People v. Madriz CA1/1

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 25, 2024
DocketA165179
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Madriz CA1/1 (People v. Madriz 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. Madriz CA1/1, (Cal. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

Filed 1/25/24 P. v. Madriz CA1/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, A165179 v. PEDRO MADRIZ, (San Mateo County Super. Ct. No. 17-SF-002213-A) Defendant and Appellant.

While riding as a passenger in a car, defendant Pedro Madriz shot a man affiliated with a rival gang faction. Four days later, while riding in another car, Madriz urged the driver to flee from law enforcement, which resulted in a car crash that seriously injured some of the car’s other passengers. Based on these two incidents, a jury convicted Madriz of several felonies, including attempted murder, and numerous gang-related charges. He was sentenced to 39 years and eight months to life in prison. On appeal, Madriz contends that reversal is required under Assembly Bill No. 333 (2021–2022 Reg. Sess.) (Assembly Bill No. 333), which imposes new limitations on the prosecution of gang-related charges, and which took effect after Madriz was tried but before he was sentenced. In response to the new law, the trial court dismissed his convictions of the gang-related charges. Madriz claims, however, that he is entitled to reversal of all his convictions because trial on the gang charges was not bifurcated. In addition, he claims

1 the jury instruction on flight was legally incorrect. We reject these claims, order the correction of clerical errors in the abstract of judgment, and affirm. I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND A. Background At the time of the February 2017 crimes, 23-year-old Madriz was a member of Midtown Menlo Norteños (MMN), a Norteño gang subset in the area of East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park. Madriz had numerous gang- related tattoos, including the word “Norte” above his left eye and the letters “MMN” by his right eye. Around 2012, MMN split from another Norteño subset in the same area, Midtown and Menlo (M&M), due to “a rift within the gang” over their name. There was significant violence, including shootings, between MMN and M&M for the next two years. Although the violence diminished after 2014, the two factions remained rivals. B. The Shooting On the afternoon of February 21, 2017, Jimmy H., who was in his late teens, left his East Palo Alto home on his bicycle to meet his girlfriend’s sister. After meeting her, Jimmy H. started biking home. Jimmy H. testified that before the meeting, he had noticed Madriz in the backseat of “a blue Toyota Prius or Honda” sedan and “gave him a head- nod,” which Madriz returned. Jimmy H. had met Madriz several years before and had interacted with him at least five times, usually at neighborhood “kick-backs” attended by gang members. Although Jimmy H. was not a gang member, after the MMN/M&M split he tended to be friendly with members of M&M. He testified that after the split he was beat up twice by MMN

2 members. Nonetheless, in recent years he had distanced himself from his gang associates, and he did not think he and Madriz “had any problem.” As Jimmy H. reached the EPA Wireless store on his way home, the blue car caught up with him. Madriz was still in the backseat, and Jimmy H. could see four other people in the car. Jimmy H. testified that he knew one of them as “Shadow,” an MMN member who beat him up on one of the previous occasions, but did not remember recognizing any of the car’s other occupants.1 Madriz asked Jimmy H., “Where are you from?,” which Jimmy H. understood to be a question about his gang affiliation. Jimmy H. then saw Madriz, who was only three or four feet away, point a silver handgun out the car window. Jimmy H. heard three gunshots and felt pain in his side and buttocks. He got off his bike and ran into EPA Wireless, where a store clerk called the police. Jimmy H. was treated at the hospital for a through-and- through gunshot wound to his right side and back, an injury that still caused him pain. At 1:15 p.m., East Palo Alto’s Shot Spotter system recorded three gunshots fired within one second in the vicinity of EPA Wireless. Three shell casings and a bullet fragment were recovered at the scene, and there were two bullet holes in an outside wall of EPA Wireless. No fingerprints could be recovered from the shell casings. Surveillance footage from area businesses showed the movements of Jimmy H. and a Prius leading up to the shooting,

1 Shadow, whose real name is Enrique S., worked for a construction

company at the time. Timecard records showed that he worked at a job site in Albany from approximately 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the day in question. Jimmy H. told the police that Shadow was in the blue car, but at trial he testified it was possible the person was actually “Little Shadow,” Shadow’s younger brother. It also appears from the record that Jimmy H. failed to identify Shadow in a photographic line-up the day after the shooting.

3 culminating in “a hand outstretched from the car” right before Jimmy H. went into EPA Wireless. At the scene, Jimmy H. told a police officer that he knew who shot him but could not recall the man’s name. Jimmy H. later identified Madriz in a photographic line-up as “Fat Boy,” Madriz’s gang moniker, but refused to initial the identification. Jimmy H. testified that he was initially reluctant to tell the police who shot him because he was afraid of gang retaliation, but he decided “it was the best thing to do” because he was “not in that life any[]more.” Both sides presented expert testimony involving data extracted from Madriz’s cell phone. The phone’s location data tended to show that Madriz was in the vicinity of EPA Wireless at the time of the shooting, although some discrepancies were impossible to explain. Madriz’s sister-in-law testified that his grandmother and great-grandmother lived on the same street indicated by some of the relevant location data, and he often visited them. C. The Car Chase Four days after the shooting, on February 25, 2017, 18-year-old Stephanie D. and her friend, 14-year-old Tatiana P., drove to a Redwood City park to meet Madriz and Alexis S., a member of a Redwood City Norteño subset. The group left the park in Alexis S.’s Nissan Altima and went to a nearby abandoned house, where they consumed drugs and alcohol. After buying more alcohol, they drove to East Palo Alto to pick up another gang member, Stevie J. Stevie J. got in the driver’s seat, and Madriz, who had been driving, moved to the front passenger’s seat. Tatiana P., Stephanie D., and Alexis S. were in the backseat.

4 The group drove around East Palo Alto for a while, smoking marijuana and drinking. Stephanie D. testified that at one point, she saw Madriz pull out a gun from “in between [his] legs or on the floor,” hold it briefly, and replace it out of sight. Tatiana P. also saw Madriz holding a gun sometime during the ride. Eventually, someone in the Altima said, “We got blurped,” and the girls noticed police lights. Stevie J. asked if he should stop, and Madriz indicated he should take the police on a high-speed chase. Stephanie D. testified that Madriz stated he had a warrant out for attempted murder, but Tatiana P. testified that he did not specify what the warrant was for.2 During the ensuing chase, the girls repeatedly yelled at Stevie J. to pull over and let them out of the car, but he did not do so. A San Mateo County sheriff’s deputy testified that around 9:20 p.m. that night, he was driving in a patrol vehicle with other members of the county gang task force.

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People v. Madriz CA1/1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-madriz-ca11-calctapp-2024.