People v. Vargas
| Decision Date | 06 August 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. H017310.,H017310. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Edward VARGAS, Defendant and Appellant. |
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson and Ronald A. Bass, Assistant Attorneys General, Stan M. Helfman and John R. Vance, Jr., Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff/Respondent
Kathy M. Chavez, Berkeley, Tara Mulay, for Defendant/Appellant.
Defendant Edward Vargas was charged by grand jury indictment with conspiracy to commit murder, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, arson, burglary, extortion, intimidation of witnesses, terrorist threats, escape, possession of concealable firearm by a convicted felon, and distribution of heroin, cocaine, phencyclidine (PCP), and methamphetamine (count 1) and the murder of Elias Rosas (Pen.Code, § 187;1 count 12). Count 1 alleged 96 overt acts. The indictment further alleged that counts 1 and 12 were committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in association with a criminal street gang, with the specific intent to promote, further, and assist in criminal conduct by gang members, within the meaning of section 186.22, subdivision (b)(1).
The indictment was amended on July 8, 1996, to add the allegation that defendant had suffered two prior felony convictions.
Defendant pleaded not guilty and denied the enhancement allegations.
The jury found defendant guilty on both, and also found true the enhancement allegations.
The court sentenced defendant to a total prison term of 60 years to life, as follows 25 years to life on count 1; a consecutive 25 years to life on count 12; and a consecutive 10-year enhancement for the two prior felony convictions.
We affirm.
The Nuestra Familia (NF) is a prison gang that was founded in September 1968 by inmates at the California State Prison San Quentin (San Quentin). NF is a "cold-hearted gang" that commits murders, burglaries, extortion, and other crimes, including selling drugs to raise money for its members. Persons who testify against the NF are killed. Since its founding, NF has become "the most organized prison gang" in the California Department of Corrections (CDC). NF has also, since its founding, extended its influence outside of prison walls to the "streets." NF has a written constitution. The governing body of NF is called the "Mesa."
New NF members receive "schooling" on such subjects as how to construct weapons from found material, how to attack an enemy, and how to build the gang outside prison.
To be eligible for NF membership, a prisoner had to be a member of the "Northern Structure" (NS). NF membership is a lifetime commitment. Leaving the NF is, according to its constitution, an offense punishable by death. Of this lifetime commitment, Ronnie Shelton, an NF member who testified for the prosecution, stated: "Blood in blood out is not written literally into the constitution word for word, although between the lines it is definitely there, that you come into the organization with blood on your hands, preferably murder, if not, any other criminal acts and, for example, a deserter, traitor or coward who decides to defect and leave the organization, blood out is meaning to kill him."
Shelton further testified that although the constitution provides for an automatic death sentence for a traitor (i.e., "an NF who decides to defect, drop out, of the organization"), in practice, there was discretion. Shelton said he could be "considered a traitor because I have defected and I'm testifying." Asked if his defection meant a death sentence, Shelton testified:
One objective of the NF is "to build the organization on the outside, become self-supporting, work with those in alliance, any and all illegal ventures to build the funds that can be utilized to take care of members behind the walls or drug deals on the streets." Building the organization "on the streets" was important "[t]o promote the organization so others can recognize the powerfulness of the NF, which is basically the umbrella organization for the Northern Structure and, in a sense, directly, indirectly intimidate those with large quantities of drugs or anything that the NF can use to edify their own system."
NF members on the street were expected to contribute money to the NF "bank," which was the NF fund held for the benefit of the NF members. The contributions from individual members were to be made from dealing drugs or getting "contributions" from drug dealers. The NF members on the "street" were under the control of the Regional Security Department (RSD) to whom they were to report.
Murders, or "hits," had to be sanctioned by higher authority. In NF terminology, approval for murder was called a "green light." A NF member who killed another NF member had to be killed.
The Northern Structure was formed by the NF "as a gang under them to take the heat off [the NF]." NF was superior to NS. NF and NS operated for the common purpose of raising money through crimes to help NF members who are in prison and their families. NF and NS did not use terms like "kill" or "murder" in discussing those acts; they used instead gang language, such as "dealt with" for murder, to conceal the subject of discussion from eavesdroppers.
