Is there any error in the instruction to the jury that murder which is immediately preceded by lying in wait is murder of the first degree?

This claim of error ignores a common sense reading of the instruction as a whole. The instruction did not simply inform the jury that murder which is "immediately preceded by lying in wait" is murder of the first degree. The jurors were told lying in wait requires a finding that the perpetrator waited and watched for an opportune time to act, together with a concealment by ambush or some other secret design to take the other person by surprise. Intelligent jurors would construe this instruction as requiring them to find that the act constituting murder had to be accomplished by means of lying in wait in order to be first degree murder under the theory that it was perpetrated by means of lying in wait. (People v. White (1987) 188 Cal.App.3d 1128, 1138-1139, 233 Cal.Rptr. 772 [we must presume jurors are intelligent persons capable of understanding and applying a commonsense reading of instructions].)