People v. Ayala
| Decision Date | 11 January 2018 |
| Docket Number | B268699 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. SANTIAGO AYALA and JIZETTE NAHAPETIAN, Defendants and Appellants. |
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
(Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BA358847)
APPEALS from judgments of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Charlaine F. Olmedo, Judge. Affirmed in part and remanded with directions.
Joseph Shipp, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Santiago Ayala.
Jennifer Peabody, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Jizette Nahapetian.
Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Scott A. Taryle, Supervising Deputy Attorney
General, and Michael Katz, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Santiago Ayala and Jizette Nahapetian appeal the judgments entered following a jury trial in which they were convicted of the first degree murder of Breanne Hanna (Pen. Code,1 § 187, subd. (a); count 1) and possession of an assault weapon (§ 30605, subd. (a); count 2). In addition, the jury found true the gang enhancement allegations as to both appellants and both offenses. Regarding appellants' murder convictions, the jury found true two special circumstance allegations under section 190.2, subdivision (a)(15) and (22) for lying in wait and gang participation, as well as three firearm enhancement allegations (§ 12022.53, subds. (b)-(e)). The trial court sentenced both appellants to prison for a term of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP), plus 30 years to life.
We affirm the judgments of conviction as to both appellants. We remand the matter to the trial court for reconsideration of the imposition of the gun enhancement in light of Senate Bill No. 620. (Stats. 2017, ch. 682, §§ 1 & 2.) The trial court is further ordered to correct appellant Ayala's abstract of judgment by deleting the checkmark in box 6b, and to forward the corrected abstract of judgment to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Responding to a report of gunfire at approximately 7:00 p.m. on February 2, 2009, police found Breanne Hanna shot to death in the driver's seat of her white Nissan Maxima, parked on Avenue 31 and Humboldt Street in the Lincoln Heights area of the City of Los Angeles. She had suffered nine gunshot wounds from close-range fire by someone standing outside the front passenger window or sitting in the front passenger seat. Police found five .45-caliber casings in the passenger area of the car, two bullets, and two casings on the ground outside the passenger side of the vehicle. Police also recovered a black knit beanie, a cigarette, and a tube of lipstick on the ground near Hanna's car.
Surveillance footage from a nearby building showed Hanna's vehicle pass in front of the camera on Humboldt, turn onto Avenue 31, and come to a stop. Moments later, an unidentified figure could be seen running on the sidewalk toward Avenue 30. Another vehicle, similar to the car driven by Nahapetian, came into view driving down Avenue 30 and turning toward Barranca. It appeared someone had stepped on the lipstick and tracked spots of the makeup on the sidewalk from Hanna's car toward Avenue 30, the path along which the unidentified figure had run.
There were no witnesses to the shooting, and no fingerprints were found in or around Hanna's car. Police had no leads until they were contacted by Glendale police Detective Arthur Frank, who told them that wiretaps in an investigation into the Toonerville criminal street gang had picked up information about Hanna's murder.
1. Hanna's previous cooperation with police
Sometime after 5:00 p.m. on April 14, 2006, Jose Monteagudo was riding in Jose Quintanilla's truck when shots fired from another vehicle through the truck's rear window struck Monteagudo. Quintanilla lost control of his vehicle, colliding with a light pole and two parked cars. The vehicle from which the shots had been fired stopped nearby. The shooter exited the vehicle, walked to Quintanilla's truck, and shot Monteagudo, who was lying on the seat.
Surveillance video from a gas station near the shooting showed Hanna's SUV at the station, and her boyfriend, Isael "Spanky" Aguirre, walking up to the counter inside. Aguirre was a known member of the Toonerville gang and had the word "Ville" tattooed on his face. Aguirre was arrested for Monteagudo's murder about a week later. The day after Aguirre's arrest police interviewed Hanna, who identified her vehicle and Aguirre in the gas station surveillance footage and confirmed that debris recovered from the crime scene had come from her SUV. Hanna denied any knowledge of the murder, but admitted that Aguirre had access to her SUV on the night of the crime. After Aguirre was charged with the murder, his defense counsel received copies of the transcript and video of Hanna's interview with police, along with the report detailing the information Hanna had provided. Aguirre was convicted of Monteagudo's murder in March 2008 and sentenced in January 2009.
