Does a defendant's failure to recover on two life insurance policies preclude a finding that he was motivated by financial gain?

With regard to the financial-gain special circumstance, defendant asserts that his failure to recover on the insurance policies precludes a finding that he was motivated by financial gain. Again, he is unpersuasive. "Proof of actual pecuniary benefit to the defendant from the victim's death is neither necessary nor sufficient to establish the financial-gain special circumstance.... `[T]he relevant inquiry is whether the defendant committed the murder in the expectation that he would thereby obtain the desired financial gain.'" (People v. Edelbacher (1989) 47 Cal.3d 983, 1025, 254 Cal.Rptr. 586, 766 P.2d 1.) His failure to recover insurance benefits after the killings does not undercut evidence of a financial motive at the time of the killings. The jury could reasonably have viewed such failure either as an abandonment of his plan or as an attempt to deflect attention from himself as the perpetrator after the murders.