People v. Ramos
| Decision Date | 28 December 2020 |
| Docket Number | D074429 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. DANIEL MANUEL RAMOS et al., Defendants and Appellants. |
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
APPEALS from judgments of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Sim Von Kalinowski, Judge. Affirmed.
Cynthia A. Grimm, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Daniel Manuel Ramos.
Joanna McKim, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Elias Isai Ramos.
Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Matthew Mulford, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
In a joint trial involving gang shootings, a jury convicted Daniel Ramos (Daniel) and Elias Ramos (Elias) of first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, and possession of a firearm by a felon. The jury also made true findings on firearm and gang enhancements. The court sentenced Daniel (the shooter) to an aggregate prison term of 92 years to life and Elias (the aider and abettor) to 84 years to life.
On appeal, Daniel and Elias raise over 30 issues. Many involve the admissibility of a confession and incriminating statements Daniel made while in custody on unrelated charges to a confidential informant (CI) posing as a gang member. Defendants also assert the court erred in admitting evidence of (1) rap videos performed by Elias, and (2) certain expert testimony regarding gangs. Both also assert prosecutorial misconduct and sentencing errors. Each joins in the other's challenges. We affirm the judgments.
Daniel and Elias (no relation) are members of Center Street, a criminal street gang in Oceanside. Daniel's gang moniker is Kieto. Elias's is Blue.
Center Street, which has about 70 members, engages in murder, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, vandalism, and unlawful possession of firearms. Posole, with about 100 members, is a rival gang claiming other Oceanside territory.
A gang expert testified that murdering a gang rival achieves the highest form of respect within a gang, and even being present to provide backup and to corroborate what occurred bolsters a gang member's status "just the same."
In 2016, Annebell F. was 15 years old and lived in the Posole neighborhood.1 She often spent late hours at Balderrama park (Park), thecenterpiece of Posole territory. Annebell was not a gang member. However, her close friend, Julye R. is.
About 2:00 a.m. on September 3, Julye went to the Park after a family argument. By coincidence, Annebell was already there. The two friends talked near the jungle gym.
The Park is a five-minute walk from the area of Interstate 5 at the Mission Avenue on-ramp. On September 3 at about 2:00 a.m., a nearby resident heard rattling from a chain link fence. Looking out a window, he saw one person climbing the fence and another who was already on the other side. Both were wearing dark hoodies, and one wore a white bandanna covering his face.
Two people walked into the Park, standing side-by-side, each wearing a dark hoodie and bandanna covering their face. One of them began shooting. Julye ran for his life. Annebell hid in the jungle gym's crawl tube.
A nearby resident heard about seven gunshots and saw two men running away. One wore a black hoodie and a white bandanna covering his face. The other wore a hoodie with a black bandanna. Because gunshots are so common in that neighborhood, he did not call the police.
At about 2:35 a.m., Oceanside police found Annebell dead inside the crawl tube, which had .22-caliber bullet holes. Unspent .22-caliber bullets were on the ground nearby.
Julye refused to cooperate with law enforcement.2 However, on September 15 he was in custody on an unrelated matter. So was Jose "JoJo"Flores—Annebell's brother. Police placed Julye and JoJo in the same cell and secretly recorded their conversation, which was played for the jury. Because JoJo was in custody when Annebell was killed, this was their first contact since the shooting.
Julye told JoJo that he was "targeted" by "Kiets," i.e., Kieto, Daniel—who was armed with a revolver and pulled down his bandanna before shooting so that Julye could see his face. Julye said that Daniel was with "the short fool,"3 who wore a bandanna over his face.4
On September 15, police arrested Elias for violating probation in an unrelated matter and obtained his phone. On the day of the shootings, Elias's phone received a call at 1:23 a.m. and had no activity again until 3:11 a.m., when it received a call from Center Street gang member David R. At noon the same day, the user of Elias's phone searched Facebook for "Balderrama Park," and "Oceanside teen girl shot to death." At 8:42 p.m., Elias's phone was used to search for Annebell's Facebook account. Later that night, Elias's phone was used to search the internet for "teenager killed in Oceanside."
