People v. Hodges

70 Cal. App. 4th 1348, 83 Cal. Rptr. 2d 619, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 2499, 99 Daily Journal DAR 3225, 1999 Cal. App. LEXIS 304
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 2, 1999
DocketNo. C029795
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 70 Cal. App. 4th 1348 (People v. Hodges) 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. Hodges, 70 Cal. App. 4th 1348, 83 Cal. Rptr. 2d 619, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 2499, 99 Daily Journal DAR 3225, 1999 Cal. App. LEXIS 304 (Cal. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

[1352]*1352Opinion

SIMS, Acting P.

J. — A jury convicted defendant Terrence Terrill Hodges of carrying a concealed firearm within a vehicle (Pen. Code, § 12025, subd. (a) (section 12025(a)); all further undesignated section references are to the Penal Code) and found that he had previously been convicted of misdemeanor possession of a concealed weapon under the same provision. The trial court suspended imposition of judgment and ordered defendant placed on formal probation for five years with conditions. The court also imposed a $156 booking fee pursuant to Government Code section 29550.2,

Defendant contends: (1) His initial detention pursuant to Sacramento City Code section 25.01.019-1 was unlawful because the ordinance is unconstitutionally vague. (2) Section 12025(a) is unconstitutionally vague. (3) Assuming section 12025(a) is not unconstitutionally vague, there was insufficient evidence of concealment. (4) Section 12025(a) arbitrarily and irrationally criminalizes conduct that minimizes the risk of harm from carrying weapons in vehicles. (5) Defendant was denied his right to a fair trial and the ability to mount an effective defense because trial counsel failed to secure the attendance of a critical corroborating witness. (6) A condition of probation was unlawful and the order imposing the booking fee should be stricken.

We shall affirm.

Facts

Prosecution case.

Sacramento Police Officer Thomas Higgins was parked around 24th and P Streets at 11:23 p.m. on July 29, 1996, watching for stop sign violators; the windows of his patrol car were down. He heard loud music coming from a car that was approaching from his rear. As the car came closer, the music got much louder. No other cars were in the area. When the car stopped, more than 50 feet from the intersection, Higgins could still hear the music.

Higgins followed the car until it parked, then got out of his car. The driver of the parked car, defendant, was sticking his left hand out the window, holding a wallet with a badge reading “security officer.” Defendant identified himself as a “bounty hunter, security officer.” In response to Higgins’s question, defendant said there was a gun in his car inside a gun case.

After defendant stepped out of the car, Higgins saw the gun case behind the passenger seat, where defendant said it was. The case was not lockable and Higgins saw no lock in the car. The gun, also unlocked, was within [1353]*1353arm’s reach of the driver’s seat. Next to the gun inside the gun case was a loaded magazine.

Defendant had no permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Defense case.

Defendant testified that his radio was on before Higgins stopped him, but that it was not loud. According to defendant, the gun case had a lock on it when he was arrested, but when he retrieved the case from the police property division after his arrest the lock was missing. The key to the lock was on his key ring when he was arrested; he removed it and showed Higgins how to open the lock with the key, which Higgins did.

Discussion

I

Defendant contends that all evidence resulting from Officer Higgins’s stop should have been suppressed because the Sacramento city ordinance under which the officer made the stop is unconstitutionally vague. We disagree.

Defendant made no motion to suppress this evidence and raised no challenge to the ordinance at trial. However, defendant claims his trial counsel was ineffective for failure to challenge the ordinance in a motion to suppress; hence, we address the claim on the merits.

Sacramento City Code section 25.01.019-1, which we judicially notice (Evid. Code, §§ 452, subd. (a), 459), provides:

“(a) No person shall use or operate a radio, tape player, tape recorder, record player, television or similar device in a vehicle on a street, which is audible to a person of normal hearing sensitivity, more than twenty-five (25) feet from said vehicle.

“(b) As used in subsection (a) ‘person of normal hearing sensitivity’ means a person who has a hearing threshold level of between zero (0) decibels and twenty-five (25) decibels HL averaged over the frequencies 500, 1000, and 2000 Hertz.

“(c) Violation of this section is an infraction. The penalty for a first violation is a $100.00 fine; for a second violation within one (1) year, the penalty is a $200.00 fine; for each additional violation within one (1) year, the penalty is a $500.00 fine.” (Sacramento City Code, § 25-01-019-1.)

[1354]*1354“Due process requires fair notice of what conduct is prohibited. A statute must be definite enough to provide a standard of conduct for citizens and guidance for the police to avoid arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement. [Citations.] ‘Void for vagueness simply means that criminal responsibility should not attach where one could not reasonably understand that his contemplated conduct is proscribed.’ [Citation.] [H] . . . A statute is not vague if . . . any reasonable and practical construction can be given to its language. Reasonable certainty is all that is required. [Citations.]” (People v. Townsend (1998) 62 Cal.App.4th 1390, 1400-1401 [73 Cal.Rptr.2d 438].)

Under this test the ordinance easily passes muster. It describes the prohibited conduct in readily understandable terms, using precisely quantified standards. Thus it provides reasonable certainty to citizens and the police. (See Mann v. Mack (1984) 155 Cal.App.3d 666, 674 [202 Cal.Rptr. 296] [upholding Los Angeles noise ordinance that proscribed willfully making “ ‘any loud, unnecessary, and unusual noise which disturbs the peace or quiet of any neighborhood’ ”].)

The fact that in some instances a driver could reasonably doubt whether a person with normal hearing could perceive the noise coming from the driver’s vehicle more than 25 feet away does not render the statute arbitrary or standardless. “Many, probably most, statutes are ambiguous in some respects and instances invariably arise under which the application of statutory language may be unclear. So long as a statute does not threaten to infringe on the exercise of First Amendment or other constitutional rights, however, such ambiguities, even if numerous, do not justify the invalidation of a statute on its face. In order to succeed on a facial vagueness challenge to a legislative measure that does not threaten constitutionally protected conduct... a party must do more than identify some instances in which the application of the statute may be uncertain or ambiguous; he must demonstrate that ‘the law is impermissibly vague in all of its applications.’ [Citation].” (Evangelatos v. Superior Court (1988) 44 Cal.3d 1188, 1201 [246 Cal.Rptr. 629, 753 P.2d 585].) Defendant has offered no such demonstration.

Because a vagueness challenge to the ordinance would have had no chance of success, defendant cannot show that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to move to suppress the evidence on this ground. (People v. Shape (1982) 128 Cal.App.3d 816, 825 [180 Cal.Rptr. 567] [“Appellant cannot have been prejudiced by counsel’s failure to bring a futile pretrial suppression motion.”].)

II

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70 Cal. App. 4th 1348, 83 Cal. Rptr. 2d 619, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 2499, 99 Daily Journal DAR 3225, 1999 Cal. App. LEXIS 304, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-hodges-calctapp-1999.