People v. Villa

Decision Date20 August 2020
Docket NumberB293118
PartiesTHE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. RUBEN VILLA, Defendant and Appellant.
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeals

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

(Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BA292983)

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Larry P. Fidler, Judge. Affirmed in part and remanded in part with directions.

Leslie Conrad, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Scott A. Taryle and David E. Madeo, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

____________________

After shooting and killing Matthew Simms, Ruben Villa was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, shooting at an occupied vehicle and possession of a firearm by a felon. The jury also found true firearm enhancement allegations. Villa was sentenced to an aggregate indeterminate state prison term of 33 years to life. On appeal Villa contends the trial court committed prejudicial error by permitting the People to introduce speculative and irrelevant testimony and allowing the jury to see improper notations on the transcript of a witness's police interview. He also argues the court abused its discretion in declining to strike the firearm enhancement imposed pursuant to Penal Code section 12022.53, subdivision (d),1 and his sentence constitutes cruel and/or unusual punishment. We affirm Villa's convictions and reject his arguments concerning imposition of the firearm enhancement and the constitutional validity of his sentence, but nonetheless remand for resentencing to permit the trial court to exercise its sentencing discretion after striking the one-year prior prison term enhancement imposed pursuant to section 667.5, subdivision (b).

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
1. The Information, First Trial and Amended Charges

Villa was originally charged by information with the murder of Simms (count 1), possession of a firearm by a felon (count 2) and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury on Amanda Alvarez (count 3). Firearm enhancements were alleged as to counts 1 and 3. It was further alleged that Villa had servedtwo prior prison terms for felonies within the meaning of section 667.5, subdivision (b). A jury convicted Villa of unlawful possession of a firearm but was unable to reach a verdict on the other two charges. Prior to retrial on the murder and aggravated assault counts, the prosecutor added a charge of shooting at an occupied motor vehicle (count 4) with additional firearm-use allegations under sections 12022.53, subdivisions (b), (c) and (d).

2. Villa's Second Trial
a. The People's evidence

Simms had been dating Alvarez for two or three years.2 During that time, Alvarez also became romantically involved with Villa. Alvarez's relationship with Villa angered Simms, and Simms periodically asked her if she was still seeing Villa.

Alvarez's best friend, Noelle Jensen, lived across the street from Villa in El Sereno. Alvarez and Jensen got together almost every day to smoke methamphetamine. Because Alvarez did not have a car, Simms dropped Alvarez off and picked her up at Jensen's house.

On October 23, 2005 Jensen heard Villa outside her house screaming at Simms. Villa yelled, "I told you not to come back up here. . . . Don't come back up here, disrespect." Alvarez and Jensen went outside; and Alvarez began cursing at Villa, who was with another man. Jensen told Alvarez to "shut the fuck up." When asked why she had said that, Jensen explained she wasconcerned that, "by her talking shit to [Villa], all it's going to do is make him mad"—that Alvarez's outburst would just make matters worse. After Jensen answered the question, defense counsel objected on relevancy grounds, insisting, "It's irrelevant why she did something." The court responded, "Well, no, because it explains her state of mind and explains why she acted the way she did, so that's the reason it will be received."3

On redirect Jensen elaborated that she told Alvarez to shut up because Villa's friend looked "like a homeboy," "like somebody from a gang," and Alvarez was making Villa look bad in front of him. Defense counsel objected that the question, already answered, called for speculation. The court overruled the objection, "It was why she did something." Continuing, Jensen said she had seen people involved in gang culture react with violence to "save face." Alvarez also testified over a defense objection on relevancy grounds that she was concerned about "what was going on" after Jensen told her to shut up and go inside.

The following day Simms dropped Alvarez at Jensen's house. Because Alvarez was planning to stay only about 15 minutes, Simms stopped his car in front of Villa's house. The driver's side of the car faced Villa's house. Alvarez noticed Villa outside, talking to the occupants of another car that was stopped in the street. When Villa saw Alvarez and Simms, he went into his house.

