People v. Jones CA1/2

California Court of Appeal·Decided December 3, 2020·No. A155649M·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 12/2/20 P. v. Jones 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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, Plaintiff and Respondent, A155649

v. (San Mateo County JERMAINE JONES, Super. Ct. No. SC081953A) Defendant and Appellant. ORDER MODIFYING OPINION AND DENYING REHEARING [NO CHANGE IN JUDGMENT] BY THE COURT: It is ordered that the opinion filed herein on November 10, 2020, be modified as follows: 1. On page 5, the sentence beginning “Jones relies on cases . . .” and the citations that follow it are deleted and replaced with the following:

Jones relies on capital cases holding that “[t]o comply with the Eighth Amendment, a state’s capital punishment scheme must include an ‘ “objective basis for distinguishing” ’ a capital case from a noncapital case. (People v. Crittenden (1994) 9 Cal.4th 83, 154; see Godfrey v. Georgia (1980) 446 U.S. 420, 433; People v. Casares (2016) 62 Cal.4th 808, 848–853; People v. Catlin (2001) 26 Cal.4th 81, 157–159.)

2. On pages 7 and 8, the following sentence is deleted: “But Jones has not asserted any void-for-vagueness claim under the due process clause.” That sentence is replaced with the following:

1 But Jones does not argue that section 190.2, subdivision (a)(21) is not “definite enough to provide a standard of conduct for those whose activities are proscribed,” or that it fails to “provide definite guidelines for the police in order to prevent arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement,” as a void-for-vagueness claim under the due process clause requires. (People v. Heitzman (1994) 9 Cal.4th 189, 199.)

These modifications do not change the judgment. The petition for rehearing is denied.

Dated: ____________________ _______________________, Acting P.J.

2 Filed 11/10/20 P. v. Jones CA1/2 (unmodified opinion) NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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.

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A155649 v. JERMAINE JONES, (San Mateo County Super. Ct. No. SC081953A) Defendant and Appellant.

In August of 2011, Carl Purvis, Jr. was shot and killed while driving his car in East Menlo Park. A jury convicted defendant Jermaine Jones of first-degree murder, and found true the special circumstance that Jones intentionally murdered Purvis by shooting a firearm from a motor vehicle. Jones argues that the special circumstance finding must be reversed because it duplicated the prosecution’s theory of first-degree murder, and that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on imperfect self-defense, in admitting certain firearms evidence, and in limiting his counsel’s cross- examination of a prosecution witness. We affirm. BACKGROUND Around 2:00 a.m. on the morning of June 4, 2011, two masked men put a gun to Jones’s head, took his car keys, and stole his car—a red, four-door Chrysler with “comb rims.” Jones called 911 and told the dispatcher that he did not know the men, but asked police to check for the car on Alberni street

1 in East Palo Alto. Jones’s girlfriend at the time, Kimberly Brown, would later testify that Jones told her that Purvis (known as “Man Man”) was one of the carjackers, and a “hater” who “hat[ed] on [Jones] every time [Jones] went over to Alberni Street,” where Purvis lived. Later that morning, police recovered the car and returned it to Jones. On August 18, 2011, around 6:00 p.m., Jose Juan Lopez saw what he described as a “red candy”-colored Chrysler—which he later identified as Jones’s car—following a Pontiac Grand Am on Plumas Avenue in Menlo Park. A surveillance camera from a nearby house also captured Jones’s car following Purvis’s car. At around 5:55 p.m., Mariela Gonzalez saw Purvis’s car come to a stop at the intersection of Almanor Avenue and Newbridge Street. She then saw Jones’s car, driven by an African-American man with “little to no hair and a little heavier-set than the other driver,” pull up next to it. The driver of Jones’s car then fired two shots at Purvis’s car, and then Jones’s car “sped off really fast.” Purvis’s car stopped on the sidewalk in front a nearby church. Purvis was later pronounced dead at the scene. On the night of August 22, Jones’s car was towed from an address on Shropshire Court in Stockton, and released back to Jones the next day. On August 23, Stockton police conducted a stop of the car and arrested Jones for Purvis’s murder. Jones had two cell phones and a wallet on his person when he was arrested. An August 19 newspaper article about Purvis’s murder was subsequently found in the wallet. In a search of Jones’s car, a .45-caliber Springfield Armory XD45LE handgun was found under the hood and under the air filter. Analysis of the gun later determined that it had Jones’s fingerprints, palm print, and DNA

2 on it. Ballistic analysis also determined that the gun had fired bullets recovered from Purvis’s body, as well as the door and floorboard of his car. A data extraction from an HTC brand phone that Jones had when he was arrested produced several images of Jones holding what appeared to be the Springfield Armory XD45LE handgun, as well as various firearm related searches performed on August 16, including two related to a Springfield Armory XD45 handgun. On October 16, 2014, an amended indictment was filed charging Jones with the murder of Purvis (Pen. Code, § 187)1 (count 1), shooting at an occupied vehicle (§ 246) (count 2), and possessing a firearm as a felon (§ 29800, subd. (a)(1)) (count 3). With respect to count 1, the indictment further alleged the special circumstance that Jones intentionally murdered Purvis by shooting a firearm from a motor vehicle (§§ 190, subd. (d), 190.2, subd. (a)(21)) and that Jones personally and intentionally discharged a firearm causing death (§ 12022.53, subd. (d)). The information also alleged a prior serious felony conviction (§§ 667, subd. (a), 1170.12, subd. (c)(1)), and three prior prison terms (§ 667.5, subd. (b)). Trial took place in February and March of 2018. The prosecution argued that Jones was guilty of first-degree murder under two theories—that he premeditated and deliberated before shooting Purvis, and that he committed the murder by shooting a firearm from a motor vehicle. (See § 189, subd. (a).) Jones testified in his own defense. According to Jones, a man named “Dollar” had previously expressed interest in buying his car, and on August 16, had offered to give him a gun and a large quantity of ecstasy pills in

1 Further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

3 exchange for the car, and had searched on Jones’s cell phone for the gun to see how much it was worth. On the day of the shooting, Dollar came to his door with the gun and Jones took pictures with it. Later that day, around 5:00 p.m., Jones went to the house of a man known as “Stag” and saw Dollar again; Dollar asked to test drive the car and was gone about 45 minutes.

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