2. The investigation of the Toonerville gang
In October 2008, Detective Frank was the lead investigator in the murder of Manuel Martin, a member of the Mongol Motorcycle gang. The investigation quickly focused on Toonerville gang members, Richard "Risky" Clayborn and Jose "Whisper" (or "Nene") Gonzalez.2 On October 12, 2008, four days after the Martin murder, Toonerville gang members Clayborn, Randy "Doughboy" Harp, and Misael "Husky" Gutierrez attempted to murder Alonzo "Chino" Loera at Chevy Chase Park in the heart of Toonerville gang territory. Loera was a Toonerville gang member suspected by the gang of assisting Los Angeles and Glendale police in investigations of cases against the gang. Police recovered six .45-caliber casings and eight nine-millimeter casings at the scene.
In the wake of the Martin murder, the Chevy Chase Park shooting, and other shootings, a task force led by Detective Frank was formed to investigate the Toonerville gang, whose members were suspected of committing these and other violent crimes in the Glendale and northeast Los Angeles area. One of the task force's investigative techniques was the use of wiretaps to intercept live telephone conversations between target subjects and persons on the other end of the calls. The first set of wiretaps, obtained on November 17, 2008, involved six phone lines. Over the next eight months, the wiretaps expanded to 20 target telephone numbers. Police obtained wiretap authorization for Nahapetian's cell phone on December 23, 2008. The task force also used information obtained from recorded calls from jail by Toonerville gang members in custody to further the investigation.
In addition to conducting wiretaps and reviewing recordings of jail calls of Toonerville gang members and associates, police used traditional undercover surveillance techniques to gather intelligence. In the course of that surveillance, police followed Nahapetian and frequently observed her driving Toonerville gang members in and out of gang territory in her car.
3. Relevant phone conversations in the weeks before Hanna's murder
On December 18, 19, and 20, 2008, about six weeks before Hanna's murder, Nahapetian spoke on the phone with Aguirre, who was in jail awaiting sentencing on his murder conviction.3 Hanna came up frequently in these conversations. Aguirre said he thought Hanna had set him up because she was talking to police and made no objection when he was arrested. Aguirre also suspected Hanna of telling police where Aguirre's "heat" was hidden in the apartment. Several times during the call Aguirre threatened serious harm to Hanna if only he "could get out." Nahapetian told Aguirre that Hanna felt threatened in the neighborhood.
On December 29, 2008, police intercepted a phone call between Nahapetian and Alexandra Mares, Harp's girlfriend. Nahapetian discussed an argument she had had with Ayala4 and related a conversation she had with an unidentified man (possibly Ayala) before dropping him off in front of Hanna's residence. Nahapetian told him, " 'snitches and bitches kick it together and you ain't nothing but a snitch and a bitch,' " to which she said he responded,
In another conversation on December 31, 2008, Nahapetian told Mares that police had raided Gonzalez's house looking for him "for a hot one" (a murder). Gonzalez was planning to go into hiding. Nahapetian declared, "I swear to God if I find out [Hanna] has anything to do with it I will fucking slit her fucking throat and I will chop up her fucking body." She added, "If Lindsay has anything to do with anything, . . . I will put hands on that fucking bitch."5
On January 2, 2009, Nahapetian spoke with Aguirre. After discussing the torture and killing of Hanna's dog by the "homies" to send Hanna a message, Aguirre said, Aguirre then declared, He told Nahapetian he wanted her to "run up on [Hanna] and give her a fade and just crack her with a crowbar," but Nahapetian replied,
In a January 6, 2009 call with an unidentified woman, Nahapetian said she...
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