P. v. Daniels CA2/3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 12, 2013
DocketB243981
StatusUnpublished

This text of P. v. Daniels CA2/3 (P. v. Daniels CA2/3) 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
P. v. Daniels CA2/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Filed 6/12/13 P. v. Daniels CA2/3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THREE

THE PEOPLE, B243981

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. GA086163) v.

TANA COLONIAL DANIELS,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Darrell Mavis, Judge. Affirmed.

California Appellate Project, Jonathan B. Steiner and Ann Krausz, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent. Defendant and appellant, Tana Colonial Daniels, appeals from the judgment entered following a jury trial which resulted in his conviction of the willful infliction of corporal injury on a “spouse/cohabitant/child’s parent” (Pen. Code, § 273.5, subd. (a))1 and his admission he previously had been convicted of a serious and violent felony, assault with a firearm (§ 245, subd. (a)(2)), within the meaning of section 1170, subdivision (a)(3) and the Three Strikes law (§§ 667, subds. (b)-(i), 1170.12, subds. (a)- (d)). The trial court sentenced Daniels to four years in state prison. We affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND 1. Facts. As of 2012, Shalynn Brown2 and Daniels had been involved in a relationship for approximately 13 years and had been married for between three and four years. The couple had four children. Between 3:30 and 4:00 in the afternoon on April 1, 2012, Brown arrived at the couple’s home at 372 East Sacramento Street in Altadena. The children were playing “in the front with [a] neighbor,” who was watching them. A man Brown had dated a few times, Travor Davis, was sitting in his car in one of the two stalls in Brown’s driveway. Davis had never before been to Brown’s home and she did not know how he had gotten her address. Brown did not know where Davis lived as the two generally met at a night club or City Walk. Davis knew Brown was married, however Brown had never told Daniels about Davis and she did not know if Daniels knew about him. Davis had never met any of Brown’s children. Brown pulled in next to Davis, got out of her car, then realized that Davis had gotten out of his car and was standing right behind her. Brown owed Davis approximately $200, which she had used to pay for, among other things, her gas bill. 1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated. 2 Brown had suffered two prior criminal convictions, one in 2001 for petty theft and one in 2008 for grand theft. In 2002, Brown was arrested, but never charged, for an incident involving “domestic violence.”

2 When Davis asked her for the money back, she told him that she did not have it and the two began to argue. Davis, who was yelling at Brown, then pushed her into her house and, as they were standing in the dining room, pulled Brown toward him and hit her in her eye with his fist. After hitting Brown, Davis “took off.” Brown, who suffered a cut under her eye,3 called 911 and, although she and Davis had no children together, she told the operator that her “baby’s father” had hit her.4 Brown indicated she had lied about who had hit her because Daniels had been cheating on her and, if he had not done so, she “probably never would [have been] in this predicament . . . .” She was seeing Davis simply because Daniels had been having affairs. When an ambulance and sheriff’s deputies arrived at Brown’s home, she told the deputies her boyfriend, Travor Davis, had hit her and she gave to the deputies Davis’s phone number, although the last time she had tried to call him she had been told the number had been disconnected. She also brought up Daniels. Brown initially told the police that her “ ‘boyfriend hit [her.]” She then said, “ ‘Well, Mr. Daniels.’ ” She named Daniels after considering how he had been “cheating and had several relationships . . . .” Later that evening, because she was afraid Davis might come back to her home, Brown took her children and went to her grandmother’s house in Los Angeles. Brown did not know if Daniels went to their home in Altadena that night. Brown, however, saw Daniels the following day and told him she had been “jumped.” She did not tell him the injury to her eye had been inflicted by Davis because she was “kind of scared.” Brown still loved Daniels and wished to remain married to him.

3 Brown still has a small scar under her eye as a result of the incident. 4 A tape recording of the 911 call was admitted into evidence. During the call, Brown asks the operator if someone can come to her home, then indicates her “baby daddy just socked [her] in [her] eye.” Brown then states he “just bust [her] in [her] . . . face and [her] face is bleeding.” When the operator asks Brown if she needs paramedics, Brown answers, “Yeah.”

3 At some point, Brown spoke with a Detective Ventigan. When he asked her who had hit her in the eye, Brown told him it had been Travor Davis. The detective then asked Brown whether she was “seeking prosecution in the case” and she told the detective, “ ‘No.’ ” The detective apparently told Brown they did not need her anyway as they had photographs of her injury. Brown indicated that she did not wish to prosecute Davis because she was afraid of him and, since she had discovered he knew where she lived, she had been attempting to move. After the April 1st incident, a case was filed against Daniels. Once Brown became aware of the matter, she went to the district attorney’s office to tell them they were prosecuting the wrong person. There, someone told her nothing could be done about it “until the court date.” Brown again spoke with Detective Ventigan, who again told her they did not need her as they had “the pictures.” The detective also told Brown he did not believe her and he was “going to go ahead and present [the case] to the D.A.’s office.” Brown indicated that, at proceedings held before the preliminary hearing, she attempted to tell the prosecutor the wrong person had been charged. The prosecutor simply told Brown to “ ‘sit down’ ” and that she had “ ‘heard that before.’ ” On the day of the preliminary hearing, Brown testified “Travor Davis did it.” Brown stated Davis, not Daniels, had been the one who hit her. At trial, Brown admitted that, when she called the police after the incident, she had said her “children’s father or baby’s daddy” had hit her. She testified she had said that because “in the heat of the moment at that time [she was] pissed off, for lack of a better [term], against Mr. Daniels because [she] didn’t think this would have happened if [they had] had a regular marriage[.]” Brown also admitted, although she and the children lived on Sacramento Street in Altadena, Daniels was “rarely there.” Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Jaime Banuelos was assigned to the Altadena Station. At approximately 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon on April 1, 2012, Banuelos and his partner responded to a call directing them to Brown’s home on Sacramento Street. Banuelos understood the incident involved domestic violence.

4 After arriving at the address, Banuelos and his partner, Deputy Abdulfattah, spoke with Brown. Brown “seemed to be kind of shaken up” and “looked like she . . . had been crying[.]” She also “had a gash under her right eye.” Although Brown refused any treatment for her injury, Banuelos and his partner, who believed the cut was “ ‘significant,’ ” called the Fire Department’s ambulance.

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Bluebook (online)
P. v. Daniels CA2/3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/p-v-daniels-ca23-calctapp-2013.