People v. Muasau CA1/4

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 29, 2026
DocketA172591
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Muasau CA1/4 (People v. Muasau CA1/4) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Muasau CA1/4, (Cal. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

Filed 6/29/26 P. v. Muasau CA1/4 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FOUR

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A172591 v. ULUAO FRANK MUASAU, (San Bernardino County Defendant and Appellant. Super. Ct. No. FSB19003995)

Uluao F. Muasau was sitting in his SUV when he got in a verbal altercation with a man outside of the vehicle. Muasau got out of the SUV and fired 15 shots at the victim, killing him. A jury found Muasau guilty of first degree murder. Muasau contends the jury instructions inaccurately defined premeditation and that there is insubstantial evidence of deliberation and premeditation. We affirm. I. BACKGROUND Muasau was charged with murder (Pen. Code,1 § 187, subd. (a)) and possession of a firearm by a felon (§ 29800, subd. (a)(1)). The operative information further alleged that, during the commission of the murder, Muasau personally used a firearm (§ 12022.5, subd. (a)) and personally and

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless

otherwise indicated. intentionally discharged a firearm (§ 12022.53, subds. (b)–(d)). The charges were tried to a jury. A. The Prosecution’s Case The night of November 18, 2019, San Bernardino police detective, Jose Alvarez, was on patrol and heard gunshots. He was then dispatched to a report of a man down at a nearby intersection. There, he found Harold Osborne dead with a gunshot wound to the chest. Officer Alvarez saw Osborne’s bicycle lay on the far side of the intersection. While canvassing the scene, Officer Alvarez came upon and interviewed Kathleen Fitzwater. Fitzwater relayed that she saw a man traveling down the road on a bicycle and the man “started yelling at . . people” who were in a dark colored SUV. To her it sounded “like a fight,” and then she heard “[a]bout 15” consecutive gunshots fired from the area where the SUV was. She observed men get back in the SUV and drive away. Police interviewed Heather S., who lived in one of the apartments outside of which the shots were fired. Heather told the police that she was inside her apartment when she heard six or seven gunshots, prompting her to go outside. Once outside, she saw Muasau standing on the driver’s side of an SUV, holding a gun in his hand and trying to turn off the SUV’s headlights. Her boyfriend, Mark C., got out of the passenger side of the vehicle, grabbed Heather, and took her back inside the house.2

2 At trial, however, Heather S. disavowed her prior statement that she

went outside and saw Muasau with a gun, averring she felt pressured by the police to tell them what they wanted to hear. She testified that she saw Muasau’s SUV pull up to the apartment via a security camera, which she then turned off. She also said that the gunshots woke her up yet, prior to the gunshots, she saw Osborne from her window and heard yelling, including Osborne yell, “Shut the fuck up.” She further testified that Mark intercepted

2 Police found six expended nine-millimeter cartridge casings outside Heather and Mark’s apartment. An autopsy determined Osborne died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. The lethal bullet was a nine-millimeter round. The shots were fired from the other side of a nine-foot tall chain link fence topped with barbed wire, which at least partially enclosed the apartment building’s parking area.3 Police learned that Muasau owned a vehicle matching Fitzwater’s description of the SUV that fled the scene. When police searched his SUV, they recovered nine expended nine-millimeter cartridge casings in the SUV’s windshield wipers and hood. The headstamps of the cartridge casings matched those of the cartridge casings found at the scene by Heather and Mark’s apartment. Laboratory analysis determined all 15 cartridge casings had been fired by the same gun. When initially interviewed the day after the shooting, Muasau told the police that the prior night he went to Mark’s house and stayed for about 15 minutes smoking marijuana before returning home. As he was leaving, Muasau claimed he saw a “fool” having a seizure in the street near a bicycle and drove past him. Muasau denied interacting with or shooting Osborne. B. The Defense Muasau’s nephew, Ben, had been targeted in two shootings at about the same time as the Osborne shooting. Ben testified that, “[a]t that time in [his] life,” he had been hanging out with the wrong crowd, including gang members.

her inside the apartment and therefore she never went outside or saw Muasau with a gun. 3 Several bullets appeared to have struck the fence.

3 The first shooting occurred about a month prior to Osborne’s killing. As Ben left a friend’s house and got into a vehicle, a few other cars stopped and “a few shots rang out.” Ben was struck in the hand, and his cousin and a friend were also shot. Subsequently, Ben started receiving threats on social media. About a week before Osborne’s killing, one of messages threatened to kill Ben’s dad—however, it included a photograph of Muasau. Ben informed Muasau of the threat. Ben testified that the social media threats were deleted by the sender. The second shooting occurred hours before Osborne’s killing. Ben, his mom, and his cousin were in a car outside their house when someone shot several times at them. No one was hurt, and they did not report the shooting. Muasau testified that these two shootings made him concerned for his family and “a bit angry” at Ben “[b]ecause of the crowd he was hanging around.” Muasau was “[w]orried” when he learned about the threat made against him on social media, but he did not become more vigilant and did not change how he went about his days. Upon hearing about the second shooting, Muasau “got a little bit more worried” for his own safety. He went to Mark’s house that night to “vent” and “tell him what was going on.” Muasau said he sat outside Mark’s house for about 15 minutes before Mark joined him to smoke marijuana and methamphetamine in his SUV. Per Muasau, Mark pointed out Osborne and said that he thought Osborne had said Muasau’s name, prompting Muasau to “[stick] [his] head out the window, and [Muasau] asked, like, what happened?” Osborne rejoined, “Shut the fuck up” and started walking towards the SUV with his bike. As he approached, Osborne dropped the bike about 83 yards away from

4 Muasau’s SUV and said something to the effect of, “who wanna get gunned down, cuz?” A thought then “dawned on” Muasau that Osborne “possibly could be one of [the] guys” who shot at Ben. At some point during this exchange, Muasau turned on his SUV’s headlights, but Muasau could only see Osborne’s silhouette and could not make out his face or race. Yet Muasau could see that Osborne was walking towards him with his arm behind his back “as if he had a gun,” yelling profanities. Muasau testified that he believed Osborne was there to kill him. Muasau got out of his car and opened fire, shooting 15 times without pause. Muasau said he aimed high to “scare [Osborne] off” and he stopped shooting when Osborne “started running the other way.” Muasau claimed he lied about how the shooting transpired to the police when they interviewed him because he was unaware that self-defense applied in California. C. The Jury Instructions For First Degree Murder and Verdict Following the close of evidence, the trial court instructed the jury.

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People v. Muasau CA1/4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-muasau-ca14-calctapp-2026.