People v. Crockett
| Decision Date | 11 July 2019 |
| Docket Number | B267614 |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. WILLIE CROCKETT, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals |
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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. SA071297)
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Elden Fox, Judge. Affirmed and remanded with directions.
Christopher Allan Nalls, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Idan Ivri and Mary Sanchez, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
____________________ Defendant and appellant Willie Crockett appealed his convictions for, among other things, robbery, aggravated assault, attempted murder, attempted robbery, and attempted premeditated murder of a police officer, with gang and firearm-use enhancements. In a nonpublished opinion issued on February 16, 2018, we affirmed his convictions after rejecting his contentions that the evidence was insufficient to support a gang enhancement and the trial court committed instructional and evidentiary errors. However, we remanded for correction of a sentencing error and to allow the trial court to exercise its discretion to strike or dismiss the firearm enhancement in light of a then-recent amendment to Penal Code section 12022.53.1 Thereafter, on May 23, 2018, our Supreme Court granted review and deferred briefing pending disposition of People v. Mateo (rev. granted May 11, 2016, S232674). While Crockett's appeal was pending, the Legislature enacted Senate Bill No. 1437 (S.B. 1437) which, among other things, amended the law governing application of the natural and probable consequences doctrine as it relates to murder. On April 10, 2019, the Supreme Court transferred the instant matter to us with directions to vacate our opinion and reconsider the cause in light of S.B. 1437.
In accordance with our Supreme Court's order, we vacate our February 16, 2018 nonpublished opinion. After considering the parties' supplemental briefs, we conclude that the changes wrought by S.B. 1437 do not apply retroactively to nonfinal judgments on appeal. Moreover, S.B. 1437 does not apply to the offense of attempted murder. Our decision regarding Crockett'spreviously raised claims of error remains the same. We therefore affirm Crockett's convictions and remand for resentencing.
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 April 30, 2009, Crockett entered a Los Angeles branch of Wachovia Bank. He approached Samir A., a bank teller, and presented a note announcing that a robbery was in progress and that he had a bomb. As Samir gathered money, Crockett proceeded to Christina M., the teller next to Samir, and demanded money from her. Crockett also handed the note to a third teller, Anthony C. All three tellers gave Crockett cash containing dye packs.
Shortly after Crockett left the bank, a bank employee saw a plume of red smoke consistent with a dye pack exploding. Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers later found some items stained with red dye in an alley near the bank. Crockett's fingerprints and handwriting were found on the robbery note. Samir and Anthony identified Crockett as the robber from six-pack photographic lineups.
On June 9, 2009, Jan S., Jose C., Jose R., and Robert H. were working at the Long Beach Pawn Shop. Crockett entered the store, approached Jan, and said he wanted to buy a ring for his girlfriend. Jan referred Crockett to Robert, who was in charge of selling jewelry. Robert was armed with a handgunbecause there had been two prior attempted robberies at the store.
When Robert offered to assist him, Crockett yelled out "Now," pulled a handgun from his waistband, and announced a robbery. A second gunman ran into the store and jumped over the counter. When Crockett aimed his gun at Jan, Robert shot at him; Robert believed he had hit Crockett in the leg. The second gunman jumped back over the counter and started crawling toward the front door with Crockett. A third man at the front door then started shooting into the store. Robert was wounded by a gunshot to the face, but he was not sure which of the three perpetrators had shot him.
Long Beach Police Detective Donald Collier testified that blood recovered from the sidewalk outside the pawnshop was matched to a man named Baleegh Brown. From the surveillance videotape, Detective Collier identified Brown as the second robber to enter the pawnshop. Detective Collier was not able immediately to identify Crockett, but ultimately found a photograph on Myspace of a man wearing the same orange suit Crockett had worn during the robbery. All four of the pawnshop employees, as well as a customer, Tracy W., identified Crockett from photo arrays as one of the perpetrators.
Detective Collier described the pawnshop incident as "what we call a takeover robbery where you have multiple suspects going into a commercial business with the use of violence or threatened violence." On the day of the attempted pawnshop robbery, Detective Collier contacted local hospitals to see if any of them had treated gunshot wounds; none had.
Crockett was a member of the Black P Stone (BPS) gang. LAPD Detective Cedric Washington testified he had served as "a gang expert for several gangs, including the Black P Stone gang," and had qualified as an expert in court regarding the BPS gang. Because of his knowledge of the BPS gang, other police officers approached him for help in locating Crockett in the aftermath of the Wachovia and pawnshop crimes. Detective Washington testified that he had never had personal contact with Crockett, but he knew of him: "I had seen him in the area over the years that he's been a member of the Black P Stone gang." Detective Washington continued, Ultimately, Detective Washington traced Crockett to 4611 Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, apartment 187 (apartment 187), and obtained a search warrant of the apartment.
On July 1, 2009, police observed Crockett and others in apartment 187. Detective Washington went to the location and confirmed Crockett's presence; several known BPS members, including Christopher Singh, J.B. Jennings, and Richard Bennett were also seen in the apartment. When a SWAT unit arrived at the scene, Crockett ran outside onto a patio, noticed the police presence, and ran back inside, where he was seen peering out from the apartment windows. Members of the SWAT unit had already started to enter the apartment building, but after learning that the operation had been compromised, they stoppedin front of a fire door leading to the hallway where apartment 187 was located. Detective Washington testified: Two minutes later, Crockett ran out of apartment 187 and into the hallway where the police were waiting. Crockett was unarmed; he was tackled and arrested.
An LAPD criminalist testified that the gunshots fired from apartment 187 had gone through an adjoining wall to apartment 189; two bullets were found embedded in a second wall separating apartment 189 from the apartment building hallway. Inside apartment 187, police found several loaded weapons: an AK47, a shotgun, and a .38-caliber revolver. They also found a bottle of lidocaine, a bandage in an open packet, two bottles of Neosporin, scissors, gloves, gauze, iodine, bottles of hydrogen peroxide, latex gloves, and a medical dressing. Detective Collier, who was present at Crockett's arrest, characterized these as "a lot of medical items . . . that could be used to cleanse or care for a wound." As noted, ante, Detective Collier had checked with hospitals on the day of the pawnshop robbery for reports of gunshot victims, but he had not learned of any. X-rays taken in November 2011 disclosed two bullets lodged in Crockett's pelvis. Medical testimony indicated that such a wound would not necessarily require hospital treatment.
LAPD Detective Phil Rodriguez testified as an expert about BPS. He described BPS as one of the largest African-American gangs in the country, with 950 to 1,000 members in Los Angeles, and about 15,000 members nationwide. He explained that the gang was roughly divided into two main cliques: the Junglesclique and the Bities clique. Detective Rodriguez testified the gang's primary activities include robbery, assault with deadly weapons, narcotics trafficking, murder, attempted murder, carjacking, and rape.
Detective Rodriguez testified Crockett, a known BPS member, was known as "Janky" or "Corn Nut." Although Detective Rodriguez did not know Crockett personally, he had learned about Crockett's gang monikers from Crockett's admissions to other police officers. Detective Rodriguez was shown photographs of two of Crockett's tattoos: the letters "BPS" on the back of Crockett's neck, and a large dollar sign on his torso. Detective Rodriguez testified "BPS" was one of the ...
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