People v. Davila CA4/1

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 21, 2023
DocketD081761
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Davila CA4/1 (People v. Davila 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
People v. Davila CA4/1, (Cal. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

Filed 12/20/23 P. v. Davila CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, D081761

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. FSB21004186)

EDGARD DAVILA,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of San Bernardino County, Michael A. Smith, Judge. Affirmed with directions. Sally Patrone Brajevich, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, Arlene A. Sevidal, Randall D. Einhorn and Elizabeth M. Renner, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. INTRODUCTION Edgard Davila, who was convicted of assaulting the mother of his child with a knife, contends the trial court abused its discretion by admitting evidence he committed three prior acts of domestic violence against the same victim. Finding no error, we reject this contention. While this appeal was pending, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) notified the trial court of various discrepancies in the abstract of judgment. The court recalled Davila’s sentence to address the discrepancies but then resentenced Davila in absentia to eight years, one year more than the original sentence. We conclude the court erred in resentencing Davila without his presence, which the Attorney General concedes, and that it had no discretion to increase his sentence to eight years. We thus vacate the amended sentence and direct the trial court to amend the abstract of judgment from Davila’s initial sentencing to correct certain sentencing discrepancies. We otherwise affirm the judgment. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Davila and Jane Doe were in a dating relationship for approximately six years. They lived together for four years and had one child together. After returning home from dinner with friends on the evening of November 14, 2021, Davila and Doe started to argue. Doe had just put their five-month-old baby to sleep. She became upset because Davila was on his phone. A neighbor, who heard the couple arguing, looked outside her window when she heard Doe say, “he stabbed me and hurt the baby.” The neighbor heard Doe ask Davila not to take the car because she needed to go to the hospital; she then saw Davila drive away. The neighbor went outside to

2 check on Doe who was crying and looking disheveled; she called 911 when she saw Doe was bleeding. When police officers arrived, Doe was “bleeding profusely” and “crying hysterically.” She told the officers that Davila threw a glass at her and started hitting her and “socking” her head during an argument. She reported that Davila pulled out a black pocketknife and stabbed her in the hand while he “had [her] on the floor.” Doe was taken to the hospital where she was treated for her injuries. She required stitches on her left hand which was cut on the web between her thumb and index finger. The officer who followed Doe to the hospital described the injuries on her hand to be “puncture-type wounds.” She also had scratches on her face, red marks on her head, bleeding on her hands and legs, and a bite mark on her shoulder. The next day, officers returned to the couple’s home. Speaking to the officers at the front door, Doe told them Davila was not home. The officers then found Davila hiding under the bed when they searched the residence. He was arrested and had no visible injuries. The officers recovered a black pocketknife from his front pocket. Davila was charged with corporal injury to a cohabitant (Pen. Code, § 273.5, subd. (a); count 1) and assault with a deadly weapon (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(1); count 2). As to both counts, it was alleged he personally inflicted great bodily injury under circumstances involving domestic violence (Pen. Code, § 12022.7, subd. (e)) and, as to count 1, that he personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon (Pen. Code, § 12022, subd. (b)(1)). While Davila was in custody pending trial for these offenses, he and Doe were married.

3 At trial, Doe changed her story of what happened on the evening of November 14, 2021. She testified that she provoked a fight with Davila because she was angry he was on his phone. They started pushing each other and she tripped on the couch. Davila was then on top of her, “grabbing [her] down.” Davila hit her and grabbed her hair while she tried to “dig [her] nails” in his face. She denied that Davila stabbed her with his pocketknife. Rather, she grabbed a knife that was on Davila’s waistband as he was on top of her. Davila then “snatched” the knife from her, and the blade opened and cut her hand. Doe claimed her statement to the officers that Davila pulled out his pocketknife and stabbed her “might have been a lie, [it] may have been [her] exaggerating.” She explained she wanted to make Davila look bad because she was angry and wanted him out of the house. Doe admitted she loved Davila and did not want to testify against him. She spoke to him on the phone multiple times and visited him in custody

with her children.1 She visited Davila in jail 28 times. A jail call was played for the jury regarding Doe’s decision to marry Davila while he was in custody.

Pursuant to Evidence Code section 1109,2 the trial court permitted the prosecution to present evidence of three prior acts of domestic abuse by Davila against Doe. We discuss these prior acts in further detail below. Doe acknowledged at trial that there were three prior incidents of domestic violence in which the police were called. She claimed Davila only became

1 Doe has four children, one of whom she shares with Davila. At the time of the charged offenses, the children resided with Doe and Davila in their shared home.

2 All further unspecified statutory references are to the Evidence Code.

4 violent when he consumed alcohol and was only violent with her in 2021, the year before the charged offenses. The jury convicted Davila of both corporal injury to a cohabitant and assault with a deadly weapon, and found true he personally inflicted great bodily injury and personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon. In a bifurcated proceeding, the trial court found that Davila was convicted of a

prior violation of Penal Code section 273.5, subdivision (a),3 within seven years of the charged offense, pursuant to Penal Code section 273.5, subdivision (f)(1). The court sentenced Davila to seven years in state prison. DISCUSSION I. Prior Acts of Domestic Violence Section 1109 provides that “in a criminal action in which the defendant is accused of an offense involving domestic violence, evidence of the defendant’s commission of other domestic violence is not made inadmissible by [s]ection 1101 if the evidence is not inadmissible pursuant to [s]ection 352.” (§ 1109, subd. (a)(1).) A specific exception to the general prohibition on propensity evidence, “section 1109 ‘permits the admission of defendant’s other acts of domestic violence for the purpose of showing a propensity to commit such crimes.’ ” (People v. Kerley (2018) 23 Cal.App.5th 513, 531 (Kerley).) Even if propensity evidence is admissible under section 1109, “it must be excluded under section 352 where its probative value is substantially outweighed by the probability that its admission will consume too much time, cause undue prejudice, confuse the issues, or mislead the jury.” (People v. Merchant (2019) 40 Cal.App.5th 1179, 1192 (Merchant).) We review a trial

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People v. Davila CA4/1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-davila-ca41-calctapp-2023.