People v. Alvarez CA2/1

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 26, 2014
DocketB245768
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Alvarez CA2/1 (People v. Alvarez CA2/1) 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
People v. Alvarez CA2/1, (Cal. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Filed 2/26/14 P. v. Alvarez CA2/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 ONE

THE PEOPLE, B245768

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. KA086838) v.

RAMIRO ALVAREZ et al.,

Defendants and Appellants.

APPEALS from judgments of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Ronald S. Cohen, Judge. Affirmed in part; reversed in part. Deborah L. Hawkins, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Ramiro Alvarez. John Steinberg, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant Rodney Coronel Perez. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Paul M. Roadarmel, Jr. and Connie H. Kan, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

__________________________________________ The court sentenced Ramiro Alvarez and Rodney Perez to life without possibility of parole after a jury found them guilty of first degree murder with the special circumstances that (1) the victim was a witness to a crime and (2) the defendants were active gang members who committed the murder for the benefit of their gang. Appellants argue their convictions should be reversed based on insufficiency of the evidence and instructional errors. They also seek correction of alleged sentencing errors. We affirm the judgments except for the parole revocation fines. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW A. The 2009 Mother’s Day Murder In 2008, Roberta Romero testified against two Azusa 13 gang members charged with murder. The two gang members were convicted and one received the death penalty. After the trial, police placed Romero and her six-year-old son in a witness protection program outside the area but Romero frequently returned to the Azusa area with her son to visit Romero’s mother, Barbara Garcia, and her sister, Vanessa Medina, who lived together in West Covina. On Mother’s Day 2009, Romero and her son visited Garcia and Medina at their home. Medina was dating defendant Alvarez, an Azusa 13 gang member. After dinner, Romero left her son asleep at Garcia’s home and went to visit a friend who also lived in West Covina. Around midnight Alvarez and defendant Rodney Perez, also an Azusa 13 gang member, arrived at Garcia’s house and for the next three hours Medina, Alvarez and Perez stood outside the house drinking beer. At approximately 3:00 a.m., Perez said he needed to use the bathroom and went inside the house. He came out of the house carrying Romero’s son. Medina heard Alvarez tell Perez to put the boy back inside the house and say to Perez: “You’re not going to kill any kid.” Perez walked to his car and told Medina to call Romero and tell her “if she wants her baby [then] she needs to go with [Perez].” Medina refused to call Romero. Perez took Medina’s cell phone and texted Romero: “I need to pick you up

2 ASAP. [Your son] is sick.” Perez also called Romero on the cell phone and left a similar message. After Perez delivered his messages he, Alvarez and Medina drove to Romero’s friend’s house bringing the boy with them. When they arrived at the friend’s house, Romero came out to the car and asked, “What’s wrong with the baby?” Medina answered, “Nothing.” Perez told Romero that “if she wanted the baby she needs to come with him.” Romero did as she was told and Perez drove back to Garcia’s house. When they arrived, Perez and Medina took the boy inside the house and put him to bed. While they were inside Medina asked Perez “What’s going on?” and Perez told her he was just going to take Romero “to talk to somebody.” He assured Medina “nothing’s going to happen” to her or her sister. She noticed that Perez was carrying a gun. As Medina got back into Perez’s car she heard her sister tell Alvarez: “Por favor, not in the head, in the chest.” The four then drove off in Perez’s car. During the drive Medina heard Romero say to Perez and Alvarez that “she knew what she did; that she fucked up, but she wasn’t the only one [who testified against the gang members].” Perez replied: “The homie’s going [to] die for this.” Alvarez commented, “We shouldn’t do [this].” After approximately 20 minutes Perez stopped in a dark field but when he saw a security guard he drove on. After another 15 or 20 minutes, Perez stopped in a residential area of Pomona. It was quiet, dark and no one was outside. Romero started to smoke a cigarette but before she finished Perez came around the car, opened Romero’s door and said, “Get out of the car, bitch.” Perez took her by the arm and pulled her out. Perez and Alvarez were wearing yellow plastic gloves. Alvarez walked Romero into a cul-de-sac and a few minutes later Perez joined them. Medina saw Romero kneeling on the ground. Perez was standing at her side. Medina testified she saw a “gunshot light” and heard three shots—first one and then “two more shots at the same time.” A witness who lived in the area testified she was awakened by gunfire. She heard a shot followed by two “consecutive, quick ones.”

3 After hearing the shots, Medina saw Romero lying on the ground. She ran to her sister but Perez ordered her back in the car and she obeyed. As they drove away Alvarez apologized to Medina for killing her sister. Perez told her “they had to do it because a homie was going to die[.]” Later that morning Perez, Alvarez and Medina visited Alvarez’s cousin Rodarte at his home in Fontana. After they left, Rodarte contacted the police and recounted what Alvarez had told him. Rodarte testified at trial and his recorded statement to the police was played to the jury. According to Rodarte, Perez and Alvarez wanted him to sell their .45 and .357 caliber guns for them. Rodarte asked the men what happened and Alvarez confessed to the murder. Alvarez told him that he and Perez both shot Romero but that he shot her first. “He said, you know, that he shot her two times, bam bam, then when she was on the ground he shot her again, bam. . . . Then [Perez] came with the other gun and he did her up too. Tat tat tat.” Rodarte further testified that Alvarez and Perez were “doing lines of crystal meth” at his house. He described the two men as “nervous” and “they seemed very like I was talking to a ghost, like they seemed real pasty.” “I knew they were up all day. And I just know that drugs played a big role in this situation.” According to Rodarte, Romero’s killing had been given the “green light . . . by someone in the Mexican Mafia[.]” Romero’s autopsy showed that she suffered gunshot wounds to her head, chest and back. Two of the wounds were approximately one-quarter of an inch in diameter and were caused by bullets fired from a .357 caliber gun. The third wound was slightly larger and could have been caused by a bullet from a .45 caliber or a .357 caliber gun. A .45 caliber bullet casing was found at the scene of the murder under Romero’s body. The jury could infer from Rodarte’s testimony that defendants possessed both guns immediately after the murder. A forensic pathologist testified that any one of the wounds would have caused death within a minute or two.

4 B. The Defendants’ Gang Involvement The information charged the defendants with the special circumstance that they murdered Romero while they were active participants in a criminal street gang and the murder was carried out to further the activities of the gang. (Pen. Code, § 190.2, subd. (a)(22).) Defendants did not deny that they were members of the Azusa 13 gang.

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People v. Alvarez CA2/1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-alvarez-ca21-calctapp-2014.