People v. Ivans

2 Cal. App. 4th 1654, 4 Cal. Rptr. 2d 66, 92 Daily Journal DAR 1620, 92 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 959, 1992 Cal. App. LEXIS 100
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 29, 1992
DocketE008604
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 2 Cal. App. 4th 1654 (People v. Ivans) 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. Ivans, 2 Cal. App. 4th 1654, 4 Cal. Rptr. 2d 66, 92 Daily Journal DAR 1620, 92 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 959, 1992 Cal. App. LEXIS 100 (Cal. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

Opinion

DABNEY, J.

Defendant Jerry Dean Ivans was charged in an amended information in count 1 with attempted first degree murder of Joy Chavez (Pen. Code 1 , §§ 664/187), in count 2 with attempted first degree murder of Donald Cain (§§ 664/187), and in count 3 with unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle (Veh. Code, § 10851, subd. (a)). The information alleged as to counts 1 and 2 that Ivans used a firearm (§ 12022.5) and inflicted great bodily injury on the victims (§ 12022.7). The information alleged as to all counts that Ivans had previously been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, a serious felony. (§ 667, subd. (a).)

Ivans admitted the prior felony. The jury found Ivans guilty as charged and found true the firearm use and great bodily injury allegations.

At the sentencing hearing, Ivans moved for a new trial and requested substitution of counsel. The court denied Ivans’s motion for new trial and *1658 request for substitution of counsel. The court sentenced Ivans to the upper term of three years for the unlawful taking and a consecutive one-year term for the prior felony. 2 The court imposed life sentences for counts 1 and 2, consecutive to each other and to the determinate prison term. As to count 1, the court added a consecutive two-year term for the use of a firearm, a consecutive three-year term for inflicting great bodily injury, and imposed and stayed a one-year term for the prior felony. As to count 2, the court imposed a three-year enhancement for great bodily injury and imposed and stayed enhancements for firearm use and for the prior felony.

On appeal, Ivans contends the trial court erred in (1) failing to instruct the jury with CALJIC No. 4.21; (2) failing to instruct the jury to consider joyriding as a lesser included offense; (3) refusing to conduct a Marsden 3 hearing when Ivans requested substitution of counsel; (4) improperly ordering the revocation of Ivans’s driver’s license; and (5) imposing an excessive restitution fine.

The People concede the trial court imposed an excessive restitution fine. We conclude that the trial court erred in (1) failing to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of joyriding and (2) failing to inquire into Ivans’s reasons for requesting substitution of counsel. We also conclude the finding of use of a motor vehicle in the commission of the offense must be stricken.

Facts

Ivans had lived with Chavez for about three months in 1987. When their relationship ended, Ivans physically abused Chavez. Ivans’s parole was revoked as a result of the incident. Chavez refused to testify in Ivans’s behalf that she had started the fight.

In the early morning of August 4, 1989, Chavez and Cain were packing a pickup truck which had a camper shell, in preparation for a trip. Cain had received the pickup truck from his neighbor, Tim O’Leary. In settlement of a drug transaction gone awry, Cain had exchanged a travel trailer for the less expensive pickup truck. However, Cain had hooked the trailer up to the pickup and had left town for a week. He then returned and had patched things up with O’Leary. When Chavez and Cain were packing the pickup, Ivans approached. Ivans said he was there because he had heard the pickup *1659 had been stolen from O’Leary. Cain explained that he had worked things out with O’Leary a few days before. Ivans suggested they go to O’Leary’s house to talk it over, but Cain refused.

Ivans and Chavez began to argue about her failure to testify on his behalf at the parole revocation proceedings, and they called each other names. Cain said he had heard enough and started to get out of the pickup.

When Cain was climbing over the tailgate, he saw a bright light and heard a shot as Ivans’s right hand came up holding a handgun. Cain heard four more shots. Cain did not have a weapon that morning.

Cain was shot just above his left eye. The bullet broke his jaw and lodged in his neck below his left ear. The bullet could not safely be removed, because of its position near the spinal cord. Cain’s left eye had to be removed.

Chavez was shot four times. One bullet passed through her left arm and remains lodged near her heart. Two bullets entered the front of her chest. A fourth bullet entered her buttocks and exited near her genitals. Chavez had surgery twice following the shooting, and still experiences pain.

Cain and Chavez both had used methamphetamine (speed) in the past and had observed others who were under the influence of speed. Neither had taken any drugs that morning. Ivans did not appear to them to be under the influence of speed, although Cain assumed Ivans was on speed because he was a known user who was up at 4 a.m. Cain testified that after three or four days of using speed without sleeping, a person gets jittery, jumpy and paranoid.

A month or so after the shooting, the manager of an equipment rental center in Fontana reported that someone had broken into his business premises and had taken a black Mitsubishi pickup. The next day, September 7, 1989, California Highway Patrol (CHP) Officer Karlene Hicks noticed a Mitsubishi pickup stopped on the right shoulder of the freeway near Ludlow. She stopped to check on the welfare of the occupants. Ivans sat in the driver’s seat, and he had a female passenger. Ivans seemed annoyed by the officer’s contact. He stated he had lost his driver’s license. When asked to produce registration and proof of insurance, he said he had borrowed the car from a friend.

He gave a false name, and the officer ran a check on that name and on the pickup. The officer learned the pickup was stolen and arrested Ivans. At the *1660 CHP station, Ivans waived his Miranda 4 rights. He told Hicks the pickup was stolen, but then changed his story, saying he had no idea if it was stolen or not. He also gave conflicting versions about who had stolen it.

He was questioned by other CHP officers. He eventually revealed his true name, and the officers learned through a computer check that he had an outstanding arrest warrant for attempted murder. Ivans initiated an “off-the-record” conversation in which he told the officers in a boastful manner about shooting Cain and Chavez. Ivans said he had been paid $900 to retrieve a pickup for a friend, but that a man in the back of the pickup had pulled a shotgun on him. Ivans pulled his own gun and “beat him to the draw and shot him once in the head.” Ivans stated he then saw his ex-girlfriend in the back of the pickup. She started screaming, and Ivans shot her three times “in order to do it right” because she was a witness. He stated he had gotten even with Chavez for causing his parole revocation.

The Defense

Ivans lived with Chavez from fall of 1987 until January 1988. After his release from prison, he tried to find her to retrieve his personal belongings which she held. A month or so before the shooting, she told him she had put their possessions in storage, and they had been forfeited for failure to pay storage charges.

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Bluebook (online)
2 Cal. App. 4th 1654, 4 Cal. Rptr. 2d 66, 92 Daily Journal DAR 1620, 92 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 959, 1992 Cal. App. LEXIS 100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-ivans-calctapp-1992.