Elias's phone also contained a video of him singing rap. This led police to similar YouTube videos. In general, the rap videos, which the jury watched, identify Elias and Daniel as Center Street gang members who, among other things, seek to kill Posole rivals.
On September 21, Daniel was also in custody on unrelated probation violations. With both Elias and Daniel in custody, police staged a ruse—a lineup in which two "witnesses" identified Elias and Daniel as the shooters. After the lineup, police placed Daniel and Elias in the same cell and surreptitiously videoed their conversation, which was played for the jury.
Elias detected the camera and pointed it out to Daniel. After whispering to each other for about 11 minutes, they began to speak audibly. Daniel told Elias that he "got down" (i.e., got in a fistfight) with "Boxer," who had heard that Daniel "pulled that and shit." "Boxer" is the gang moniker of Hector F., Jr., a Posole gang member and Annebell's cousin. Daniel said that Boxer confronted him stating, "That's my cousin" and asked, "Were you out there or what?" Daniel's reply, "Shit happens, fool," angered Boxer, who later assaulted Daniel in jail. Apparently concerned about the hidden camera, Elias said to Daniel, "Delete that shit, fool."
Marko Garcia is a police officer with extensive gang experience. Investigating this case, Garcia worked with an ex-gang member, now a paid police informant, identified at trial only as the CI. The CI, dressed as an inmate and wearing a concealed audio recording device, was placed in a 28-by 28-foot holding or rebooking cell. Police moved Daniel to the same cell. Other inmates, not part of the operation, were in and out at various times. The encounter between Daniel and the CI spans about five hours; a large part was played for the jury.
The CI portrayed himself as an older and experienced gang member who had spent the last 10 years in prison for killing. After Daniel introducedhimself as "Kieto, Center Street Gang," the CI talked about several Center Street gang members. Daniel replied, "I've heard of 'em."
Daniel says little during the first hour. The CI reminisces about times past, when police mostly left rival gang members alone so long as they only assaulted each other. He laments that "it's different now dog." Eventually, the CI says to Daniel, "Hey dog, your barrio—you guys over there by Tri-City?" Daniel replied, "Oceanside."
After about 75 minutes, detective Garcia, dressed as an inmate and posing as a gang member, enters. He and the CI pretend to be old friends. They talk about advice the CI gave to Garcia years ago to conceal evidence of a murder. This is all staged for Daniel's consumption.
Garcia leaves the cell after about 41 minutes. The CI tells Daniel that if Garcia followed his instructions, "They don't have anything on him." The CI asked Daniel, "You got that little feeling that it's something bad?" Daniel replied, "I already know it is."
Daniel told the CI that he and his "homie" were identified in a lineup. After the CI replied that nighttime identifications can be easily discredited in court, Daniel stated, "It was at night."
Daniel told the CI that he and his homie did "a hot one," i.e., a murder that occurred around 2:00 a.m. at a park. The CI asked, "Did you guys use a revolver or was it a semi-automatic?" Daniel replied, a "revolver." He explained that they drove in "the homie's car," but "hopped off and walked it." Daniel was concerned that police might find the clothes he was wearing, which on the night of the murder he threw out of a car.
At this point, an officer removes the CI from the cell, stating he is being taken to meet with detectives regarding "an old murder from 2002." Returning later, the CI tells Daniel, "They got me on a hot one...." Now the CI and Daniel will have something else in common.
Handing Daniel what appears to be a grand jury indictment, detectives enter the cell and say he is being charged with Annebell's murder. The indictment is a ruse; there is no grand jury.
After the detectives leave, Daniel tells the CI, "I'm charged for murder, dog." The CI reads part of the indictment alleging that Daniel and Elias killed Annebell. The CI says, ...
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