In re E.A. CA2/4

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 4, 2015
DocketB260428
StatusUnpublished

This text of In re E.A. CA2/4 (In re E.A. CA2/4) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re E.A. CA2/4, (Cal. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Filed 12/4/15 In re E.A. CA2/4 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FOUR

In re E.A., a Person Coming Under the B260428 Juvenile Court Law. (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. GJ29260)

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

E.A.,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Robin Miller Sloan, Judge. Affirmed in part and remanded with instructions. Gerald Peters, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Steven D. Matthews, Analee J. Brodie and Michael Keller, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. E.A., a minor, appeals from an order adjudicating him a ward of the juvenile court under Welfare and Institutions Code section 602. E.A. contends there was insufficient evidence to support the juvenile court’s finding that he made or aided and abetted the making of criminal threats (Pen. Code, § 422, subd. (a))1 against victim Vanessa C. He further contends that the court erred by miscalculating the maximum term of confinement to which he was subject and by failing to aggregate his predisposition custody credits. Respondent concedes the latter error. We remand for modification of the adjudication order and abstract of judgment to reflect the correct number of predisposition custody credits. We otherwise affirm the judgment of the juvenile court. PROCEDURAL HISTORY In a Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 petition filed on August 14, 2014, appellant was charged with making criminal threats against Vanessa C. in violation of section 422, subdivision (a). The petition further alleged appellant personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a metal pipe, elevating the offense to a serious felony within the meaning of section 1192.7, subdivision (c)(23). (§ 12022, subd. (b).) After a two-day contested adjudication hearing, the juvenile court found true the criminal threats allegation but not the enhancement pertaining to the metal pipe. The juvenile court sustained the petition and declared the offense a felony. The court declared appellant a ward of the court and ordered him placed in a six-month camp community placement program, with a maximum term of physical confinement of six years, 10 months (82 months). The court awarded appellant 52 days of predisposition custody credit. Appellant timely appealed.

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated. 2 FACTUAL BACKGROUND A. The Prosecution Case On August 9, 2014, at approximately 9:30 p.m., 17-year-old Vanessa C. was inside her second-story Alhambra apartment with her parents and two brothers, Brian and Michael. Vanessa was in her bedroom when she heard “a bunch of cars and people outside of [her] house yelling and cursing.” She looked out the window and saw approximately 10 to 15 young men, whom she estimated to be between the ages of 17 and 20. The males were in a group together, and most of them were armed with bats. She did not see appellant among the males. Vanessa recognized two of the males as appellant’s codefendants, Frank S. and Christopher T. Frank was holding a small metal bat. She saw Frank and Christopher looking into the open living room window and heard one of say, “Fuck you. You know who we are here for.” She also heard “a bunch of voices” saying things like “F you, you know who we’re here for” and “We are going to get you.” The males surrounded the apartment ground floor. Afraid, Vanessa locked the front door and armed herself with a knife from the kitchen. Vanessa yelled to the males that they better leave because she was going to call the police. The males responded, “Fuck you.” Vanessa called the police, but the males ran away before officers arrived on the scene within 10 minutes of the call. The police stayed at the scene for approximately 20-30 minutes. Vanessa could not sleep because she was scared and afraid the males would come back. Around midnight, she heard noises outside. She looked out her bedroom window and saw that the group of males had returned. This time, she saw appellant along with Frank and Christopher. Vanessa did not recognize anyone else in the group of 15 to 20 males. The males were “trying to be kind of quiet,” but Vanessa could hear them through her open window. She heard and saw five or six of them, including Frank and Christopher, run up the exterior stairs. Frank was carrying a small black gun, and

3 Christopher banged what sounded like a metal object and might have been a gun on the stair railing. Appellant remained downstairs and did not say anything. Vanessa testified that she did not see anything in his hands, but was “not so sure” about that. Vanessa told her parents that the males had returned. Her parents seemed worried and barricaded the front door with a couch. Vanessa heard the five or six males outside the front door yelling. They banged on the door for about three to four minutes, during which time there was “a bunch of yelling,” including “F. U., F. U. We are going to get you guys,” “You know who we are here for,” and “F.U. guys.” Vanessa also heard one of the males tell her neighbor, “Shut the fuck up, bitch. I am going to kill you.” Vanessa did not know who the males were there for and did not think they were there for her because she “didn’t have any problems with them.” She nonetheless felt more threatened and scared than she had earlier that evening, because she knew the males were armed with a gun and thought they were going to enter the apartment and “probably will kill” her. Vanessa called the police. Once again the group of males dispersed, running in all directions before the police arrived. Shortly after the males left, Vanessa heard three gunshots in the alley behind the apartment. The police did not find any evidence of gunshots when they searched there. Officer Eric Ybarra of the Alhambra Police Department interviewed Vanessa when he arrived at the apartment building. According to Officer Ybarra, Vanessa was “scared” and “shaken up” but was able to answer his questions. Vanessa identified appellant, Frank, and Christopher by name. She told Officer Ybarra that appellant was holding an unknown weapon, Frank had a handgun, and Christopher had a bat or wooden stick. Officer Ybarra also spoke with Vanessa’s downstairs neighbor, Breanna Galindo. According to Officer Ybarra, Galindo reported seeing and hearing people yelling outside of her apartment window. Galindo told Officer Ybarra that the people were the same ones who had been outside earlier in the evening. According to Officer Ybarra, Galindo

4 told him one of the males was holding a small handgun and yelling for Brian to come out of the apartment. According to Galindo, she told Officer Ybarra only that she heard “guys outside yelling”; she could not remember what the males were yelling and did not remember telling police officers what the males were yelling. Galindo also testified that a family member of one of the defendants threatened her before she took the stand. Another responding officer, Andrea Fuentes, interviewed Vanessa’s father, Hector G. Officer Fuentes testified that Hector “seemed frightened.” According to Officer Fuentes’s report documenting the interview, Hector said that he heard pounding on his front door and saw four to five males outside.

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Bluebook (online)
In re E.A. CA2/4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ea-ca24-calctapp-2015.