People v. Garcia CA4/3

California Court of Appeal·Decided July 22, 2016·No. G050169·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 7/22/16 P. v. Garcia CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, G050169

v. (Super. Ct. No. 13WF0966)

DAVID RAYMOND GARCIA, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, John L. Flynn, Judge. Affirmed in part and reversed in part. Leonard J. Klaif, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Peter Quon, Jr., and Anthony Da Silva, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. * * * INTRODUCTION Defendant David Raymond Garcia appeals after a jury found him guilty of two felony counts of making criminal threats, one felony count of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs with a prior felony, one felony count of driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or more with a prior felony, two misdemeanor counts of hit and run with property damage, and one misdemeanor count of resisting a peace officer. Garcia argues that, aside from his conviction for the misdemeanor offense of resisting a peace officer, none of his convictions was supported by substantial evidence. We affirm the judgment except for Garcia’s conviction for one of the two misdemeanor counts of hit and run with property damage. As the Attorney General acknowledges, under the facts of this case, Garcia may be properly convicted of only one count of hit and run with property damage in violation of Vehicle Code section 20002, subdivision (a). We therefore reverse the judgment as to Garcia’s conviction for that offense which was pleaded in the information as count 7. Substantial evidence supported each of Garcia’s other convictions.

FACTS Around 4:00 p.m. on April 1, 2013, Arlette Benitez was being driven to her Garden Grove home by her boyfriend when she heard a “slam.” She turned around and saw a large white vehicle traveling in the same lane behind the car she was riding in; she saw the white vehicle hit a curb and then a car. Benitez saw the white vehicle stop, “kind of los[e] control,” and then “continue[] going” down the street. Benitez’s boyfriend pulled over and parked near some apartments to allow the white vehicle to pass. As the white vehicle passed by, Benitez saw two people inside it. Benitez’s boyfriend resumed driving and pulled into the apartment complex where Benitez lived. Benitez saw the same white vehicle park at the apartment complex. Benitez saw the driver of the white vehicle get out of the vehicle; she got a “good look”

2 at the driver because he was “[n]ot that far away” from her. She watched him talk to “some guys inside of a garage.” Officers Charlie Danieley, Thomas Capps, and William Holloway of the Garden Grove Police Department were each dispatched to the area in response to a report of a possible hit-and-run collision. After arriving there, Danieley detained two men, Michael Arrellano and Ezekiel Lomelin, who were across the street from the apartment complex. When Holloway arrived, he saw two vehicles in the area, a blue Chevrolet Astro van and a silver Lexus, each of which appeared to have fresh collision damage in a similar pattern; both vehicles were parked “in close proximity to each other” on the street. Holloway started looking for a third vehicle, which, he believed, had been involved in the collision and had been described to him as a white SUV. He rode his police motorcycle through apartment complexes’ parking lots and located a white Chevrolet Suburban (the white SUV) with “fresh” collision damage “consistent” with the damage he had seen on the other two vehicles. The white SUV was parked less than a quarter-mile from the site of the collision. Benitez approached Holloway who then asked Danieley to interview Benitez; Danieley took Benitez’s statement. Holloway was also approached by the manager of the apartment complex. Holloway noticed several security cameras throughout the parking lot and asked the manager about them. Holloway then went with the manager into one of the apartments to view the video setup for the six to eight cameras at the apartment complex. The video setup included a high definition, wide-screen monitor that displayed a “very clear picture” and was able to zoom in and look at multiple cameras’ views or one camera’s view at a time. Holloway watched the video surveillance recording for the time period beginning five minutes prior to his receiving the dispatch call to five minutes after he had received that call. The video recording showed the white SUV enter and drive through the parking lot and park in a parking stall. The video recording showed two individuals get out of the car.

3 Holloway testified that the video recording provided “a good look at the driver.” The video recording showed the driver was a Hispanic male wearing a shirt with white and dark-colored stripes, dark shorts, and dark-colored shoes. The video recording showed the driver walking around to the front of the white SUV and looking at the damage. Holloway testified the driver, as shown in the video recording, was Garcia. Holloway further testified he saw on the video recording that the passenger of the white SUV was a Hispanic male who was wearing a burgundy shirt and dark pants. Holloway identified the passenger, depicted in the video recording, as Lomelin. Holloway testified regarding his unsuccessful efforts to obtain a copy of the video recording. The video recording was therefore not introduced or admitted into evidence at trial. Capps detained Garcia and placed him in handcuffs, after seeing him walk from the area where the white SUV was parked. Capps testified, “[i]t took 10 or 15 minutes to get the information out of [Garcia].” Capps ran an information check on Garcia and learned that there was an active warrant out of Fresno County for Garcia’s arrest. Garcia was uncooperative and had to be restrained in the rear seat of Capps’s patrol car. Capps saw that Garcia’s eyes were bloodshot and watery, and he could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from Garcia. Capps found a key to the white SUV in one of Garcia’s pockets; the key had the Chevrolet logo on it. When Holloway returned to site of the collision and made contact with Capps, he saw that three individuals, Lomelin, Arrellano, and Garcia, had been detained. Lomelin and Arrellano were seated on the curb by Capps, and Garcia was in the rear seat of Capps’s patrol car. Danieley had Benitez sit in the backseat of his patrol car to conduct an in-field lineup to see if Benitez could identify the driver and passenger of the white SUV. Benitez was first shown Arrellano and Lomelin. She identified Lomelin as the passenger of the white SUV. She was then shown Garcia who was still seated in the backseat of Capps’s patrol car. Holloway and Capps had difficulty getting Garcia out of the patrol

4 car to be better visible to Benitez during the in-field lineup. Garcia refused to voluntarily get out of the patrol car and after Holloway and Capps pulled him out, he refused to stand up, slumped, and put his head down to prevent the possible identification from occurring. He was agitated and aggressive. Within a few seconds of seeing Garcia when he was still 1 inside the patrol car, however, Benitez identified Garcia as the driver of the white SUV. She told Danieley that her identification was based on Garcia’s clothing, facial features, and general build.

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