People v. Brown
| Decision Date | 30 September 2015 |
| Docket Number | B253052 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. ANTWON BROWN, Defendant and Appellant. |
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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. BA389319)
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Jose I. Sandoval, Judge. Affirmed.
J. Kahn, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Margaret E. Maxwell and Eric E. Reynolds, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
____________________ Defendant and appellant Antwon Brown raises multiple issues following his conviction of first degree murder, premeditated attempted murder, aggravated mayhem and carjacking, with firearm use and gang enhancements.
For the reasons discussed below, the judgment is affirmed.
Viewed in accordance with the usual rules of appellate review (People v. Ochoa (1993) 6 Cal.4th 1199, 1206), the evidence established the following.
On July 21, 2011, Kevin Hayes was driving his girlfriend's white Mercedes Benz when he stopped at a gas station at the intersection of Century Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue. Defendant Brown approached the passenger side window of the Mercedes. Hayes had seen Brown around the neighborhood. Hayes had formerly been a member of the Rolling 90's gang and he knew Brown to be a member of the Hard Time Hustlers. In July 2011, the two gangs were allies. Hayes rolled down the car window and greeted Brown cordially. Brown asked Hayes to give him a ride and Hayes agreed. Brown got in and Hayes drove off.
After Hayes had driven no more than a few blocks, Brown pulled out a gun, pointed it at Hayes's face and said, "Make a left motherfucker and don't crash." At first Hayes thought Brown wanted his money, so he started to reach into his pocket as he continued driving. But then Hayes sensed "it really wasn't about that" and he decided to attempt an escape. Hayes opened the driver's door, intending to jump from the moving Mercedes, but before he could do so Brown shot him twice in the abdomen. Hayes fell from the Mercedes onto the ground, got up, and ran a short distance before collapsing. As a result of the shooting, Hayes sustained a lacerated liver and a damaged colon, and he lost one kidney.
Brown and Jeremey House were acquaintances.1 House testified that although he did not currently belong to a gang, he had been a member of the Hard Time Hustlers in 2004. He knew Brown as a friend of a friend.
On July 22, 2011, Brown and House decided to visit a mutual acquaintance who lived near 52nd and Wall Street. Brown gave House a ride in a white Mercedes Benz. During the drive, Brown collided with another car on the Harbor Freeway. Brown did not stop, but continued driving and then parked near 52nd and Wall. House got out of the car and was walking toward their friend's house when he heard a commotion and gunshots behind him. House initially denied having looked back but, after being confronted with the record of his police interview, he acknowledged that he turned around and witnessed the shooting. He saw Brown, standing in the street and shooting into the driver's side of a sport utility vehicle that was parked behind the Mercedes. House ran away.
G.M. testified she was standing at the corner of 52nd and Main Street near an elementary school on July 22, 2011, at approximately 11:45 a.m. She saw a man in the driver's seat of a green jeep that was parked behind a white car. She also saw a man standing at the side of the jeep. This man pointed a gun at the jeep's driver, fired into the jeep, and then ran to the white car, which sped away. G.M. identified Brown as the gunman in a photo array and then at trial.
Carlos Martinez, the driver of the green jeep, was hit by four bullets and died of his wounds. Police found his jeep on 52nd Street, just east of Main. The driver's side window was shattered and there were four shell casings on the ground. Inside the jeep was a cell phone and a clipboard with notes written on it; these notes included the license plate number of the white Mercedes Benz that Brown had taken from Kevin Hayes.
According to phone records and GPS data, Martinez's cell phone on July 22, 2011, traveled south on the Harbor Freeway to 51st Street. At 11:45 a.m., a call from his phone lasting 15 seconds was made from the general area of 50th Street and Broadway to 6-1-1.2
Brown's case went to trial in April 2013. Los Angeles Police Department Officer Kevin Currie, a former gang enforcement officer, testified as an expert on criminal street gangs and on the Hard Time Hustlers gang in particular. He described the Hard Time Hustlers as a Crips gang with approximately 90 members, about 30 of whom were active. Currie described the parameters of the gang's claimed territory, and characterized the gang's primary activities as murder, robbery, burglary, gun possession, and vandalism. Members of the gang had recently been convicted of attempted murder and robbery.
Officer Currie opined that Brown was an active member of the Hard Time Hustlers. His opinion was based in part on two personal encounters during which Brown identified himself to Currie as a member of the gang and said his gang monikers were "Twon" and "Little J Rod." Currie also based his opinion on other factors: Brown's affiliation with other known gang members; information recorded by other law enforcement officers on field investigation cards; and the fact Brown's tattoos referred to the Hard Time Hustlers.
Currie testified he was personally familiar with Hayes and he knew that Hayes was a member of the Rolling 90's Neighborhood Crips. This gang had been friendly with the Hard Time Hustlers in July 2011, but later the two gangs became enemies.
Responding to a hypothetical question tracking the evidence presented in this case, Currie opined Brown's crimes both enhanced his status within the gang andbenefited the gang itself by enhancing its reputation for viciousness, and by creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that would allow the gang to commit other crimes and make witnesses reluctant to come forward.
The defense presented no testimony at trial.
The jury convicted Brown of first degree murder, premeditated attempted murder, aggravated mayhem and carjacking, with firearm use and gang enhancements (Pen. Code, §§ 187, 664, 187, 205, 215, 12022.53, 186.22, subd. (b)).3 The trial court sentenced him to an aggregate term of 91 years eight months to life, and Brown timely appealed the judgment.
Brown contends: (1) the trial court erroneously deprived him of his right to self-representation; (2) the court erred by admitting House's preliminary hearing testimony; (3) the court erred by denying Brown's motion to bifurcate trial of the gang allegations from trial of the substantive crimes; (4) the trial court erred by admitting evidence about one of Brown's gang monikers; (5) the evidence was insufficient to support the true findings on the gang allegations; (6) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction of aggravated mayhem; (7) the court erred by failing to stay punishment on the carjacking conviction; and, (8) there was cumulative error.
Brown contends the trial court erred when, after initially granting his request to represent himself at trial under Faretta v. California (1975) 422 U.S. 806 (Faretta), it subsequently revoked his pro se status. There is no merit to this claim.
On September 5, 2012, Brown's counsel requested a trial continuance in order to locate a percipient witness. Brown, however, refused to waive his right to a speedy trial and announced that he wanted to represent himself. He argued the missing witness was really a witness for the prosecution, and that he did not agree with the way defense counsel had been representing him. The trial court (Hon. Frederick N. Wapner) on its own motion conducted a Marsden hearing4 to determine whether defense counsel was providing adequate representation.
After the Marsden hearing, Brown told the trial court that if defense counsel was "not ready to take me to trial within my right to a speedy [trial]," then he wanted "to go pro per." When the court asked, "But are you doing this because you really want to represent yourself or just because you want to go to trial within the next five days?," Brown responded,
Noting that the examining doctors who found Brown competent to stand trial also concluded he had attempted to manipulate them by feigning various medical problems, the trial court denied the request for self-representation as equivocal because Brown merely wanted to avoid a continuance. But the following day, September 6, 2012, fearing that an eventual conviction might be reversed on appeal, the prosecutor asked the trial court to give Brown another chance to make an unequivocal Farettarequest. Brown again told the court he wanted to represent himself and said he would be ready to begin trial the next day (on Friday, September 7, 2012) if he received certain outstanding discovery. This time the trial court granted Brown's Faretta request.
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