Paul Joe Carasi (defendant) and his live-in girlfriend, Donna Lee (co-defendant or Lee), were charged, tried, and convicted in the same proceeding of committing two first degree murders on Mother's Day 1995. (Pen. Code, § 187.)*fn1 The victims were defendant's mother, Doris Carasi (Doris), and his former girlfriend, Sonia Salinas (Sonia), the mother of his child. As to each murder count, the jury returned a lying-in-wait special-circumstance finding (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(15)), and a finding of personal use of a deadly weapon, i.e., a knife. (§ 12022.). With respect to Sonia's murder, the jury also found true the special circumstances of multiple murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)), and murder for financial gain. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(1).) After a joint penalty trial, the jury returned a death verdict against defendant, but not against co-defendant Lee.*fn2 The trial court denied defendant's automatic motion to modify the penalty verdict. (§ 190.4, subd. (e).) The present appeal from the death judgment is automatic. (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 11, subd. (a); § 1239, subd. (b).)
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