People v. Charles

• Decision Date: 29 December 2022
• Docket Number: C092841,C093057
• Parties: THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. DION PATRICK CHARLES et al., Defendants and Appellants THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. DION PATRICK CHARLES, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
DION PATRICK CHARLES et al., Defendants and Appellants

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
DION PATRICK CHARLES, Defendant and Appellant.

C092841, C093057

California Court of Appeals, Third District, Sacramento

December 29, 2022

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

(Super. Ct. Nos. 16FE014627, 17FE002458, 13F07333, 14F02499, 16FE013142)

EARL, J.

As six-year-old I.P. looked out the window of a car driven by her mother, Angelina P., she saw defendant Adreiona Taylor in the car next to them yelling at I.P.'s mother to pull over. Taylor fired a gun six times and I.P. was shot in both arms. At trial,

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the prosecutor established that Taylor was the shooter and her brother, defendant Dion Patrick Charles was the driver. Charles and Taylor were found guilty of attempted murder of Angelina P. and of discharging a firearm at an occupied vehicle. Taylor was also found guilty of attempted murder of I.P. On appeal, both defendants challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting their convictions. Charles also challenges the admission and use of hearsay evidence, and the trial court's response to the jury's questions regarding knowledge and intent.^[1] Both defendants raise various sentencing issues, including that the trial court erred in imposing upper term sentences due to the amendments to Penal Code section 1170, subdivision (b), made by Senate Bill No. 567 (2021-2022 Reg. Sess.). We agree with defendants in this last regard and shall remand their case for resentencing and otherwise affirm the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In 2016, Angelina P. and Rene Cassiano were friends until Cassiano passed away in April 2016. Prior to his death, Cassiano dated Taylor and when Angelina spent time with Cassiano, Taylor was frequently present. Angelina and Taylor were friends on social media. Angelina was also familiar with Charles, Taylor's brother, because he lived next door to Angelina's grandmother.

The week before Cassiano died, Angelina gave him sensitive information about Taylor, likely causing Cassiano to end his relationship with Taylor. Taylor was apparently upset that Angelina contributed toward Cassiano's funeral expenses. While Angelina claimed, "there was never no beef" between Taylor and herself, Taylor did not

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want Angelina at the funeral and Facebook messages posted by Taylor suggest there was a "beef."^[2]

Nearly a month after Cassiano's funeral, Taylor posted the following on Facebook:^[3] "It's hella funny reading this shit in Rene's old phones. MF be so fucking fake and two faced," "I gave him everything I could ever give a person. [¶] I took care of him for three years mentally, emotionally, and physically. Can't nobody say shit about that. I could care less what the fuck anyone thinks of me .... [¶] So fuck you, fuck you, fuck you again. Oh, and to the bitches I seen in the text messages, y'all are getting it, so be on the lookout 'cause this bitch is gonna -- is goin' mainy^[4] and . . . [m]e knows that ain't a pretty sight. So line em up 'cause you bitches are getting knocked down."

1. The Shooting

Angelina was a reluctant witness both immediately after the shooting and at trial.^[5]When officers interviewed her, some thought she was not forthcoming. Two detectives testified that when they confronted Angelina at the hospital with this perception, Angelina started to cry and expressed concern over being labeled a "snitch." She said Taylor had a big family who would want to retaliate and she was afraid. She admitted

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she told her mother about the shooting and that she wanted her mother to report the details to law enforcement officials for her.

The officers recorded their interviews with Angelina, many of which were played to the jury. The following summarizes the evidence introduced in various forms; we specify the manner of introduction when necessary.

Between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. on July 26, 2016, Angelina and her six-year-old daughter I.P. drove in Angelina's orange Audi, in the Fruitridge area of South Sacramento. I.P. was in the rear passenger side seat and the window next to her was rolled down. As Angelina approached the stoplight at 44th Street and Fruitridge Road, she saw Taylor seated in the front passenger seat of a white four-door sedan, which was traveling on Fruitridge and turning onto 44th. Angelina repeatedly described the car as a dirty, old "scraper" four-door sedan with chipped paint by the grill.^[6] Angelina turned right onto Fruitridge, and the white car turned to follow, "driving crazy . . . right behind" her. The white car pulled up alongside Angelina's passenger side, the side where I.P. was sitting. Although Angelina repeatedly said she did not see the driver's face, she described him as a black male, a "big guy," wearing a white T-shirt with wavy hair and a fade haircut. A light-skinned black female passenger, later identified by Angelina as Taylor, leaned over the driver, whose seat was reclined, and repeatedly told Angelina to pull over.

