People v. Guan CA1/2

California Court of Appeal

People v. Guan CA1/2

California Court of Appeal·Decided April 10, 2025·No. A168412·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 4/10/25 P. v. Guan CA1/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

THE PEOPLE, A168412

Plaintiff and Respondent, v.

(San Francisco County Super. Ct.

MIN JIAN GUAN, Nos. CRI 20007040, SCN233216)

Defendant and Appellant.

A jury convicted defendant Min Jian Guan of first degree murder for killing his housemate Yu Qin Sun, and the trial court sentenced him to 25 years to life. Guan contends the court erred in three ways: (1) by finding Guan understood—and thus knowingly waived—his Miranda1 rights; (2) by giving standard instructions implying that the jury could find him guilty of second degree murder only if he faced provocation that not only led him, but would have led a reasonable person, to act in the heat of passion; and (3) by denying his request for new counsel without holding a Marsden2 hearing. Guan also contends, and the People agree, that the abstracts of judgment must be corrected. We affirm the judgment but remand for correction of the abstracts.

1 Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 (Miranda).

2 People v. Marsden (1970) 2 Cal.3d 118 (Marsden).

BACKGROUND

Evidence at Trial Sun, age 79, and Guan, then age 60, rented rooms in a house in San Francisco. They often argued: Sun’s night-time coughing kept Guan awake; she found him unduly noisy; and he thought she stole his eggs. One evening, a fellow tenant named Chen heard a noise and found the two arguing in the kitchen by an overturned trash can that Sun said Guan had kicked over. Guan was berating Sun, who looked fearful. Worried that Guan would hurt her, Chen stepped between them.

On the afternoon Sun was killed, she was in her room attending a class by Zoom on her iPad. During the class, which began at 4:00 p.m., the class leader saw Sun move off camera and heard her say in Mandarin, “What are you doing?” The class leader and a student heard Sun scream and her body fall. They heard a “suffering . . . moaning” sound and gasping for air; they also heard blows. Finally, they saw—but only from the waist down—someone in gray sweatpants and blue slippers close Sun’s iPad. The class leader’s son called 911.

Upon arriving at the house, responding officers encountered Guan, who was wearing gray sweatpants and blue slippers. Inside the house, the officers smelled burnt alcohol. After determining that Guan spoke Cantonese rather than English, the officers requested the dispatch of a Cantonesespeaking officer, leading to the arrival of Officer Janning Ma, a certified Cantonese translator. When Ma asked Guan if he lived at the house, Guan said he did and no one else was there at the time. After officers mentioned someone having called an ambulance, Guan said, “I don’t know. I just got back.” Ma told Guan to go up to his room while the officers searched the house.

The officers found Sun’s body on the floor of her room. Her face was red and burnt, her hair was charred, and she had head and neck injuries. The room smelled of rubbing alcohol.

The officers brought Guan downstairs and detained him, noting he had changed into black sweatpants. They found no one else in the house. Police later recovered from Guan’s room a baseball bat and a pair of gray sweatpants, both bloodstained; a half-empty bottle of rubbing alcohol; and a lighter. Elsewhere in the house, they noted that both a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector had been disabled or removed.

The officers took Guan to a police station and, as detailed below, gave him Miranda warnings in Cantonese to read from a printed card and orally via Officer Ma. They then questioned him as Ma translated.

Guan said he did not know why he was being questioned. He described leaving the house at 7:30 a.m. that day, staying out until 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., and then returning to make soup, which he was doing when the officers arrived. Guan said he did not see anyone in the house when he got home and had not seen Sun, in particular, all day.

Guan admitted having disagreements with Sun; he described his trouble sleeping because she coughed all night. But he said he had not quarreled with her in a while. When a detective said they had a witness who had seen Guan in Sun’s room, he said they “were talking nonsense”; he denied having ever entered her room. Asked if he had ever had physical contact with Sun that could result in “getting stuff on” his clothes, Guan said he tried to avoid her, as she seemed sick. Asked if there was any reason Sun’s blood would be on his pants, Guan replied, “My clothes do not have her blood.”

Guan acknowledged owning lighters and a baseball bat, which he swung in the yard for exercise. Asked why he had changed his pants, he said

he did so once he got home about 4:00 p.m. Asked if he had hit Sun with his bat, he said he had not seen her and asked why he should hit her. A detective said Sun’s blood was on his bat, and Guan reiterated he had not seen her; told that Sun’s blood was on his pants, he said, “No, you are making it up.” Asked how Sun could have been attacked in her room without him noticing, Guan insisted he had been watching TV in his room upstairs and had no idea what happened.

An analyst found two DNA profiles on the handle of the baseball bat and one DNA profile on the barrel of the bat. Guan’s DNA matched one DNA profile on the bat handle, which contributed one percent of the DNA collected; Sun’s DNA matched the other profile found on the handle, which contributed 99 percent of the DNA collected. Sun’s DNA also matched the lone DNA profile found in the blood on the barrel of the bat, with an exceedingly small chance of error. Blood on the gray sweatpants was also consistent with Sun’s DNA; a DNA sample from the pants’ waistband held DNA consistent with both hers and Guan’s. Sun’s autopsy revealed injuries consistent with someone having hit her in the back of the head with a bat, compressed her neck and pressed her mouth shut, compressed her torso and fractured her ribs (in a way not consistent with the effects of resuscitation efforts), and burnt her skin while she was still alive. Verdict and Sentencing Charged with first degree murder (Pen. Code,3 § 187, subd. (a)) and with injuring an elder over 70 (§ 368, subd. (b)(1)), Guan was tried before a jury, which found him guilty of both counts.4 When he appeared for

3 All undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

4 During trial, counsel expressed a doubt about Guan’s competence, the

court suspended proceedings, and another department held a competency trial. The question of competence focused on Guan’s represented belief that

sentencing, Guan requested new counsel. In a colloquy set forth below, the court denied his request. It sentenced him to 25 years to life for murder and imposed but stayed the sentence on the elder abuse count, which rested on the same acts (§ 654).

DISCUSSION

I. The Court Did Not Err in Finding a Valid Miranda Waiver Guan contends the trial court prejudicially erred when, after holding an evidentiary hearing (Evid. Code, § 402, subd. (b)), it denied his motion to exclude his statements to police based on a Miranda violation. Guan contends he did not understand his Miranda right to be provided a lawyer at no cost if he could not afford one and thus could not waive that right.5 We disagree.

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