In May 1985, Shelton, while serving time at San Quentin, was recruited into the NF by NF member Michael Sosa. Shelton had been a member of the NS prior to his entry to the NF. In December 1990, Shelton became the RSD for San Jose.
After his indictment, Shelton decided to leave the NF and testify for the prosecution. Among the reasons Shelton cited for his decision were exhaustion and the fact that the NF wanted to control his defense. Shelton was facing the death penalty for the murders in which he participated. Shelton pled guilty to four first degree murders (i.e., the murders of Herrera, Valles, Apodaca, and Perez). For these murders, Shelton received a total prison term of 100 years to life. Shelton was 35 years old when he testified. Shelton said he did not expect to live long enough to be eligible for parole, and that, for his participation in the four murders, he deserved to be in prison for the rest of his life.
Chavez was recruited into NF from NS in 1989 at the Tehachapi State Prison (Tehachapi) by Joseph Hernandez and Vincent Arroyo. Chavez knew defendant while both of them were at Tehachapi. After the murders of Herrera, Rosas, and Baca, codefendant Lopez told Chavez that Chavez's status in the NF was "on freeze" until Chavez brought them a "body," i.e., committed a murder. Chavez said this meant that "if [he] didn't take care of business, they [the NF] were going to take [him] out," i.e., kill him.
Chavez agreed to testify for the prosecution on condition that he be prosecuted only for the crimes that he had actually committed.
Salazar was recruited into the NS when he was 18 years old. Salazar should have been sent to the California Youth Authority (CYA), but because he had been paralyzed from a car accident that happened when he was 16, and had been confined to a wheelchair, Salazar could not be accommodated at the CYA; instead, Salazar was sent to the CDC. As part of the NF recruitment process, Salazar was given secret documents that explained the NS and contained the 14 "bonds," or the "dos and don'ts of the Structure." Salazar was active in the NS from 1987 to 1993.
Salazar joined the NF while he was in custody on the present charges. In 1993, while in a holding cell with Arroyo, Salazar was told by Arroyo that he (Arroyo) knew that Salazar had spoken with the San Jose Police Department, but that Salazar should not worry because he (Arroyo) was going to "let it slide because as long as [Salazar] didn't give nobody up on a murder." Salazar, in violation of the NF's code of silence, had told the San Jose Police in 1992 that Guzman, Shelton, Villanueva, and codefendant Lopez were members of the NF.
After the 1993 conversation with Arroyo, Salazar overheard codefendant Trujeque tell codefendant Serna that they would let Salazar slide for a while and then kill him.
In 1993, Salazar, in a written plea agreement, agreed to testify for the prosecution with the understanding that the prosecution would decide whether his sentence was to be life without the possibility of parole, or 50 years to life.
Guzman joined the NS while in prison in late 1987 or early 1988, after reading the gang's 14 "bonds" and agreeing to live by them.
In August 1992, Guzman fled to Mexico to avoid arrest on the indictment. Guzman's wife, who was also indicted, joined him, but later returned to the United States. Back in the U.S., Guzman's wife told Guzman in a telephone conversation that the NF wanted to kill him because they believed that he was cooperating with the district attorney. Guzman explained that he decided to testify for the government because people had died "for nothing"; he was facing the death penalty; his wife was indicted; and his children were upset.
Other NF members who testified for the prosecution were Carlos Mendoza and Roland Saldivar. NF member Vincent Arroyo pled guilty, pursuant to his plea agreement, but did not testify.
While at Tehachapi, Chavez, Hernandez, and Pablo "Panther" Pena prepared an NF "hit" list, which was a list of persons who should...
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Chapter 6 - §2. Balancing test
...time lost by giving one case more time than necessary and thus prejudicing other cases on the docket. People v. Vargas (6th Dist.2001) 91 Cal.App.4th 506, 544; see, e.g., People v. Calhoun (4th Dist.2019) 38 Cal.App.5th 275, 301 (permitting evidence of victim's subsequent commercial sex act......