People v. Mejia

• Decision Date: 30 November 2012
• Citation: 149 Cal.Rptr.3d 815,211 Cal.App.4th 586
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Josue Manuel MEJIA et al., Defendants and Appellants.

211 Cal.App.4th 586

149 Cal.Rptr.3d 815

2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 16,099

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.Josue Manuel MEJIA et al., Defendants and Appellants.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 8, California.

B229382

Filed November 30, 2012

APPEAL from judgments of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Bob S. Bowers, Jr., Judge. Affirmed as modified. (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BA318905)

Steven Schorr, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Josue Manuel Mejia.

Deborah L. Hawkins, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Adam Perez.

Jennifer A. Mannix, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Carlos Hernandez.

Brett Harding Duxbury, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Edwin Caseros.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Scott A. Taryle and Douglas L. Wilson, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

SORTINO, J.^*

A jury convicted appellants Josue Manuel Mejia, Adam Perez, Edwin Caseros, and Carlos Hernandez of the provocative act murder of Jesus Lorenzo. (Pen.Code, § 187, subd. (a).) ¹ The jury determined the murder to be of the first degree and further found true a gang murder special circumstance. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(22).) The jury also convicted appellants of the willful, deliberate, and premeditated attempted murder of Leonardo Pulido (§§ 664/187), attempted residential burglary (§§ 664/459), and shooting at an inhabited dwelling (§ 246). With respect to all four counts, the jury found true a criminal street gang enhancement. (§ 186.22, subd. (b)(1).) With respect to the murder and attempted murder, the jury also found true an allegation that a principal intentionally discharged a firearm during commission of a gang crime. (§ 12022.53, subds.(c), (e).)

The court sentenced Mejia to an aggregate term of 47 years to life plus 40 years in prison, calculated as follows: 25 years to life for the first degree murder, plus 20 years for the firearm enhancement; plus a “straight” life sentence for the attempted murder (minimum term of 7 years), plus 20 years for the firearm enhancement on that count; plus 15 years to life for shooting at an inhabited dwelling.² The court imposed but stayed execution of the sentence on the attempted burglary conviction pursuant to section 654.

The court sentenced the remaining appellants identically. Each received an aggregate prison term of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) plus 22 years to life, plus 40 years calculated as follows: LWOP for the first degree murder with a special circumstance plus 20 years for the firearm enhancement; plus a “straight” life sentence for the attempted murder (minimum term 7 years), plus 20 years for the firearm enhancement; plus 15 years to life for shooting at an inhabited dwelling. The court imposed but stayed execution of the sentence on the attempted burglary conviction pursuant to section 654.

In their individual briefs, appellants raise various issues. For the most part, each joins in different issues raised by his co-appellants. For brevity, all issues either raised or joined by all appellants will be described as having been raised by appellants generally. Where not all appellants have either raised or joined an issue, those who have will be individually named.

With the exception of reducing or striking certain statutory fines imposed by the trial court, we affirm the judgments.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

A. Appellant Perez's Motive to Kill Pulido

Beginning in 2000, victim Pulido lived in a second-floor apartment in the 1900 block of West Clinton Street in Los Angeles. His mother, M.S., and his younger brother, C.C., also lived in the apartment with him.

Pulido used to visit the home of appellant Perez's aunt, M.P., which was about three or four blocks away from Pulido's apartment. When they were young, Pulido and Perez were friends and attended the same school. As they got older, however, their friendship waned and they would “mad dog” each other. Eventually, Perez, like his father before him, became a member of the 18th Street gang. Pulido joined the Big Top Locos, a rival gang.

Sometime in mid–2005, Perez and Pulido engaged in a verbal argument. Perez's father got involved and pushed Pulido. Pulido ran away because he feared Perez might get a gun and shoot him.

On another occasion, Perez called out “Big Twat” – a disrespectful reference to Big Top Locos – as Pulido walked by Perez's house. Pulido responded with “Fake Teen,” an equally disrespectful reference to 18th Street. Perez got into his car, followed Pulido, and attempted to run him over.

In early October 2005, Perez again drove a car at Pulido. Appellant Mejia was riding in the front passenger seat at the time. To avoid being hit, Pulido ran away. Pulido also feared that Perez might shoot him. Because he was afraid for his safety, Pulido purchased a shotgun and kept it under his bed.