Jensen came outside to talk to Simms. Suddenly, she saw Villa leaving his yard, holding a gun, and heard him say, "I told you not to come up here." Alvarez saw Villa holding a gun, running out of his driveway toward Simms's car.

Villa fired several shots through the driver's side window of Simms's car. The car began to roll down the street. Alvarez and Jensen saw and/or heard Villa fire a few more shots through the back window of the car as it rolled down the street. Alvarez asked Villa what he was doing. He told her to shut up and said the shooting was her fault for letting Simms disrespect him.

According to Jensen, Villa pointed his gun at Alvarez's head and said he should shoot her too. He then tucked his gun inside his pants and ran over to Simms's car before returning to his house and driving away in his father's truck.

When the shooting occurred, Jensen's boyfriend, Art Estevez, was in the driveway of her house, working on stolen vehicles parked in the driveway. He heard several gunshots and dropped to the ground. He then heard five to 10 more gunshots. Estevez saw someone running toward Simms's car, shooting at it. Because he was worried about the police arriving at the scene and discovering the stolen vehicles, Estevez left the area.

Los Angeles Police Officer Ricardo Ortega was the first to arrive at the scene. He found Simms slumped forward in his car, which had crashed into a tree, and observed a bullet wound in Simms's left cheek and blood in the car. The front driver's side window was open; the front passenger's side window was partially open; and the rear passenger windows were closed. All were intact. The rear window and rear wing window on the driver's side were shattered, and there were multiple bullet holes in the car's trunk. Eight shell casings from a semiautomatic handgunwere found at the scene. The casings appeared to be going downhill in a "trail."

Paramedics took Simms, who had gunshot wounds to his face, chest and back, to the hospital. Simms died from a gunshot wound to the chest; the bullet pierced his lung, lacerated a major blood vessel and left his body through his neck. There was no soot or stippling around the gunshot wounds, indicating the muzzle of the gun was more than two feet from Simms when he was shot.

According to Los Angeles Police Department Senior Criminalist Nathan Cross, there were no bullet marks inside Simms's car that could have been caused by someone shooting through the driver's side window. The bullet marks he found were consistent with someone having fired into the car from behind.

b. Defense evidence

Testifying on his own behalf, Villa explained he met Alvarez through Jensen in April 2005. He had a relationship with her for several months. While she told him that she was living with another man and helping him take care of his child, she did not initially tell him the man's name or that he was her boyfriend.

Two weeks after Villa began seeing Alvarez, he had a confrontation with Simms. About 10 minutes after having been picked up by Simms, Alvarez returned and came to see Villa. She was bleeding from her mouth. Alvarez told Villa that Simms had thrown her out of his car and had threatened to kill Villa. While Alvarez and Villa were talking, Simms approached them, pointed a gun at Villa and said something about Villa's relationship with Alvarez. Villa told Simms, "[D]on't come up here"; Alvarez andSimms started arguing; and Alvarez pushed Simms back toward Jensen's house. Simms later called Villa to apologize, saying it was okay if Alvarez preferred Villa to him.

Villa had another confrontation with Simms when Villa was walking with Alvarez. Simms drove up, jumped out of his car and approached Villa. Alvarez got in between the two men and began arguing with Simms. Villa walked away.

There was also an incident in which Villa was in his front yard and Simms left his car and ran at Villa, holding a machete and threatening to kill him. Villa's father came out of the house, grabbed a shovel, approached Simms and told him to leave. Simms returned to his car and drove away.

Villa ended his relationship with Alvarez in August 2005. Two months later, on October 23, 2005, Villa was talking to one of his friends by his house when he noticed Simms leaving Jensen's house. As Simms drove away, he yelled curses at Villa, who yelled curses back at Simms. Alvarez and Jensen came outside, and Alvarez asked Villa why he was yelling at Simms. Villa told Alvarez to tell Simms to stop coming there and to stop disrespecting him.

Late the next morning, Villa...

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