People v. Mitchell
| Decision Date | 14 May 2019 |
| Docket Number | A150156,A150433 |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. RUBEN MITCHELL et al., Defendants and Appellants. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
(Alameda County Super. Ct. Nos. C178704A, C178704B, C178704C)
A jury convicted Paul Booker, Ruben Mitchell, and Jason Beasley (collectively, defendants) of several felonies, including torture (Pen. Code, § 206)1 and human trafficking for commercial sex (§ 236.1, subd. (b)). Defendants appeal, raising numerous claims of error.
We affirm Booker and Mitchell's judgments. We remand Beasley's case to the trial court for a recalculation of his presentence and conduct credits and amendment of the abstract of judgment. In all other respects, we affirm Beasley's judgment.
The prosecution charged defendants with eight crimes arising out of a June 2013 incident. The operative information alleged: kidnapping to commit a sex crime (§ 209, subd. (b)(1) (count 1)); assault with a firearm (§ 245, subd. (a)(2) (count 2)); torture (§ 206 (count 3)); rape by a foreign object acting in concert (§§ 264.1, subd. (a), 289,subd. (a) (count 4)); assault with a deadly weapon, a hunting knife (§ 245, subd. (a)(1) (count 5)); attempted pandering by procuring (§ 266i, subd. (a)(1) (count 6)); human trafficking for commercial sex (§ 236.1, subd. (b) (count 7)); and forcible rape while acting in concert (§ 264.1, subd. (a) (count 8)). The information also alleged numerous sentencing enhancements, including that Booker used a firearm in the commission of count 3 (§ 12022.5, subd. (a)).
In May 2013, Booker and Beasley were pimps in Oakland. Beasley and Mitchell were rap artists, and appeared in a music video together. 17-year-old Jane Doe was a prostitute in Oakland. Doe did not have a pimp but knew of pimps in the area, including Booker and Beasley. Booker wanted Doe to "prostitute for him" but she refused.
On June 2, 2013, Doe and Beasley "hung out" and had sex. The next day, Beasley planned to drive Doe "out of town," where she would work as a prostitute. Doe, however, changed her mind and asked Beasley to drop her off near her house. Beasley did not drop Doe off. Instead, he took her to several other locations, eventually stopping the car on an isolated road, near a corner where Booker was standing with three or four men, including Mitchell. One man saw Doe and said, " 'There goes that bitch.' " The men pointed at Doe. Then they got into a car.
Beasley drove away, but shortly thereafter, Booker's car arrived. Booker, Mitchell, and others got out of the car and approached Beasley's car. Booker had a Glock handgun. Booker and the other men dragged Doe out of Beasley's car. Doe screamed for help, but Beasley did not assist her. Doe felt Beasley had set her up because he let the men drag her out of the car.
Booker "beat [Doe] up" with his gun, striking her multiple times in the face. Doe's "head was busted" and she lost "so much blood." Booker also put his gun in Doe's mouth and told her to " '[s]hut up.' " Then he and several other men grabbed Doe by her hair and threw her in the trunk. The car stopped at Booker's apartment, and Booker dragged Doe inside.
There were "a lot of people" in the apartment, including defendants.2 People in the apartment were "talking shit" to Doe; Mitchell and others told Doe she "should have just been a ho[]" and Mitchell screamed, " 'Why don't you just ho[.]' " Doe was thrown to the ground and hit several times. As she was beaten, the men told her: "You gotta make money for us[.]" Then Doe "blacked out." When she regained consciousness, her neck, arms, and legs were bound with duct tape. A makeshift blindfold had been placed over her head, but it came off. Booker and another man "started cutting" Doe with a machete, first on her breast, then on her back, leg, and stomach.
Booker said, " 'Bitch, you gone [sic] make my money' " and " 'I am going to kill you bitch if you don't make my money.' " Booker put his gun in Doe's vagina and threatened to kill her if she screamed, saying " 'My trigger finger is itching.' " Beasley watched. He did not help Doe.
Doe drifted in and out of consciousness. Her head was "busted open" and she was "losing a lot of blood." Doe's eyes were swollen shut. She awoke in a bedroom—"naked and cut up"—on top of black garbage bags. She was still duct taped, but "there was so much blood that [her] arms got loose[.]" Doe removed a window screen and jumped out of a window. Still naked, Doe made her way to a nearby driveway and hid underneath a parked car. A man saw Doe, gave her a shirt, and called the police. The man told the police that two men with guns had been looking for Doe, and identified Booker as one of the men.