The day prior to October 12, 2005, 18th Street gang members came to Pulido's apartment looking for him. C.C. told Pulido about that incident. As a result, Pulido feared for both his and his family's safety.

B. The October 12 Shooting

At around 3:00 a.m. on October 12, 2005, M.S. and C.C. were asleep in the living room of the Clinton Street apartment. Both were awakened by several men knocking on the front door. M.S. did not open the door. One of the men asked for “Leo.” M.S. told the men that Pulido was not at home. C.C. heard one of the men yell “Leo,” several times. The men also said that they were Pulido's “homies.”

Pulido was sleeping in the back bedroom. His mother and brother woke him up and told him what was happening. Pulido was suspicious and frightened because his friends, who were all members of Big Top Locos, always called him by his gang moniker, “Bandit.” Perez knew Pulido by the name Leo.

Pulido walked to the front door, where he heard whispering on the other side. He looked out an adjacent window and saw two men walking away. Pulido then looked out the kitchen window and saw the men walking towards the back of the apartment where is bedroom window faced the alley. He heard them throw something at his window.

Pulido returned to his room, retrieved his shotgun from under the bed, and loaded it with a single round. M.S. and C.C. remained in the living room. C.C. could hear rocks or shoes being thrown at the bedroom window, and also heard someone say, in Spanish, “Get in.” Pulido saw the shadow of a man, whom the evidence later showed to be Lorenzo, climb through the bedroom window while holding a gun. When Lorenzo was about “halfway” through the window, Pulido shot at him once, and then did not see him anymore. At the time he shot, Pulido was in fear for his life and the life of his mother and brother.

Pulido reloaded the shotgun with a second round and looked out his bedroom window. He shot a second time at a car in the alley, to frighten anyone else away. He also saw two men running away.³

Pulido ran to his mother and told her to lock the doors and not go outside. Pulido ran out of the building and saw that everyone was gone. He then ran away. As he ran away, Pulido heard gunshots. M.S. and C.C. also heard gunshots, as well as the sound of bullets hitting the side of the apartment building near their kitchen window. Police later observed bullet holes near the kitchen window.

Pulido ran to a park, got rid of the shotgun, and never returned to the apartment. He did not speak to the police about the incident until he was arrested in March 2009.

C. The Arrest of Appellant Mejia

At about 3:00 a.m. on October 12, 2005, Los Angeles Police Officer Paul Lopez and his partner Officer Washington were on patrol in the area of Alvarado and Kent Streets. They responded to a radio call about shots fired in the 1800 block of Clinton Street. As the officers drove down the 1800 block of Santa Ynez Street, they saw appellant Mejia crouching near a tree on the north side of the street. As the officers approached him, Mejia made a motion with his arm as if discarding something, and ran away. The officers eventually caught and arrested Mejia, and Lopez observed that Mejia's clothing was torn. Mejia also had scratches on his abdomen and wrists. Lopez returned to the area where Mejia had been crouching and recovered a blue steel revolver, which contained six expended shell casings.

Four expended bullets recovered from the parking lot south of Pulido's building, the wall of the building just below his kitchen window, and the interior wall of his living room had been fired from the revolver recovered from Mejia.

D. The Arrest of Appellant Caseros

Police officers arrested appellant Caseros in the early morning hours of October 12, 2005, near Alvarado and Kent Streets. An ambulance took him to County–USC hospital where he was treated for shotgun pellet wounds to his right shoulder and right bicep.

E. Death of Jesus Lorenzo

J.S. was the girlfriend of Lorenzo. At around 9:00 p.m. on October 11, 2005, Lorenzo dropped J.S. off at her house. Lorenzo was with appellant Hernandez. The two men had a “box of beer” that they were going to drink.

Early the next morning, J.S. was awakened by a telephone call from Hernandez. Hernandez told J.S. to go to the intersection of Alvarado and Kent Streets to pick up Lorenzo. “Some guy” in a car drove J.S. to that intersection. There, she found appellant Perez. She also found Lorenzo in the back seat of a car. Lorenzo was nonresponsive and his chest was covered in blood.

The person who drove J.S. to the location helped J.S. place Lorenzo in the back seat of his car. They took Lorenzo to King of Queens Hospital where Lorenzo died later that morning. Lorenzo's cause of death was a single shotgun wound to the chest, fired from a distance of less than two feet. Analysis of his blood showed an alcohol content between 0.17...