People v. Jones
| Decision Date | 29 November 2012 |
| Docket Number | A130604 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. ALFRED LAWRENCE JONES, Defendant and Appellant. |
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
(Contra Costa County Super. Ct. No. 5-0601161)
Defendant was convicted following a jury trial of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187), with burglary and robbery special circumstances, and enhancements for personal use and discharge of a firearm causing death (Pen. Code, §§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17), 12022.5, subd. (a), 12022.53, subd. (d)), first degree robbery (Pen. Code, §§ 211, 212.5, subd. (a)) and first degree burglary (Pen. Code, §§ 459, 460, subd. (a)), with associated enhancements for personal use and discharge of a firearm. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the murder conviction, enhanced with a consecutive term of 25 years to life for intentional discharge of a firearm causing death, a consecutive term of two years and eight months for the burglary conviction, and a stayed four-year term for the robbery conviction.
In this appeal defendant claims that the trial court erred by refusing to give instructions on eyewitness identification, and imposing a consecutive term for the burglary conviction. We conclude that the requested eyewitness identification instructions were unnecessary, and imposition of the consecutive sentence on theburglary conviction did not violate Penal Code section 654. We therefore affirm the judgment.
The victim, Cheryl Macey, was shot and killed just outside her apartment at 1604 Sycamore Drive in Antioch. Antioch Police officers arrived at the scene of the shooting on Sycamore Drive at 2:15 p.m. on March 30, 2004, to find Macey lying on the ground on her stomach along an alley near a chain link fence. She was not breathing and had no pulse. Macey had been killed by a single gunshot that passed through her left arm, lung and heart.
Antioch Police Officer Michael Mortimer interviewed Anton Nashchechich, who was present at the scene of the shooting. Nashchechich worked with the victim at a nearby retail store in Antioch. He testified that Macey received a cell phone call at the store between 1:45 and 2:00. The call came from Macey's boyfriend Jason Hunter, who advised her that a robbery had been reported at their shared residence. Macey told co-workers that she "had to go home because" someone "broke into her house." Nashchechich accompanied Macey to her apartment "for support."
They arrived in Macey's car at her residence within three minutes, and parked outside the carport in front of the apartment complex. Nashchechich observed a late model, burgundy, Mitsubishi Gallant with paper, dealer plates parked in the carport. At least four people walked from the front of Macey's apartment toward the burgundy Mitsubishi. One of them was described by Nashchechich to the police as a "tall, skinny African American guy," around six feet, three inches in height, 18 to 24 years old. Another, older man, also African American, was short and stocky.
Nashchechich testified that Macey began a heated argument with the tall, thin Black male as she was standing between the two cars. The man suddenly pulled out a semiautomatic handgun and pointed it at Macey from about 15 feet away. She was shot by the man as she tried to turn around and back away. After the single shot was fired, Macey took a few steps toward the back alley before she fell to the ground. The "tallskinny guy" then pointed the gun at Nashchechich and asked, "You going to do something about it?" Nashchechich ducked down behind Macey's car.
The tall, thin man and two others with him entered the Mitsubishi and drove away. The short, stocky man walked away on Sycamore Drive. Nashchechich then called 911.
As Officer Mortimer interviewed Nashchechich after the shooting, he received a dispatch that "a male on A Street in Antioch" reported to the police that he had been at the scene of the shooting, and "the shooter got in his car and made him drive" away. Officer Mortimer escorted Nashchechich to 1210 A Street where the man who had called the police from that location, Rodney Royal, was detained. Royal was in a burgundy Mitsubishi with dealer plates, the same car Nashchechich had seen at Macey's residence. Nashchechich did not make a positive identification of Royal, but "believed" he may have been the driver of the Mitsubishi.
