People v. Valenzuela
| Decision Date | 16 September 2022 |
| Docket Number | F078859 |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. PETE VALENZUELA, JR., Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Merced County No CRM027488A. Ronald W. Hansen, Judge.
Laura Schaefer, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Louis M. Vasquez, Barton Bowers, Darren K Indermill, Amanda D. Cary, and Lewis A. Martinez, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Defendant Pete Valenzuela, Jr. was convicted by a jury of three counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted first degree murder, and one count of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He raises many issues on appeal. We reverse the jury's Penal Code[1]section 186.22, subdivision (b), enhancement findings, as well as its section 190.2, subdivision (a)(22) special circumstance findings. Valenzuela may be retried on these allegations. Whether or not the People elect to retry Valenzuela, Valenzuela is entitled to a resentencing.
Valenzuela was charged in a first amended information with three counts of first degree murder (§ 187, subd. (a); count 1 [victim Luis Morales]; count 2 [victim Benjamin Mariano]; count 3 [victim Antonio Jacobo]); one count of attempted murder (§§ 187, subd. (a), 664; count 4 [victim Jonathan T.[2]); and one count of assault with a semiautomatic firearm (§ 245, subd. (b); count 5 [victim Jonathan T.]). The information further alleged the following: as to counts 1 and 2, gang-murder special circumstances (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(22)) and that Valenzuela committed the offenses for the benefit of or in association with a criminal street gang (§ 186.22, subd. (b)(1)(C)); as to counts 1, 2, and 3, multiple murder special circumstances (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3), and that Valenzuela intentionally and personally discharged a firearm causing great bodily injury and death (§ 12022.53, subds. (d) &(e)); as to count 4, that Valenzuela personally discharged a firearm (§ 12022.53, subd. (c)); and, as to all counts, that Valenzuela had served a prior prison term (§ 667.5, subd. (b)). The amended information charged Patrick Cervantes similarly with regard to counts 1 and 2. Cervantes was also charged with the attempted murder of Jonathan T. Trial began on October 25, 2018, and on December 7, 2018, the jury returned verdicts convicting Valenzuela as charged, except that as to count 4 the jury found not true the allegation that Valenzuela personally and intentionally discharged a firearm, instead finding true an allegation that he personally used a firearm (§ 12022.53, subd. (b)). In a bifurcated proceeding, Valenzuela admitted serving a prior prison term.
On January 24, 2019, the trial court sentenced Valenzuela to three consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole plus 93 years to life, and imposed various fines, fees, and assessments, including a $200 court security fee (§ 1465.8), a $150 criminal conviction assessment (Gov. Code, § 70373), and a $10,000 restitution fine (§ 1202.4, subd. (b)).
On October 7, 2012,[3] William G. lived on the corner of 7th Street and T Street in Merced. Around 11:00 p.m. that night, he heard a gunshot. He went outside and heard four more shots about 30 to 35 seconds after the first shot. He saw what he described as a 2000 or 2001 white Dodge Dakota pickup truck with a camper shell parked just east of the corner of 6th Street and T Street. After the shots were fired, he saw the pickup drive east down 6th Street toward R Street, and then turn north onto R Street.
In his October 8 statement to police, William G. said he thought it was strange the pickup "did not drive out very fast," but drove at a normal speed after the shooting. But at trial, he testified the pickup was going "pretty good" after the shooting.
Officers responded to the scene shortly after the shooting. Jacobo, a homeless man, was found lying on the south side of 6th Street in front of a school, just east of T Street. He was lying half on the sidewalk and half on the street. He still had a pulse, but EMS personnel could not revive him.
