P. v. Pacely CA4/1

California Court of Appeal·Decided July 19, 2013·No. D062198·Unpublished

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Filed 7/19/13 P. v. Pacely CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

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.

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.

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 For the felony-elevating allegations for the counts 2 and 3 offenses, the jury was instructed that it had to decide if the People had proven that Pacely was previously convicted "of the crime of Penal Code section 12025(a)(1)/12025(b)(3)." This instruction on these allegations also included limiting language, telling the jury that it should consider the prior conviction evidence only when deciding whether Pacely had incurred

2 For the count 4 ammunition possession offense, the jury was given essentially the same instruction as for count 1 firearm possession, except the instruction did not include the limiting language. (See CALCRIM No. 2591.)

the prior conviction, and it should not consider the evidence for any other purpose. 3 Analysis

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

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

P. v. Pacely CA4/1 (P. v. Pacely CA4/1) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

People v. Rodriguez
290 P.3d 1143 (California Supreme Court, 2012)
People v. Brown
278 P.3d 1182 (California Supreme Court, 2012)
People v. Mayfield
928 P.2d 485 (California Supreme Court, 1997)
People v. Miles
183 P.3d 1236 (California Supreme Court, 2008)
People v. Watts
32 Cal. Rptr. 3d 260 (California Court of Appeal, 2005)
People v. SCHOPPE-RICO
44 Cal. Rptr. 3d 896 (California Court of Appeal, 2006)
People v. Robles
5 P.3d 176 (California Supreme Court, 2000)
People v. Lamas
169 P.3d 102 (California Supreme Court, 2007)
People v. Dieck
209 P.3d 623 (California Supreme Court, 2009)
People v. Pacheco
194 Cal. App. 4th 343 (California Court of Appeal, 2011)
People v. Jorge P.
197 Cal. App. 4th 628 (California Court of Appeal, 2011)
People v. Lopez
198 Cal. App. 4th 698 (California Court of Appeal, 2011)
People v. Kennedy
209 Cal. App. 4th 385 (California Court of Appeal, 2012)
People v. Rajanayagam
211 Cal. App. 4th 42 (California Court of Appeal, 2012)