## Facts

- Paul Wesley Baker was tried in Los Angeles County for the murder of Judy Palmer and multiple sexual offenses against other victims.
- Before Palmer disappeared, she told a friend she feared Baker and said that if anything happened to her, “he did it.”
- Palmer later disappeared; her body was found in the desert in a severely decomposed condition.
- The prosecution presented circumstantial and forensic evidence tying Baker to Palmer’s disappearance and death, including evidence that he used or controlled Palmer’s vehicles without authorization and DNA evidence linked to the charged crimes.
- The jury convicted Baker of first degree murder, forcible rape, first degree residential burglary, grand theft auto, and unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle; it acquitted him of sexual penetration by foreign object.
- The jury found true special circumstances for rape murder and burglary murder, but not for murder during sexual penetration by foreign object.
- The jury also convicted Baker of forcible rape and sodomy by force against two other women (Kathleen S. and Lorna T.), and found multiple-victim allegations true.
- At the penalty phase, the prosecution introduced aggravating evidence, including the other sexual assaults and evidence suggesting possible animal abuse.
- The jury returned a verdict of death; the appeal was automatic to the California Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether substantial evidence supported the convictions for rape and burglary (entry with intent to commit rape) and the related rape-murder and burglary-murder special-circumstance findings.
2. Whether burglary with intent to commit rape “merges” with homicide so as to bar felony-murder liability or special circumstances absent proof of malice.
3. Whether the trial court reversibly erred in admitting challenged DNA evidence and other-crimes/uncharged-misconduct evidence.
4. Whether the prosecutor’s peremptory challenges violated Batson/Wheeler.
5. Whether penalty-phase evidentiary rulings (including potential animal-abuse evidence) or cumulative error required reversal of the death verdict.
6. Whether the judgment required correction as to fines or clerical entries in the abstract of judgment.

## Decision

- The California Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and the death sentence.
- The Court held the evidence was sufficient to support the rape and burglary convictions and the rape-murder and burglary-murder special circumstances, despite the condition of Palmer’s remains.
- The Court rejected the merger argument and upheld felony murder predicated on burglary with intent to commit rape in these circumstances.
- The Court found no reversible error in the admission of uncharged sexual-offense evidence and other contested bad-acts evidence; it deferred to the trial court’s discretionary balancing.
- Assuming arguendo some evidentiary errors (including certain DNA evidence at guilt phase and animal-abuse evidence at penalty phase), the Court held any error was harmless given the strength of the case and aggravating evidence.
- The Court rejected the Batson/Wheeler claim, finding the prosecution’s explanations race-neutral and supported by the record.
- The Court ordered a minor correction to the abstract of judgment and addressed a parole revocation fine issue, leaving the judgment otherwise intact.

## Legal Principles

- Substantial-evidence review permits reliance on circumstantial and forensic proof to support rape, burglary, and special-circumstance findings even where the victim’s remains limit direct medical proof.
- Under California felony-murder doctrine, burglary remains an independent predicate felony for felony murder and special circumstances even when the burglary’s intended felony is rape; the “merger” limitation does not apply on these facts.
- Admission of uncharged sexual offenses and other misconduct is reviewed for abuse of discretion; reversal requires a showing that any error was prejudicial.
- Batson/Wheeler challenges apply a three-step framework; a defendant must show purposeful discrimination, and race-neutral reasons supported by the record defeat the claim.
- At the penalty phase, assumed evidentiary error warrants reversal only if reasonably likely to have affected the penalty verdict; cumulative error requires prejudicial combined effect.

## Conclusion

The California Supreme Court upheld Baker’s death judgment, concluding the evidence supported the rape-, burglary-, and felony-murder-based special-circumstance findings; the felony-murder theory based on burglary with intent to rape did not merge with the homicide; and the asserted guilt- and penalty-phase errors, individually and cumulatively, were not prejudicial, aside from a minor clerical correction to the abstract of judgment.


People v. Baker, 10 Cal. 5th 1044 (Cal. 2021)