In re N.L.

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 21, 2022
DocketD079759
StatusPublished

This text of In re N.L. (In re N.L.) 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 N.L., (Cal. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

Filed 7/21/22

CERTIFIED FOR PARTIAL PUBLICATION*

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

In re N.L., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law. D079759 THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. J243890)

v.

N.L.,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Francis M. Devaney and Tilisha T. Martin, Judges. Conditionally reversed and remanded. Deanna L. Lopas, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, and

* Pursuant to California Rules of Court, rule 8.1110, this opinion is certified for publication with the exception of part I. Melissa Mandel and Seth M. Friedman, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. Minor N.L. appeals from an order adjudging her a ward of the court.

(Welf. & Inst. Code, § 602.)1 She argues: (1) there is insufficient evidence to support the juvenile court’s finding that she willfully and maliciously committed felony arson of property (Pen. Code, § 451, subd. (d)); and (2) the case should be remanded for the juvenile court to consider informal supervision under Welfare and Institutions Code section 654.2, applying changes to the law that became effective on January 1, 2022 as a result of Senate Bill No. 383 (2021-2022 Reg. Sess.) (Senate Bill No. 383). We find sufficient evidence to support the true finding, but we agree that N.L. is entitled to a conditional reversal and remand for the trial court to consider informal supervision under the law as amended by Senate Bill No. 383. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND On the afternoon of March 16, 2021, N.L. entered a restroom at a Food 4 Less grocery store in Vista, California. She was alone in the restroom for nearly five minutes. A surveillance videotape from the grocery store showed that the last person who was in the restroom before N.L. had exited three minutes before she entered. Another customer, O. Perez, entered the restroom just as N.L. was exiting. Once inside, Perez immediately noticed flames reflected in the door of the large, handicapped stall in the rear of the restroom. She looked inside the stall and saw flames and smoke coming out of a trash can in the corner. The flames were about a foot above the trash can. Perez was in the restroom

1 All further undesignated statutory references are to the Welfare & Institutions Code. 2 for about 20 seconds before she left and reported the fire. No one else was in the restroom. B. Priato was outside in the parking area walking toward the store when she saw N.L. coming in the opposite direction with her older sister, Natalie L. At the adjudication hearing, Priato testified that she was about six to eight feet away from the two girls when she heard N.L. say, “ ‘I already put the fire in the trash can.’ ” A store employee removed the burning trash can and took it outside, where another employee put out the fire with an extinguisher. When police arrived, they detained N.L. and Natalie. N.L. was dressed in all black. The girls’ mother arrived at the scene. She was argumentative and instructed the girls not to talk to the police. N.L. gave the police multiple different last names and different information about her identity. It took the police about an hour to determine her true identity. The police searched N.L. and found no matches or lighter, and nothing else that could be used to start a fire. Inside the trash can, the police found restroom items, such as diapers, toilet paper, and tampons. The police were unable to determine what started the fire. The police interviewed Priato and Perez on body-worn cameras at the scene. Videotapes from the cameras were played at the hearing. Priato told one officer: “I was walking up and I saw a girl with a cart, ah with groceries and she was like waiting for somebody else and when I saw the girl, the one with the black sweater and the glasses, I saw her coming like in a hurry . . . . And then, ah, I was very aware of everything, you know. And I started—, I just walked past them, and she said, ‘Oh, ah I lit the fire, there is fire in the . . . [restroom].” Priato also told the officer, “I didn’t put [sic] so much attention because it was very far away and like I walked past them.”

