People v. Fryson CA3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 23, 2015
DocketC067008
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Fryson CA3 (People v. Fryson CA3) 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. Fryson CA3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Filed 2/23/15 P. v. Fryson CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Placer)

THE PEOPLE, C067008

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 62082316)

v.

YOLANDA PEREZ FRYSON,

Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Yolanda Perez Fryson was convicted of multiple counts of passing checks with insufficient funds for payment of the checks (Pen. Code, § 476a),1 burglary (§ 459), and preparing false documentary evidence (§ 134). She was also convicted of one count each of attempted extortion (§ 664/524), accepting a bribe (§ 68), attempted grand theft by false pretense (§ 664/487, subd. (a)), receiving stolen property (§ 496, subd. (a)), offering false evidence (§ 132), and forgery (§ 470, subd. (a)). As to eight of the counts, the jury found true an allegation that the offense was committed while

1 References to an undesignated section are to the Penal Code.

1 defendant was released on bail or on own recognizance. Defendant was found guilty of 16 counts in all. The trial court sentenced defendant to an aggregate sentence of nine years four months. The court made the bribery count the principal term, for which it imposed the upper term of four years plus a two-year enhancement. The subordinate terms imposed were counts 5 (non-sufficient funds) and 16 (forgery), each of which carried an eight- month sentence, which was one-third the midterm. A two-year enhancement was imposed as to count 16. We shall reverse the convictions for bribery and forgery because we conclude defendant could not have had the requisite mental state for those offenses. However, the acts underlying those offenses were the bases for other convictions, and we shall affirm those convictions. The trial court imposed too many section 12022.1 enhancements, but because the enhancements were concurrent, defendant’s aggregate sentence will not change as a result of reversing all but two of the enhancements. We reject defendant’s remaining claims. We shall remand the matter for resentencing. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND I Convictions for Burglary and Passing Checks with Insufficient Funds Counts 1 through 7 relate to a check kiting scheme conducted by defendant. The first act occurred on April 13, 2008, when defendant went to the Lincoln branch of US Bank and presented check number 1148 in the amount of $2,000 drawn on her Bank of America account. There were insufficient funds in her Bank of America account to cover the check. Defendant deposited $1,500 into her US Bank account, and took back $500 in cash. Counts 1 (nonsufficient funds) and 2 (burglary) are based on the April 13 actions. Counts 3 (nonsufficient funds) and 4 (burglary) are based on the occurrences of April 15, 2008. On that day, defendant entered the Yuba City branch of US Bank and presented check number 1149 in the amount of $2,000 drawn on her Bank of America

2 account. There were insufficient funds in her Bank of America account to cover the check. Defendant deposited $1,000 into her US Bank account, and took back $1,000 in cash. Counts 5 (nonsufficient funds), 6 (burglary), and 7 (burglary) are based on the occurrences of April 16, 2008. On that date defendant entered the Yuba City branch of US Bank at approximately 1:39 p.m. and presented check number 1150 in the amount of $4,000 drawn on her Bank of America account. She deposited $500 in her account at US Bank and took back $3,500 in cash. At approximately 5:44 p.m. the same day, defendant entered the Lincoln branch of US Bank and withdrew $1,100 from her account. In May 2008, Kimberly Schrutt, a fraud investigator with US Bank, was assigned to investigate defendant’s transactions. Schrutt confirmed that the Bank of America checks were returned for nonsufficient funds, that defendant’s account with US Bank was in arrears several thousand dollars, and that defendant was the person who had made the deposits at US Bank. Schrutt called the telephone numbers US Bank had on file for defendant and left messages, but never received a call back. Schrutt contacted Detective Jim Hudson of the Placer County Sheriff’s Department on May 30, 2008. Hudson proceeded to obtain copies of all the checks and videos and still pictures of the incidents where the checks were passed. By comparing the person depicted in the videos and pictures with defendant’s driver’s license photo, Hudson was able to confirm that defendant was the person who had passed the checks. Hudson interviewed defendant on June 3, 2008, at her place of employment. Defendant maintained that there had been a “bank mess up” and that she would pay back the bank after she was paid. II Convictions for Preparing False Evidence and Forgery Robin Edwards was a Bank of America branch manager in Rocklin. Defendant contacted her in early spring 2008. Defendant requested a letter from the bank with

3 respect to some checks that had been returned. Defendant told Edwards that some checks had been returned in error and that she needed a letter to substantiate that fact. Edwards told defendant that the bank branches did not produce such letters and that she would need to go to a different department. Edwards initiated a phone call to the bank’s customer service department on defendant’s behalf so that defendant could discuss her request directly with them. Defendant became upset with how long it would take to receive the letter, so Edwards asked the customer service representative if she could prepare the letter from a template sent to her by the customer service department. Edwards told defendant it would take about an hour for customer service to fax the template to her. Because defendant could not stay, she and Edwards agreed that Edwards would fax the letter to defendant at her work once it was finished. Edwards drafted the letter and faxed it to defendant. About a week later, defendant came by the bank to pick up the original letter from Edwards. When Edwards testified, she recalled only one letter she had written for defendant. There were, however, three letters bearing what appeared to be Edwards’s signature. One was dated April 29, 2008, and explained that three checks (check nos. 1148, 1149, & 1150) had been returned in error. When Edwards testified for the prosecution’s case-in- chief in 2010, she believed this had been the letter she prepared for defendant. She testified that when she drafted the letter she had not known whether the checks had in fact been returned in error, and had assumed the customer service department had made that determination. By the time Edwards testified in the prosecution’s rebuttal case, she realized that she had not written the April 29, 2008 letter, even though it appeared to contain her signature. The April 29 letter described three checks (check nos.1148, 1149, & 1150) that had been returned in error. The letter Edwards actually wrote was dated February 25, 2008, and described only one check that had been returned in error—a check that had

4 nothing to do with this case. Only this letter was entered into evidence as an original. The other two letters admitted into evidence were copies. Defendant’s own handwriting expert testified that the signature on the April 29, 2008 letter was an exact copy of the February 25, 2008 letter, meaning one of them was not genuine. The April 29, 2008 letter purportedly written by Edwards was the basis of count 9, preparing false documentary evidence.

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People v. Fryson CA3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-fryson-ca3-calctapp-2015.