The California Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part a judgment of conviction and sentence of death. The court held that the trial court erred in instructing a kidnapping jury that it needed to consider the “totality of the circumstances” in determining whether the asportation of the victim constituted kidnapping.
In 1998, Gabriel Castenada attacked Colleen Kennedy when she was alone at her place of work. He bound her, sodomized her, killed her, and then stole her credit cards and jewelry. He never used the credit cards and did not keep the jewelry, giving it to a friend who asked for it when Castaneda said he was going to throw it away.