3 Priato told another officer: “I was on my phone. Um, I was walking, and I looked up and I saw this girl, um this girl was with a cart and her groceries. [¶] . . . [¶] [S]he was like waiting for somebody and um, that’s when I saw the girl with the black jacket. [¶] . . . [¶] So, um, I was going up towards the store and then I saw this girl come in a hurry. Like she was like hurrying up. [¶] . . . [¶] And um, I just heard—I don’t recall if she said, ‘Um, there’s fire in the, or I put the fire in the trash—in the can.’ I don’t recall, it[’]s one of those two but they were aware of the fire. . . . Like the girl that was coming was aware of the fire . . . . The one that was coming down, the one with the whole [sic] black. And I was aware like—she was the one who said it. . . . She was like, ‘Oh, I put—’, I think she was letting the other girl know that she put the fire in the can.” Priato testified that her memory was probably best right after the incident. Natalie testified as a defense witness. According to Natalie, she and N.L. had been shopping at the grocery store. N.L. went to use the restroom while Natalie paid for the groceries. After paying, Natalie waited for N.L. outside. When N.L. came out, she did not mention anything about a fire in the restroom. In a wardship petition, N.L. was charged with felony arson of property (Pen. Code, § 451, subd. (d)) and misdemeanor reckless setting of a fire (id., § 452, subd. (d)). After a contested adjudication hearing, the juvenile court sustained the petition as to the felony arson count and dismissed the misdemeanor count. Based on the evidence presented, the court found that there was no one in the restroom for at least three minutes before N.L. entered; N.L. was in the restroom for five minutes; and after N.L. exited and Perez entered the restroom, Perez immediately noticed the flames reflected

4 off the stall door. The court concluded: “The only evidence points to the fact that the five minutes was spent by [N.L.] setting that fire somehow. If it were burning while she was in there, she surely would have noticed it. And if she noticed the fire in the [restroom], I don’t think she would ignore it and haphazardly tell her sister there’s a fire in the [restroom].” The court also found Priato to be “very, very credible.” The court noted: “She was minding her business when the two girls walked past her. And [N.L.] told her sister, ‘I lit that fire. I lit the fire.’ ” The court concluded “that [N.L.] purposely, willfully, and maliciously lit that trash can on fire while she was in that [restroom] for almost five minutes.” Thus, the court found “beyond a reasonable doubt that [N.L.] did indeed commit arson that day at Food 4 Less.” At a subsequent disposition hearing, the court adjudged N.L. a ward of

the court. (§ 602.) The court committed N.L. to Urban Camp2 for a period not to exceed 120 days, but stayed the commitment pending further proceedings. The court took custody of N.L. under section 726, subdivision (a)(1), and placed N.L. at home with her mother with “care, custody and control of the minor . . . to be under the supervision of the probation officer.” DISCUSSION I N.L. first argues there is insufficient evidence to support the true finding of felony arson because there is no substantial evidence that she “willfully and maliciously” set the fire. We disagree.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

People v. V.V.
252 P.3d 979 (California Supreme Court, 2011)
People v. K.C.
220 Cal. App. 4th 465 (California Court of Appeal, 2013)
People v. Beagle
492 P.2d 1 (California Supreme Court, 1972)
People v. Liss
219 P.2d 789 (California Supreme Court, 1950)
In Re Estrada
408 P.2d 948 (California Supreme Court, 1965)
People v. Nasalga
910 P.2d 1380 (California Supreme Court, 1996)
People v. Solis
109 Cal. Rptr. 2d 464 (California Court of Appeal, 2001)
In Re Sheila B.
19 Cal. App. 4th 187 (California Court of Appeal, 1993)
RICKI J. v. Superior Court
27 Cal. Rptr. 3d 494 (California Court of Appeal, 2005)
People v. Adam R.
57 Cal. App. 4th 348 (California Court of Appeal, 1997)
People v. Medina
209 P.3d 105 (California Supreme Court, 2009)
People v. Frahs
466 P.3d 844 (California Supreme Court, 2020)
People v. Atkins
18 P.3d 660 (California Supreme Court, 2001)
People v. Ortiz
208 Cal. App. 4th 1354 (California Court of Appeal, 2012)
People v. Brooks
396 P.3d 480 (California Supreme Court, 2017)
San Diego Cnty. Health & Human Servs. Agency v. C.S. (In re A.S.)
239 Cal. Rptr. 3d 20 (California Court of Appeals, 5th District, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
In re N.L., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-nl-calctapp-2022.