People v. Davis CA2/7

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 6, 2016
DocketB255790
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Davis CA2/7 (People v. Davis CA2/7) 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. Davis CA2/7, (Cal. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Filed 4/6/16 P. v. Davis CA2/7 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 SEVEN

THE PEOPLE, B255790

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BA412199) v.

MARQUISE DAVIS,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Jose I. Sandoval, Judge. Affirmed as modified. Karyn H. Bucur, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Scott A. Taryle and Russell A. Lehman, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. ___________ Following a jury trial Marquise Davis was convicted of three counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery with true findings on related firearm-use and criminal street gang enhancements. On appeal Davis contends the court erred in admitting evidence of two uncharged robberies to prove a common plan or scheme and identity. Davis also contends the trial court improperly allowed the People’s gang expert to present inadmissible hearsay evidence to the jury in the guise of an opinion to establish an essential element of the criminal street gang enhancements and argues the evidence was, in any event, insufficient to support the jury’s true findings on those enhancements. He also challenges aspects of his sentence. We modify the judgment to correct an unauthorized sentence not identified by the parties and, as modified, affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND 1. The Amended Information An amended information charged Davis with three counts of robbery (Pen. Code, 1 § 211) (counts 2, 3 and 4) and one count of attempted robbery (§§ 664, 211) (count 1) in connection with crimes committed on November 23, 2012. As to each count, the information specially alleged a principal had been armed with an assault weapon (§ 12022, subd. (a)(2)); a principal had personally used a firearm, “to wit, a rifle” (§ 12022.53, subds. (b), (e)(1)); Davis had personally used a firearm (§ 12022.5, subd. (a)); and the offense was committed to benefit a criminal street gang (§ 186.22, 2 subd. (b)(1)(C)). Davis pleaded not guilty and denied the special allegations.

1 Statutory references are to this code unless otherwise indicated. 2 For simplicity on occasion this opinion uses the shorthand phrase “to benefit a criminal street gang” to refer to crimes that, in the statutory language, are committed “for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with any criminal street gang, with the specific intent to promote, further, or assist in any criminal conduct by gang members . . . .” (§ 186.22, subd. (b); see People v. Jones (2009) 47 Cal.4th 566, 571, fn. 2.)

2 2. The Charged Robberies a. The Little Caesars robberies (counts 1, 2 and 4) 3 Davis was tried together with his codefendant, Davon Winston. According to the evidence at trial, on November 23, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. two men entered a Little Caesars restaurant on the corner of Avalon and 103rd Streets in Los Angeles. Both men wore dark knit ski caps pulled down over their faces with two holes cut in the fabric for the eyes. The taller man carried a long rifle, which expert testimony identified as an SKS assault rifle; the other man carried a handgun that appeared to be a mini-Uzi, a type of submachine gun. The shorter man wore red and white floral patterned shorts and a white sweatshirt with blue and dark blue stripes and writing across the front. The taller man wore a black jacket with distinctive lapels and a buttoned pocket on the arm. Upon entering the restaurant the taller man directed his attention to the employees behind the cash registers while the shorter man ran to the back to corral other people in the restaurant. The taller man ordered restaurant employee Nancy Martinez to open all three of the restaurant’s cash registers and the safe, and he took the money from all of them. During this time the shorter man ordered store employees to get down on the ground. He pointed his gun at employee Ladye Lorenzo and demanded she give him her cell phone and anything she had “made of gold.” Lorenzo gave him her phone and her bracelet. The shorter robber also ordered employee Maria Silerio to give him her rings. Silerio attempted to comply, but her rings fell; the robber did not retrieve them. After the two men left, an employee called the police and reported the crimes. Surveillance video of the incident and the audio recording of the police emergency call were played for the jury.

3 Winston’s appeal from his convictions is currently pending in this court.

3 b. The robbery of Abu Taher (count 3) Abu Taher’s smoke shop is located at 626 East Manchester in Los Angeles, approximately one mile from the Little Caesars restaurant. At 6:00 p.m. on November 23, 2012, while Taher and customer Daniel Hernandez were in the shop, two men with masks pulled down over their faces entered. The taller man carried an assault rifle; the shorter one held a handgun that resembled a mini-Uzi. The man with the rifle ordered Taher to open the cash register; the other man pointed his gun at Hernandez and directed him to retrieve cartons of cigarettes and a red box of Swisher Sweet cigars. Neither Taher nor Hernandez could describe the gunmen’s clothing. A witness saw the robbers flee the smoke shop in a grey car and reported the car’s license plate. Police officers found the car the same evening. After determining the car had been abandoned, officers impounded and searched it. Inside, they found a pair of red and white floral patterned shorts like the shorts worn by the shorter gunman during the Little Caesars robberies; a black jacket with distinctive lapels similar to the jacket worn by the taller man at Little Caesars; a black knit ski cap with holes cut out for the eyes; a black jacket with a brown, fur-trimmed hood; and a red box of Swisher Sweet cigars. Forensic testing of the red and white shorts revealed multiple DNA contributors, 4 including Davis; forensic testing of the modified knit ski cap identified Winston as a 5 major contributor of DNA with other minor contributors. No DNA was found on the black jacket. The jacket with the brown fur-trimmed hood was not tested for DNA. A photograph taken a little more than a week before the charged robberies showed Davis wearing a black jacket with a brown fur-trimmed hood.

4 Forensic testimony established the probability of randomly selecting an unrelated individual with the same DNA profile was 1 in 9,000 among the African-American population in the United States, 1 in 76,000 among the Caucasian population in the United States and 1 in 110,000 among the Hispanic population in the United States. 5 Forensic testimony established the probability of randomly selecting an unrelated individual with the same DNA profile was 1 in 90 million among the African-American population in the United States, 1 in 1.5 billion among the Caucasian population and 1 in 1.1 billion among the Hispanic population in the United States.

4 3. Evidence of Uncharged Offenses: The Subway and Starbucks Robberies Following a pretrial hearing on the admissibility of two uncharged robberies, the trial court overruled Davis’s objections and permitted the People to introduce evidence of them under Evidence Code section 1101, subdivision (b), to show a common scheme or plan or identity.

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People v. Davis CA2/7, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-davis-ca27-calctapp-2016.