About five minutes later, the police arrived and found Doe under the car. She was Doe begged the officer to help her and said a man was "trying to kill [her]" andthat he lived nearby. Doe's face was swollen and bleeding. She had duct tape around her neck. Doe showed the police the car used to kidnap her and the apartment where she was held. She gave the police the name "Paul," identified Booker's picture, and said he had been "seeking her to prostitute for him" and that he tried to kill her. Doe also told the police someone was "looking for her" and that "these guys had lots of guns."3 Doe was taken to the hospital, where she gave a statement. She was "very shaken, very upset." A medical examination confirmed Doe's account of her injuries.
The car used to kidnap Doe belonged to Booker. In the apartment, police found a box containing Booker's wallet and personal documents, including his birth certificate. Police also found a roll of duct tape, black trash bags, a long-bladed knife, and Glock handgun ammunition. In a bedroom, there was blood on a window sill. The window screen was on the ground, below the window.
Latent prints were found on an inside layer of the duct tape used to secure Doe's blindfold. Seven prints "were of sufficient quality and quantity" and had "enough unique detail" to be presented to a fingerprint examiner. Some of the prints were palm prints. Kimberly Lankford, a latent print examiner, identified one of the palm prints as belonging to Mitchell. Another criminalist verified Lankford's identification.
Shortly before trial, Beasley asked Doe:
Ralph Haber, Ph.D., testified as an expert for Mitchell regarding fingerprint identification. He stated the latent print matched to Mitchell lacked "many reliable features" and was "harder to justify . . . as a palm rather than just a piece of a fingerprint." Dr. Haber opined the "print that was lifted wasn't good enough" to make an identification. He did not analyze the print himself; he did not attempt to verify Lankford's work. Dr. Haber acknowledged the Oakland Police Department crime lab is accredited and that he had not reviewed the process the lab used to verify prints.
The court admitted a 2014 booking photo of Mitchell with no face tattoo. A witness for Beasley corroborated Doe's description of the abduction and identified Mitchell as one of the armed kidnappers. The witness claimed she and Beasley went to a restaurant after Doe was abducted.
In September 2016, the jury convicted Booker and Mitchell of the lesser included offense of kidnapping on count 1 and counts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. As to Booker, the jury found he personally used a firearm in the commission of count 2 (assault with a firearm), and count 3 (torture) (§ 12022.5, subd. (a)). The jury convicted Beasley of the lesser included offense of kidnapping on count 1, and counts 3, 6, and 7.
In December 2016, the court sentenced defendants. As relevant here, the court sentenced Booker to 55 years to life in state prison, comprised of 25 years to life on count 4 (rape by a foreign object acting in concert), 20 years for count 7 (human trafficking), and 10 years to life on count 3 (torture). The sentence for count 3 (torture) included a firearm enhancement (§ 12022.5, subd. (a)). The court imposed and stayed a firearm enhancement (§ 12022.5, subd. (a)) on count 2 (assault with a firearm).
The court sentenced Mitchell to 45 years to life in state prison, comprised of 25 years to life on count 4 (penetration with a foreign object acting in concert), 20 years on count 7 (human trafficking), and a life term on count 3 (torture). The court sentenced Beasley to 15 years, 8 months to life in state prison.
After defendants appealed, the trial court amended Booker and Mitchell's respective abstracts of judgment to correct minor sentencing errors. We requested and received supplemental briefs on Booker's firearm enhancements. (§ 12022.5, subd. (c).)
Beasley contends there is insufficient evidence he aided and abetted the "crimes." This argument is forfeited because Beasley has not identified the convictions supposedly lacking in evidentiary support.4
At oral argument, counsel for Beasley stated all of Beasley's convictions were unsupported by sufficient evidence. We reject the argument on the merits. (People v. Abilez (2007) 41 Cal.4th 472, 504 [].) "[A] person who aids and abets a crime is guilty of that crime even if someone else committed some or all of the criminal acts." (People v. McCoy (2001) 25 Cal.4th 1111, 1117.) "[A] person aids and abets the commission of a crime...
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