P. v. Pacely CA4/1

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 19, 2013
DocketD062198
StatusUnpublished

This text of P. v. Pacely CA4/1 (P. v. Pacely CA4/1) 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. Pacely CA4/1, (Cal. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Filed 7/19/13 P. v. Pacely CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

THE PEOPLE, D062198

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. Nos. SCD232317, SCD238863) DANTE PACELY,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Esteban

Hernandez, Judge. Affirmed as modified with directions.

Cynthia M. Jones, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and

Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney

General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Peter Quon, Jr., and Theodore M.

Cropley, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. Dante Pacely appeals from a judgment convicting him of firearm-related offenses

and a failure to appear offense. He argues the judgment in the firearm case must be

reversed due to instructional error. We find no error in this regard.

Pacely also challenges the trial court's calculation of conduct credits for his

presentence custody. We conclude the trial court's calculation was incorrect, and modify

the judgment to award the correct amount of conduct credits. As so modified, the

judgment is affirmed.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On February 19, 2010, Pacely was in a vehicle stopped by the police. The owner

of the car (Pacely's girlfriend) was driving and Pacely was in the front passenger seat.

During a search of the vehicle's glove compartment, the police found ammunition inside

a sock and a loaded gun with the safety off hidden behind the compartment's rear panel.

Forensic testing excluded Pacely's girlfriend as a contributor to the DNA mixture on the

gun, and provided inconclusive results for gunshot residue on her hands. For Pacely, the

testing showed that he was a possible major contributor to the DNA mixture on the gun,

with the random probability of such a match being 1 in 24 million for Caucasians, 1 in

2.4 million for African-Americans, and 1 in 100 million for Hispanics. Also, the testing

revealed gunshot residue on Pacely's hand that showed he had exposure to the residue

from firing or handling a gun, touching a surface where a gun had been, or being in a

room where a gun was discharged.

2 Pacely was charged with: (1) count 1, possession of a firearm by a person

convicted of a felony (former Pen. Code,1 § 12021, subd. (a)(1)); (2) count 2, carrying a

loaded firearm in a vehicle (§ 12031, subd. (a)(1)); (3) count 3, causing a firearm to be

carried concealed in a vehicle occupied by the person (§ 12025, subd. (a)(3)); and (4)

count 4, possession of ammunition by a person convicted of a felony (§ 12316, subd.

(b)(1)). The count 2 firearm-carrying offense and the count 3 concealed-firearm offense

were elevated to felony charges based on allegations that Pacely had previously been

convicted of a felony. (§§ 12031, subd. (a)(2)(A); 12025, subd. (b)(1).)

The jury convicted Pacely of the counts 1 and 4 firearm and ammunition

possession offenses and the count 3 concealed-firearm offense and found the count 3

felony-elevating allegation true. The jury deadlocked on the count 2 firearm-carrying

offense, and this count was dismissed.

Pacely was released on his own recognizance during trial, and after he failed to

appear for the reading of the jury verdict, he was arrested and charged with failure to

appear. He pled guilty to this offense. He also admitted a prison prior and a strike prior

that were alleged as enhancements in the firearm case.

The trial court sentenced Pacely for both the firearm and failure to appear cases,

imposing a total prison term of six years four months. For the firearm case, the sentence

consisted of four years on count 1 and a consecutive one-year term for the prison prior,

1 Subsequent unspecified statutory references are to the Penal Code. References to sections 12021, 12031, 12025, and 12316 (the offenses of which Pacely was convicted) are to the former statutes; these Penal Code provisions have now been repealed and renumbered. 3 with the terms on the remaining counts stayed. For the failure to appear offense, he

received a 16-month consecutive sentence.

DISCUSSION

I. Claim of Instructional Error

Pacely argues the standard instruction provided to the jury for count 1 possession

of a firearm by a felon (CALCRIM No. 2510) improperly told the jury that it could

consider prior conviction evidence as propensity evidence. He asserts the instruction in

effect told the jurors that they could infer that he possessed the firearm during the

charged offense based on the evidence that he had previously been convicted of a firearm

possession offense (a 2008 offense for carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle).

Background

Several of the allegations against Pacely required proof that he had previously

been convicted of a felony. That is, the People had to prove his prior felony conviction

as an element of the count 1 possession of a firearm by a felon and the count 4 possession

of ammunition by a felon. Also, the People had to prove his prior felony conviction for

the felony-elevating allegations based on a previous felony conviction that were attached

to the count 2 firearm-carrying offense and the count 3 concealed-firearm offense.

To prove Pacely's prior felony conviction for purposes of these allegations, the

jury was provided with documents that identified his previous conviction in 2008 for

carrying a firearm concealed in a vehicle by a person who is an active gang participant

(§ 12025, subds. (a)(1), (b)(3)). Also, the jury was instructed on the prior conviction

allegations relevant to the four counts.

4 For the count 1 firearm possession by a felon, the jury was provided an instruction

(based on the standard language in CALCRIM No. 2510) which stated in relevant part:

"The defendant is charged in Count One with unlawfully possessing a firearm in violation of Penal Code section 12021(a)(1). [¶] To prove that the defendant is guilty of this crime, the People must prove that: [¶] 1. The defendant possessed a firearm; [¶] 2. The defendant knew that he possessed a firearm; [¶] AND [¶] 3. The defendant had previously been convicted of a felony. [¶] . . . [¶] Two or more people may possess something at the same time. [¶] A person does not have to actually hold or touch something to possess it. It is enough if the person has control over it or the right to control it, either personally or through another person. [¶] You may consider evidence, if any, that the defendant was previously convicted of a crime only in deciding whether the People have proved this element of the crime. Do not consider such evidence for any other purpose." (Italics added.)

As we shall explain, Pacely's contention of instructional error is premised on the

latter portion of the count 1 firearm possession instruction, which set forth limiting

language that admonished the jurors about the narrow purpose of the prior conviction

evidence.2

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P. v. Pacely CA4/1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/p-v-pacely-ca41-calctapp-2013.