People v. Johansen CA1/1

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 30, 2026
DocketA171963
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Johansen CA1/1 (People v. Johansen CA1/1) 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. Johansen CA1/1, (Cal. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

Filed 1/30/26 P. v. Johansen CA1/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 ONE

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A171963 v. DAVID THOMAS JOHANSEN, (Solano County Super. Ct. No. F23-01172) Defendant and Appellant.

After a jury convicted defendant David Thomas Johansen of felonious assault injuring a girlfriend or child’s parent (count 2) and misdemeanor cruelty to a child (count 5), the trial court sentenced him to four years’ probation and imposed a criminal protective order barring defendant from contacting his girlfriend or her four children, two of whom were fathered by defendant. Defendant’s sole contention on appeal is that the trial court erred in including his children in the 10-year stay-away order. We affirm. BACKGROUND In 2023, defendant and D.S. had been in a dating relationship for approximately five years and had two children in common, L.J. and B.J. The victim also has two other children, V.M. and M.M., from a prior relationship. Defendant, D.S., and the four children all lived in the same residence.

1 One day—in March 2023—D.S. noticed defendant “had been acting like just irrational and paranoid for a few days,” being “verbally abusive . . . and just being manic.” He accused her of having an affair with the neighbor while he was at work or sneaking someone in the house when he was in the backyard. D.S. asked defendant, who “had been drinking a lot,” to leave. Defendant refused, and D.S. threatened to call the police. Defendant then “lunged” at her and “attacked” her, throwing her “into the walls a couple of times” and then “tackl[ing her] into the kitchen doorway.” She did not call the police, rather she tried to calm defendant down telling him she would not call the police. She also told defendant she had not cheated, trying to reassure him. The next day, defendant apologized. D.S. was “bruised” on her back and ended up with a “giant scar on [her] leg left over from that.” Months later, in August, D.S. noticed defendant had “not [been] sleeping at all.” He had been “drinking very heavily,” and was “starting to get very paranoid and just like scary” over a three-day period. On the fourth night, defendant texted D.S., while she was at the children’s soccer practice and told her she “was kicked out of the home but the kids weren’t.” Around 7:00 p.m. that night, D.S. returned home to feed the children and talk to defendant. She found defendant sitting in the backyard with a half a bottle of whiskey and a beer, smoking. D.S. sat at the table with defendant, and he began calling her a “soulless evil woman for screwing him with [her] best friend, [her] neighbors,” and calling her a “Bitch, whore, skank, all that kind of stuff.” He was “pointing, gesturing toward” D.S. with “[j]ust very aggressive type mannerisms and this intense look in his eye,” which D.S. described as “[s]uper scary.” D.S. just kept her head down. M.M. and B.J. came outside after dinner, and D.S. picked up B.J. and held him as she sat at the table.

2 Defendant went into the house and when he returned, he grabbed D.S.’s hair from behind and “yanked” her. She felt a knife, a “cold metal, and pressure” on her throat. She felt “if [she] even like swallowed or breathed it was going to slice into [her] neck.” D.S. was “[t]errified.” B.J. was still in her arms, and M.M. was in front of her “screaming and saying ‘Stop.’ ” Defendant pulled D.S. back into the house and “threw” her onto the kitchen floor. Defendant kept the knife at D.S.’s throat, and B.J. was about “six, eight inches away,” still in D.S.’s arms. M.M. followed them inside and he, along with L.J. and V.M., were “yelling and screaming for [defendant] to stop, get off Mommy.” Defendant hit D.S. “a few times, kicked [her] legs,” and then ordered the children and D.S. to go sit on the couch. D.S. was still holding B.J. Periodically, defendant would point the knife, a “blue-handled cleaver, so squarish” and “about six inches,” at D.S. and say, “ ‘Admit it. Admit it. If the kids weren’t here, you wouldn’t be here. How can you betray me,’ that kind of stuff.” Defendant grabbed a second knife, a paring knife, which was “only two inches,” and had both knives in his hands. The whole time, defendant “continued rambling about who [she] was sleeping with, how dishonest [she] was,” and that “if we didn’t have children present that this would be going much different.” He also continuously called her names, “ ‘Stupid cunt,’ ” “ ‘bitch,’ ‘whore,’ you know, just that same kind of soulless stuff.” He gave D.S. her phone and told her to text her sisters that she needed to find a place to stay. She began texting her sisters and mother in a group text. She managed to text, “ ‘Help.’ ” But defendant took the phone back, accusing D.S. of texting another guy. He then broke the phone, bending it and “snapp[ing] it” and threw it on top of the kitchen cabinets. He resumed making accusations.

3 At one point, defendant, who was “twice [D.S.’s] size,” came over and “kicked his foot across [D.S.’s] shin” with “full force.” He later came over and “slapped [her] in the face” twice. He began playing a recording, on which he said he could hear D.S. “ ‘sucking his dick. I can hear you hiding. Okay. I can hear you guys laughing at me. It’s all on this recording.’ ” But D.S. stated the recording was “nothing but static.” He played the recording for hours, and then at one point he went and grabbed a speaker to amplify the recording, but it was still static. M.M. and B.J. eventually fell asleep on the couch, but V.M. and L.J. stayed awake with D.S. “[S]hear [sic] terror kept [her] on the couch.” At one point, defendant took V.M. and went to the store to get more cigarettes and drinks. While he was gone, D.S. grabbed a chair and retrieved her cell phone, which defendant had thrown on top of a kitchen cabinet. She sent a “911 emergency text to [her] sisters and [her] mom’s group text,” then deleted the message from her text so defendant would not see it, “threw [the phone] back up on top” of the cabinet and sat back on the couch. Defendant returned after 15 minutes and resumed name calling and playing his recordings. At around 4:00 a.m., defendant’s “demeanor changed,” and he allowed D.S. to take the children and leave. He also gave D.S. his debit card to get gas and retrieved her phone from the top of the cabinet. After D.S. got gas, she called her mother to let her know they were coming over. After she left, defendant texted her accusing her of meeting up with his boss. D.S. texted him a picture of “a little grocery store” so he could see she was not with anyone. D.S. had some bruising on her face, legs, and chin. She also had “marks on [her] legs” from defendant’s kick and described it as “pretty painful.” She additionally had a black eye.

4 M.M., who was seven years old at the time of the incident, remembered defendant “hitting [his] mom and frightening her with a knife because he was drunk.” He had been asleep on the couch, but “woke up to the sound of [his] mom getting hit.” D.S. was crying and had “tears going down her face and a black eye.” Defendant was “standing up in the living room hitting [his] mom.” M.M. did not think B.J. had been born yet. M.M. described the hitting as “smacking her with his hand.” Defendant was also “holding a knife,” which M.M. described as “wood-handled” with a “ ‘rectangle-ish’ blade on it.” Defendant was “cussing, yelling, and all of that.” He “used the F- word, B-word, and that’s it.” M.M. was scared, and he started crying.

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Bluebook (online)
People v. Johansen CA1/1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-johansen-ca11-calctapp-2026.