People v. Campa CA2/3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 18, 2023
DocketB317813
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Campa CA2/3 (People v. Campa 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
People v. Campa CA2/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

Filed 7/18/23 P. v. Campa 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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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(a). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115(a).

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE, B317813

Plaintiff and Respondent, Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. NA101408 v.

MARIO CAMPA,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, James D. Otto, Judge. Reversed and remanded with directions. Christine M. Aros, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Scott A. Taryle and Viet H. Nguyen, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. INTRODUCTION

A jury convicted defendant Mario Campa of four counts of attempted willful, premeditated, and deliberate murder, with true findings as to each count that Campa committed the crime for the benefit of a gang and that a principal used a firearm causing great bodily injury. The court sentenced Campa to 80 years to life in prison. After we vacated Campa’s sentence and remanded the matter for resentencing, the court reduced Campa’s sentence to 30 years to life in prison. After the court resentenced Campa, the California Legislature enacted Assembly Bill No. 333 (A.B. 333), which made substantive and procedural changes to the laws governing gang-related offenses. Campa contends his attempted murder convictions must be overturned and a new trial ordered because Penal Code1 section 1109, as enacted by A.B. 333, allows him to request a bifurcated trial on the gang enhancements and he was prejudiced by a unitary trial. In the alternative, Campa contends that A.B. 333’s amendments to section 186.22 require reversal of the true findings for the gang enhancements. We conclude that Campa is entitled to relief under A.B. 333’s amendments to section 186.22, but he is not entitled to relief under section 1109. We therefore reverse the true findings for the gang enhancements, vacate Campa’s sentence, and remand the matter for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

1 All undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

2 FACTUAL BACKGROUND2

1. The Shootings Kejion Robinson and Larry Hood, two Black men, were walking down 14th Street in Long Beach. As they walked past an alleyway, someone started shooting at them from inside a late- 1990s green Toyota Camry. Robinson was struck by two bullets— one hitting his thigh and another hitting his foot—and Hood was struck by one bullet in the leg. Robinson saw the face of the person sitting in the front passenger seat before the Camry sped off. A little more than an hour after Robinson and Hood were shot, Bryon Rodriguez and Edwin Alonzo were standing in front of a liquor store on Daisy Avenue in Long Beach. A man who was standing about 10 to 15 feet away started shooting at them. Rodriguez was struck by four bullets—two in the chest, one in the hand, and one in the arm—and Alonzo was struck by three bullets. According to Rodriguez, the shooter was wearing what looked like a hooded jacket. Rodriguez didn’t see the shooter’s face, however. 2. The Investigation Juan Zazueta (uncle) testified that Campa is his wife’s nephew. The uncle’s son—i.e., Campa’s cousin—was a gang member. The uncle’s son and Campa used to hang out. Campa’s uncle purchased a late 1990’s green Toyota Camry the day before the shootings. Around 1:00 p.m. on the day of the shootings, the uncle left the car and its keys at his house while he

2The facts are taken from our prior nonpublished opinion in People v. Campa (Apr. 22, 2021, B289623) (Campa I).

3 went to church. When he returned from church several hours later, the uncle noticed the car was parked in a different position from when he left for church and that one of its hubcaps was missing. License plate recognition technology used by the Long Beach Police Department showed that Campa’s uncle’s Camry was in the vicinity of the 14th Street shooting around the time Robinson and Hood were shot and near the Daisy Avenue liquor store around the time Rodriguez and Alonzo were shot. Footage obtained from a residence near the liquor store also showed the same car driving back and forth about four times on Daisy Avenue about an hour and a half before the liquor store shooting. Several hours after the shootings, Campa’s uncle was stopped and arrested while driving the Camry. The police recovered .45-caliber bullet casings from the scene of each shooting. A criminologist later determined that both sets of casings were fired from the same gun. In February 2015, while in custody on unrelated charges, Campa was placed in a jail cell with an undercover informant. At the time, Campa had yet to be identified as a suspect in the 14th Street and the Daisy Avenue liquor store shootings. Campa’s conversation with the informant was recorded and played for the jury. Campa told the informant he was a member of the East Side Longo gang, with the moniker “Baby Evil.” After denying involvement in the unrelated charges, Campa told the informant that his cousin had recently been arrested in connection with the 14th Street and the Daisy Avenue liquor store shootings. Campa also told the informant that his uncle had been arrested while driving the Camry used in the shootings. Campa admitted he was

4 riding shotgun in his uncle’s car while his cousin drove and three other people sat in the back passenger compartment. Using .45- caliber bullets, they shot at two “Tintos”3 and “two fools from Barrio Pobre.”4 When the informant asked where the two Black men were from, Campa responded, “I don’t even know where the fuck they was from ... .” The informant followed up, “Just see black and fucking start shooting,” to which Campa replied, “Yeah, yeah.” Campa later told the informant, “That’s the thing about me. I’ll be in the car with a burner5 and all that. I[’m] ready to hop out on somebody like man I see somebody I’m hopping out right now.” About a week after Campa spoke to the informant, one of the investigators showed Robinson a six-pack photographic lineup containing Campa’s photograph.6 Robinson identified Campa as the shooter because his face was “ ‘unforgettable.’ ” The police recovered security footage from the Daisy Avenue liquor store where the second shooting occurred. The footage showed a man wearing white shoes and a grey hooded sweatshirt with an emblem of the State of California across the front. As he walked toward the front of the liquor store, the man in the sweatshirt started shooting at Rodriguez and Alonzo. The

3Two of the People’s investigators testified that “Tintos” is a derogatory term for Black men used by Hispanic gang members in Long Beach. 4 Barrio Pobre is a Long Beach gang. 5 One of the investigators testified that a “burner” is slang for a gun. 6Shortly after the shooting, the investigator showed Robinson a six- pack photographic lineup that did not include Campa’s photograph. Robinson did not identify anyone in that lineup.

5 shooter’s face wasn’t identifiable from the security footage. The police later recovered a pair of white shoes and a grey hooded sweatshirt with an emblem of California across the front inside Campa’s home. One of the investigators spoke to a witness near the liquor store shooting.

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People v. Campa CA2/3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-campa-ca23-calctapp-2023.