This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

Police officers responding to a call from D at his apartment on the morning of September 9, 1997. They found the victim's partially covered body lying on the couch. D told the officers that after a day of drinking together, he had gone to sleep and awoke to find Ms. Kirton unresponsive. He also volunteered that he had not killed her, a statement the officers found odd because her death was, at that time, considered only a 'suspicious death,' not a homicide. D told detectives that he had invited the victim over and they had gotten drunk and had sex several times during the day. He said that the last sex act had taken place on the couch and he had then fallen asleep. When he awoke, he found blood on the floor and the toilet seat and could not rouse Ms. Kirton. After the medical examiner began his autopsy it was determined that Ms. Kirton had suffered trauma to the anal area and that her death appeared to be a homicide. Officers then sought and received consent to search Dt's apartment and discovered several items investigators described as 'sexual devices,' including a pair of table legs wrapped in electrical tape and a length of plastic pipe attached to a pair of boxer shorts. D admitted that the couple had anal sex and that he had requested the victim use one of the devices on him, but he denied having used any foreign objects on her. D denied that she was bleeding when he went to sleep, or that he had harmed her in any way. D agreed to give the police a third statement. He repeated his earlier version of meeting the victim in MacArthur Park, getting drunk, and having 'rough sex' with her in his apartment but added that he had 'lost control' during sex and had hit her and that the two had fought. He also said that they had used the sexual devices found by the police on one another, including inserting one of them in the victim rectally. The medical examiner's report revealed that the cause of death was strangulation. The autopsy revealed that there were numerous abrasions and bruises on her body and face, including a contusion to her skull and a laceration on her left ear. She suffered injuries to her liver and intestines consistent with having been hit or kicked. She also had extensive hemorrhages in her scalp tissue and in the inner aspects of her skull, which the medical examiner testified were consistent with having been punched or slapped and were sufficiently serious to cause a loss of consciousness. The autopsy revealed extensive bruising, distention, and lacerations to the anus and rectum, as well as a four-inch-long tear of the intestines and bowel. This was consistent with D's statement to police with regard to the sexual devices that he had put the 'big stick' up in her rectum 'quite a ways.' The autopsy indicated evidence of strangulation, including abrasions around the neck and hemorrhaging of the neck muscles. The conclusion drawn from the autopsy was that the victim died as a result of strangulation, with blunt force injuries to her head, abdomen, and rectum. The medical examiner opined that it would have taken between one and five minutes to strangle Ms. Kirton to death, and he concluded that the head, stomach, and rectal injuries occurred prior to death. Eventually, D was charged with premeditated murder. At the close of P's case, D moved for a directed verdict, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to establish that he had acted with premeditation and deliberation. D was convicted and now appeals.

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