I.P. had her head out her window. She saw and heard a woman in the car next to them scream her mother's name and tell her to get out of the car. To I.P, the woman sounded mad. I.P. described the woman's face as having brown skin, with red dots like

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pimples, and dark brown hair.^[7] I.P. also saw that same woman in the newspaper and on the television.

Angelina told one officer that as she turned onto Lawrence Drive, the white car followed and fired gunshots. I.P. confirmed the shots came from the same car containing the woman who had yelled at her mother. Angelina did not see a gun or a flash from the white car. Although she did not see Taylor pull the trigger, Angelina expressed confidence that Taylor was the shooter. Angelina was sure Taylor was in the vehicle, and that it had to be the female who shot at them. Angelina also stated that her assailants must have been aware that I.P. was in the car because I.P. had been looking out the window just prior to the shooting.

As for the vehicle from which the shots were fired, Angelina described it as an Oldsmobile or Buick. She recognized it as Charles's car. She recognized the car because she had been in the vehicle with Cassiano, who used to drive it. Because of her familiarity with it, Angelina knew the car had bench seating in the front. Angelina used to see the car parked near her grandmother's house in the Oak Park neighborhood.

After shots were fired, I.P. complained of pain and a burning sensation; Angelina pulled over near the intersection of 44th Street and 23rd Avenue. A citizen stopped to help and ultimately drove them to the hospital. Angelina was certain the people in the white car followed her again while she was en route to the hospital.

I.P. suffered gunshot wounds to both arms, and a bullet lodged itself in her left arm. One of the bones in her right arm was shattered. I.P. underwent three surgeries to address her injuries.

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2. Immediate Investigation

Felicia G., Angelina's mother, learned that I.P. was injured and went to the hospital. When she arrived, Angelina was hysterical. At some point, Angelina told her mother that I.P. was shot when they were driving on Fruitridge Road, and Taylor and her brother Charles were responsible for the shooting. Felicia explained that Angelina and Taylor had had an argument over social media and Felicia thought some of the messages from Taylor were threatening. Angelina did not want to speak with the police herself because she was worried about being a "snitch," so Felicia reported her conversation with Angelina to the police at the hospital that day, including Angelina's identification of Taylor as the shooter. However, the report did not reflect that she mentioned any information about the driver.

Officers gathered evidence from Angelina's orange Audi parked in front of the entrance to the emergency room. The vehicle had bullet holes in the rear driver side window, in the right passenger side door where I.P. sat, and in the metal trim above the doors on the right passenger side, where the bullet lodged itself. One bullet struck just above the passenger side rear door. Another bullet traveled through I.P.'s open window and through the rear driver side window. Another bullet went through the rear passenger door, through the rolled down window, and out the rear driver side door. Law enforcement officers also found six spent .40-caliber shell casings in the eastbound lane of Fruitridge Road.

Officers also gathered surveillance video from a Fox 40 studio near Stockton Boulevard and Lawrence Drive, which recorded Angelina's vehicle traveling eastbound in the number one lane of Fruitridge Road and a white sedan approaching the passenger side of Angelina's vehicle in the number two lane on July 26, 2016, at 7:26 p.m.

3. Social Media

Two days after the shooting, two posts appeared on Angelina's Facebook page. The first was addressed to "Adreiona Celestina" or "Celecstina, Taylor", and it said,

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" '[Y]ou coward ass bitch. Where you at? You running now?! What you scared of, you wankst (phonetic) enough to shoot my daughter, but now you nowhere to be found . . . Can't run for long.'" The second message said," 'The six-year-old girl, [I.P.], that was shot on July 26th at 7:30 p.m. was shot by Adreiona . . . Celecstina Taylor aka Noney. Is [sic] there was also a male driver but doesn't know his name yet.'" In other messages Angelina sent to friends via Facebook messenger two days after the shooting, Angelina identified Taylor as the one who had shot I.P. One of the messages stated," 'She shot at my car and shot my baby. I seen with my own eyes.'" That same day, Angelina sent Detective Evelyn Madriago a text message explaining that "people [who] were talking" identified Charles as the driver. At some point, Angelina also texted her father to say that Charles was the driver.

Detective James Waters interviewed...