Royal testified that he was the victim of a home invasion robbery at his apartment in Antioch a few months before Macey was shot. On the morning of March 30, 2004, a friend of Royal's reported to him that one of the men who kicked his door in and robbed him was named "Mike B." Royal recruited defendant, whom he knew as "Lo," and a few other friends, to attempt to locate Mike B., identified as Michael Bradley. In the search for the men who previously robbed him, Royal thereafter embarked on a bit of an odyssey that day, first in an Oldsmobile and then in the burgundy Mitsubishi, from Antioch to Bay Point and Pittsburg, and eventually back to 1608 Sycamore in Antioch, the residence of Edward Robinson, known as "Dirty Rob," who had been identified by Bradley as the one responsible for directing the robbery of Royal. Royal left defendant and another friend at 1608 Sycamore briefly to travel to Pittsburg, but returned there and parked in a stall at the apartment building.
As Royal and his friends confronted Robinson about the prior robbery, defendant and Anthony Perry emerged from the front of the building. Macey also arrived in her car, parked immediately behind Royal, and began "hollering" at defendant and Perry. From the driver's seat of his car, Royal heard a gunshot behind him. After the shot, Royal saw Macey "backing up." Defendant immediately jumped in Royal's car and yelled, "Comeon, let's go." Royal drove defendant to his home on San Jose Drive in Antioch. Perry asked, "What we gonna do about this gun?" Defendant replied: "I'll get my own mother fuckin' gun," and left the car.
Royal drove to his "son's mother's job," and "told her what happened." He then called 911 to report the shooting. He did not then give the police any names of the people who were present at the scene of the shooting, however, because he "wasn't trying to get nobody in trouble." Royal testified that he did not actually see who fired the shot that killed Macey, but the shot was not fired by Anthony and did not come from inside his car.
Royal was arrested that day, and the following day he was interviewed by police detectives, who told him they knew defendant committed the shooting. Royal subsequently pointed out defendant's photograph and told the detectives what he knew about defendant's "actions that day."
Anthony Perry entered a plea of guilty to voluntary manslaughter and burglary in connection with Macey's death, and testified at trial for the prosecution. On March 30, 2004, Perry was visiting Antioch from his home in Texas. He described his travels that day with Royal and defendant, among others, in search of the person who robbed Royal a few months before. They ultimately arrived at the Sycamore Drive apartments, where they were told Edward Robinson, "the guy that set up the robbery," was located. Perry and defendant remained at the Sycamore Drive apartment complex to make sure Robinson did not leave. Meanwhile, Royal left to retrieve Mike B. to confirm the identity of Robinson as the person they were "looking for, to make sure it was him." According to Perry, Royal agreed to pay him "for roughing up" Robinson "a little bit."
While Royal was away, Robinson told Perry and defendant "there was some marijuana products" in an apartment at the building, so they "decided to go in and get it."1 Perry broke into the apartment through the front window, and admitted defendant through the front door. Once inside the apartment they gathered money, a watch, somemarijuana, a metal case that contained video games, and a scale. After they left the apartment and walked toward Royal's burgundy Mitsubishi, another car pulled up, driven by a young White "female." Perry testified that the woman got out of her car, yelled and reached for her cell phone, whereupon defendant "pulls out the gun and shoots her." After the shot was fired, Perry ran down Sycamore Drive until Royal's car came by and picked him up. Soon thereafter he returned to Texas, where he was arrested about a month later and charged with Macey's murder. Perry testified that Royal and the others in his car were unaware of the burglary at Macey's apartment.
Arnoldo Amador, an inspector for a utility company, also witnessed the shooting from 70 to 80 feet away, where his pickup truck was parked behind the carport at 1612 Sycamore Drive. As Amador approached his vehicle he heard two people screaming at each other, one a young blond, Caucasian female, the other a young, tall African-American male with thick braided hair. Amador then "heard a gunshot from the same area" where the two people were arguing. He ducked behind his truck window as he observed the blond woman turn from the man and run away, "screaming at the top of her lungs," before she fell to the ground. The African-American man then jumped into the rear seat of a red vehicle that was occupied by two other people, the driver and a man slouched in the front passenger seat. The red vehicle was driven away on Sycamore Drive. Amador followed briefly in his pickup truck until the red vehicle reached the Lowe's parking lot on Mahogany Way. He called 911 as the red vehicle pulled onto Highway 4.
A few days after the shooting, on April 1, 2004, a homicide inspector...
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