People v. Alley
| Docket Number | F083008 |
| Decision Date | 20 May 2022 |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. RODGER DALE ALLEY, JR., Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Fresno County No F06906977. Gary R. Orozco, Judge.
Audrey R. Chavez, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Clara M. Levers and Dina Petrushenko, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
In 2008, appellant Rodger Dale Alley Jr. was convicted after a jury trial of first degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life plus two years for prior prison term enhancements. His conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal.
In 2021, Alley filed a petition for resentencing pursuant to Penal Code[1] section 1170.95, and asserted he was not the actual killer, he was convicted under the felony-murder rule and/or the natural and probable consequences doctrine and he could not be now convicted of first or second degree murder because of the amendments to sections 188 and 189. The court denied the petition and found he was ineligible for relief.
On appeal, Alley argues the matter must be remanded because the court failed to appoint counsel, allow for briefing, or conduct a hearing to fully develop the record and determine whether he made a prima facie case for relief, as required by section 1170.95. We find the court's statutory errors were not prejudicial and affirm.
FACTS[2]
At 7:15 a.m. on Sunday, June 11, 2006, an officer from the California Highway Patrol responded to a dispatch about a vehicle blocking the road. He discovered a blue pickup truck was abandoned in the middle of Central Avenue in a rural area of Fresno County. The key was in the ignition but the vehicle could not start, and no one was present. There were sleeping bags, blankets, and construction equipment in the truck's bed. The vehicle was towed to a tow yard.
On Monday, June 12, 2006, the owner of the tow yard contacted the police because he found a dead body in the truck's bed. The police arrived and found the body of Courtney Rice in the truck's bed, lying face down amidst sleeping bags blankets, and other items. A black, plastic garbage bag was over her head. When that bag was removed, a white plastic bag was also over her head and a yellow towel was near her face. There were multiple strips of black adhesive electrical tape on her head and in her hair.
The victim's hands were restrained behind her back with handcuffs, and her pants were pulled down. Her ankles were also restrained in handcuffs, and a white extension cord was wrapped around her legs. The victim's face was swollen, and her body decomposed. Rice was identified by her fingerprints.
The police returned to the rural location where the blue truck had been abandoned, and they found a love seat had been dumped in the orchard across the street. A large hole had been dug near the love seat.
The pathologist determined Rice had been dead for two to three days. The handcuff marks and contusions on her wrists and ankles indicated she had been bound for some time, and the marks occurred before death. There were clearing marks around the victim's mouth, consistent with electrical or some type of tape. There was no evidence of strangulation.
There was a hemorrhage below the right side of Rice's scalp consistent with blunt force trauma inflicted prior to death, but it was not the cause of death. An injury to her right lip was consistent with blunt trauma, consistent with a towel being pushed into her face to try and smother her. There were low amounts of alcohol and methamphetamine in her system.
The pathologist determined the victim's cause of death was "probable asphyxia due to binding and gagging," meaning a lack of oxygen or an increase in the carbon dioxide level in the blood. The pathologist testified that when he examined the victim's body in the truck bed, she was lying face down on her belly and her abdomen was compressed, which meant the person's breathing was compromised at the time of death.
Michelle Molina's fingerprints were on the black plastic garbage bag that was over the victim's head. Joseph Lopez's fingerprints were on the black electrical tape found in the victim's hair.
The blue truck belonged to a construction company, and it had been in the possession of an employee, Richard Juarez, who was Joseph Lopez's brother. Lopez lived with Juarez and had a key to his house. Juarez had parked the truck at his house on West Swift Avenue on Friday, June 9, 2006, and left construction equipment in the truck's bed. The truck was still there on Saturday night, June 10, but Juarez discovered it was gone on the morning of Sunday, June 11, 2006. The sleeping bags and blankets found in the truck's bed had not been there when Juarez parked the truck at his home on Friday.
On June 12, 2006, an officer responded to a second floor apartment (No. 212), located in an apartment complex on North Fruit, in response to a call that the occupant of the apartment may have been the female found in the pickup truck. The apartment's front door appeared to have been kicked in. No one was present when the officer arrived, but it was later determined that Michelle Molina lived there.
Inside the apartment, there was a blood smear near the front door that was over a foot long. A mop in the kitchen had blood on it. There was an off-white stain on the living room carpet and an empty box of black plastic garbage bags with yellow drawstrings, consistent with the bag found over the victim's head.
A mirror was lying face up on the living room floor, and there was a piece of black electrical tape on it. The fingerprints of Rodger Dale Alley, Jr. and Joseph Lopez were found on the mirror.
In the bathroom, a black plastic garbage bag with yellow ties was at the base of the bathtub; it was similar to the black bag over the victim's head. Michelle Molina's fingerprints were found on the black plastic bag found in the bathroom.
Inside the bathtub, there was a six-inch piece of electrical tape in the drain, and hair strands were on the tub's side. The DNA profile from the hair strands were consistent with Rice's DNA profile.
In the southeast bedroom, there was a mattress on the center of the floor, several stains on the carpet, and brushing or rubbing marks on a one-foot-square stain.
In the southwest (master) bedroom, there were black plastic garbage bags with yellow ties on top of the bed. There were various items of paraphernalia related to the Bulldog criminal street gang in the room.[3] A brush with a bottle of stain remover, and a garbage can with a black electrical cable and a knotted white cord, were also in the room.
The officers found numerous green pellets throughout the apartment.
Also on June 12, 2006, Joseph Lopez was arrested while standing near a Chevrolet Malibu. Lopez threw some keys into the bushes just before he was arrested. The keys were recovered and consisted of a handcuff key, and the keys to the Chevrolet. A canister with hundreds of green plastic BBs was in the car's trunk.
Richard Juarez's home on West Swift was searched. A box was in the backyard, and it contained used pieces of black electrical tape rolled up into balls, with hair attached to the pieces. The fingerprints of Lopez and Rice were found on the tape.
Sylvester Carter testified for the prosecution that he was a member of the Diamond Crips. He knew Courtney "Baby" Rice the victim; and codefendants Joseph "LB (Little Bulldog)" Lopez, Rodger "Drifter" Alley, Michelle Molina, and Elbert "Smoker" Vargas. He knew Lopez was a member of the Bulldog gang, he believed Molina was also a member because she had a lot of gang paraphernalia, and Lopez and Molina were in a relationship. He did not know if Alley was a gang member.
Carter had prior felony convictions for burglary, grand theft auto, and resisting arrest, and had been in prison many times. He used crack cocaine, described himself as a" 'crack head, '" and committed burglaries to support his drug use. Carter testified that he entered into an agreement to testify truthfully in this case; he pleaded guilty to rape and attempted rape of Rice with gang enhancements; and he could be sentenced to between 16 to 21 years in prison.
Carter testified he went to Molina's second floor apartment on North Fruit on the evening of June 9, 2006, so he could use drugs. When he arrived, the door was ajar, and he walked inside. Lopez and Molina met him, and Vargas was sitting on a couch. Carter believed Lopez and Molina were "a couple."
Lopez was holding a sawed-off shotgun with a pistol grip, and told him," 'You don't want to be here right...
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