly actions, and therefore the trial court did not err in instructing the jury with CALCRIM No. 3472's antecedent that a defendant who contrives to use force may not claim self-defense. Specifically, the defendant told investigators the first victim (Hernandez) slapped at the defendant's gun when the defendant pulled Hernandez's head back, and the defendant shot Hernandez because he thought Hernandez was reaching for a gun in the other victim's possession. Having shot Hernandez, the defendant also shot the other victim (Gobert) because he believed Gobert was reaching for the same (nonexistent) gun as Hernandez. As the Supreme Court explained, there was nothing unreasonable or unpredictable in the victims' supposed responses: "Hernandez responded to being pulled up by the hair by an armed assailant, and Gobert acted in resistance to Hernandez being killed." (Enraca, supra, 53 Cal.4th at p. 760.) Thus, there was no possible error in the trial court's instruction on contrived self-defense. Simply put, a defendant who assaults his victims with a gun may not set up a valid self-defense claim with evidence he believed the victims also reached for a gun, since they would be justified in meeting deadly force with deadly force. The evidence justified the contrived self-defense instruction there. (Id. at pp. 761-762.) In Enraca, supra, 53 Cal.4th at page 761, the California Supreme Court held that CALJIC No. 5.55, the predecessor to CALCRIM No. 3472, correctly stated the law. CALJIC No. 5.55, approved in Enraca, provided: "'The right of self-defense is not available to a person who seeks a quarrel with the intent to create a real or apparent necessity of exercising self-defense.'" (Enraca, supra, at p. 761.) In Enraca, the Supreme Court also approved the use of CALJIC No. 5.17, through which "the jury was also instructed that the principle of imperfect self-defense 'is not available, and malice aforethought is not negated, if the defendant, by his unlawful or wrongful conduct, created the circumstances which legally justified his adversary's use of force.'" (Enraca, supra, 53 Cal.4th at p. 761.) In Enraca, the Supreme Court held the jury was properly instructed with CALJIC No. 5.55 in the context of the evidence that the defendant participated in a gang fight during which he grabbed one victim by the hair, pulled his head back, and asked where he was from. (Enraca, supra, 53 Cal.4th at p. 744.) After the victim hit the defendant's hand, the defendant fatally shot him; the defendant explained he was afraid the victim was about to shoot him with a gun the defendant had not seen. (Ibid.) The defendant thereafter shot a second victim because he feared that victim was about to grab the same gun he had not seen. (Ibid.)