Jacobo's bicycle was across the street. A bag hanging from the handlebars contained marijuana and some of Jacobo's belongings. Jacobo also had marijuana on his person. A trail of blood and some small denomination currency bills and change led from the middle of 6th Street toward Jacobo's body. At least one of the bills and a nickel had blood on them. There was also a trail of five spent cartridge casings leading from the middle of the street to Jacobo. The casings trail similarly tracked the money trail. Some casings were near the middle of the street, and one of the casings was about two or three feet from Jacobo's body. The cartridge casings all had the same headstamp. The headstamp had the letters "WCC," the number "12," and an encircled cross. There were also two bullet fragments found at the scene, one near Jacobo's body.
Jacobo was shot several times. He had two gunshot wounds to his head, a third wound that started in his head and ended in his back, "several" wounds to one thigh, and two "graze" wounds. The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy testified that the two wounds to the head were each fatal, and that the shots to the "lower torso ... would probably have been survivable." The pathologist said the two headshots were from intermediate range, meaning from a few inches up to several feet away. One bullet was found in Jacobo's back during the autopsy.
Valenzuela's grandmother lived near the shooting scene at an S Street residence, between 6th Street and 4th Street, and his mother, Isabel G., and Isabel G.'s boyfriend, Jose S., lived with her at the time Jacobo was killed. Isabel G. was previously married to Jacobo for about two months. Jacobo was convicted in December 2008 of having made a criminal threat against Isabel G. in November 2008. Isabel G. stated she did not leave Jacobo because of the criminal threat, but because of his heroin addiction. When asked if Valenzuela was upset Jacobo had threatened her, Isabel G. said,
A Merced police detective went to Valenzuela's grandmother's house around October 13 and saw a white Dodge Ram pickup in the driveway with a camper shell on it.
When the detective returned to the house on October 15, the camper shell had been removed.
Michael R., who lived in a small building behind the main house, owned the Dodge Ram pickup parked in front of the house. He testified the door to his residence did not lock completely, so anyone could get inside. He kept his pickup keys in his residence. He testified he was home asleep the night Jacobo was killed. However, he previously told a detective he believed he heard his truck start up that night.
Officers seized the pickup in October 2012. Before it was seized, Michael R. had washed the outside of the truck but had not cleaned the inside. The pickup was dirty, but it appeared the inside of the passenger window had been wiped. DNA from at least two contributors was found on the steering wheel and the driver's side door handle but was of too poor a quality to identify any of the contributors. Eighteen latent fingerprints were obtained from the pickup and run through the Automated Latent Print System with no results.
Isabel G. testified the pickup was nonoperational the entire time Michael R. lived on the property and never had a camper shell on it. But a police technician who processed the pickup for evidence when it was seized testified he started the pickup, put it in gear, and drove it approximately a foot forward and backward.
Officers executed a search warrant at the S Street residence on October 15. A detective knocked on the door, and a male and female asked who it was. The detective said it was the Merced Police Department with a search warrant. The detective heard a male voice say, "Hold on," and heard what sounded like people running inside the house. Officers forced entry and encountered Jose S. and Valenzuela's girlfriend, Irie C. Jose S. spoke only Spanish and his voice did not sound like the one that said, "Hold on." One of the house's back windows was open. Cervantes testified Valenzuela told him once that he and Irie C. were at the house that day when police arrived, and that he left out a side door and ran to a neighbor's house down the street.
Officers found marijuana, digital scales, a cell phone with a picture of Valenzuela holding marijuana, a beanie cap with holes for eyes and mouth, identification cards for Valenzuela and Irie C., and men's clothing that Jose S. said did not belong to him. Valenzuela told police in a post-arrest interview on December 27 that he had been at the house earlier in the day when the warrant was executed but was not there when the officers arrived. Isabel G. testified Valenzuela did not live at the house at the time but would sometimes stay there a day or two.
Cervantes testified[4] that one time Valenzuela told him he had killed someone on the west side of town, around the corner from his grandmother's house. Valenzuela said there was a park near the area of the shooting. When asked if Valenzuela had provided any details, Cervantes testified, "He referred to whom he had shot and said he had shot him a handful of times." But Cervantes was never asked to name the person Valenzuela shot. Cervantes said Valenzuela told...
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