People v. Martin CA2/4

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 29, 2013
DocketB240542
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Martin CA2/4 (People v. Martin CA2/4) 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. Martin CA2/4, (Cal. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Filed 10/29/13 P. v. Martin CA2/4 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FOUR

THE PEOPLE, B240542

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. PA067561) v.

RICHARD MARTIN,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Beverly Reid O‟Connell, Judge. Affirmed. Fay Arfa for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Steven D. Matthews and Connie H. Kan, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

________________________________ INTRODUCTION Richard Martin appeals from a judgment following his conviction for first degree residential burglary. He contends the trial court abused its discretion (1) when it denied his pretrial request to discharge his retained attorney and hire new counsel, (2) when it admitted evidence of a prior uncharged residential burglary, and (3) when it denied his request under People v. Superior Court (Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497 (Romero) to strike his 2008 prior “strike” conviction for robbery. Finding no reversible error, we affirm. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Appellant was charged with one count of first degree residential burglary 1 (Pen. Code, § 459) and one count of receiving stolen property (§ 496). It was further alleged that appellant had suffered five prior convictions (§ 1203, subd. (e)(4)), including a strike for purposes of the Three Strikes law (§§ 1170.12, subds. (a)-(d), 667, subds. (b)-(i)), and had served five prior prison terms (§ 667.5, subd. (b)). Before a bifurcated jury trial commenced, appellant made an oral motion to discharge his privately retained counsel and hire new counsel. The trial court denied the motion. The jury found appellant guilty of first degree residential burglary, and split 10 to 2 for conviction on the count of receiving stolen property. 2 The court declared a mistrial on that count. In a subsequent bench trial, appellant admitted the allegations on the priors. Appellant moved for a new trial (§ 1181), which was denied. The trial court also

1 All further statutory citations are to the Penal Code, unless otherwise indicated. 2 Because appellant was not convicted for receiving stolen property, we omit further facts related to that charge.

2 denied appellant‟s Romero motion, declining to strike the prior strike. However, the court exercised its discretion to strike the prior prison terms. The court sentenced appellant to state prison for a total of 13 years, and assessed various fines and fees. He was awarded 1080 days of custody credit. Appellant timely appealed. FACTUAL BACKGROUND The prosecution presented the following case. On September 13, 2010, at approximately 2:00 p.m., the victim, Amanda Lozano, went with her four-year-old son to pick up her six-year-old son at a nearby school. Afterward, they walked home with a female neighbor and her daughter. As they approached Lozano‟s house, her sons ran ahead, stopped at the front door, and turned to look at her in surprise. When Lozano arrived at her house, she noticed her front door was open and the door frame was on the ground. While standing in the entryway, she observed two men coming down the stairs. One man wore red clothing, the other dark clothing. The men turned and looked at her. Lozano saw their faces. She told her children to run, and she ran down the street yelling, “Help me, help me, please. Someone‟s in my house.” A neighbor came out, and they ran across the street to the house of Detective Adam Dorman, a Los Angeles County deputy sheriff. Lozano told the detective, “There are two thieves inside my house.” Detective Dorman ran to Lozano‟s house. He noticed the front door had been kicked in. Detective Dorman ran into the house, looked around, and went into the backyard. Looking over one of the walls in the backyard, he saw a man in a red shirt and dark shorts about 50 yards away. The suspect, who had tattooed legs and was carrying a backpack, was climbing over a fence. Detective Dorman lost sight of the suspect after he cleared the fence, so the detective ran back through the house to his patrol vehicle. Because he was familiar with the

3 neighborhood, he drove to a location that he thought would allow him to catch the suspect. Seeing appellant walking down the street with a “schmear” of dirt down his leg as if he had “slid down a hill,” Detective Dorman stopped his vehicle, got out, identified himself as a deputy sheriff, drew his firearm and ordered appellant to the ground. Appellant failed to comply and kept walking toward the detective. Seeing a tire iron protruding from appellant‟s backpack, Dorman threatened to shoot, to which appellant replied, “Why? For breaking into a house?” Detective Dorman arrested appellant and removed several items from the backpack, including a tire iron and a jewelry box. Lozano was driven to the location where appellant was being held in custody. From inside the patrol vehicle, Lozano turned around in her seat to look at appellant, immediately ducked down, said, “That‟s him,” and began to sob. The items inside the backpack were shown to Lozano. Lozano identified the jewelry box as belonging to her. However, her husband‟s missing passport was not recovered. He found it days later on the other side of their backyard wall. At trial, she identified appellant as one of the two men she had seen in her house, the one wearing red clothing. The prosecution also introduced evidence of prior uncharged misconduct. On December 18, 2006, Detective Brandon Painter went to Catherine Hewitt‟s home in response to a call. When he arrived, he observed that the front door appeared to have been “kicked in,” and that the house had been completely ransacked. Later that night, Detective Painter conducted a traffic stop of appellant and searched appellant‟s person. He recovered a knife, two passports belonging to Hewitt and her deceased husband, and some coins. The passports were in appellant‟s pockets.

4 Appellant presented an alibi defense. Veronica Maximo and her daughter, Maria Elena Rodriguez, testified that they regularly cleaned appellant‟s house. On the day of the burglary, they were at his house from 11:30 a.m. until around 2:30 p.m. Appellant and his wife left to walk their dog around 1:30 p.m. While appellant was away, two men and a woman came to appellant‟s house looking for him. The men wore dark clothing, and one of them carried a backpack. When they learned that appellant was not present, they left. Appellant returned home at some point and around 2:20 p.m., helped Maximo pack her cleaning supplies into her car. David Palmer was near Lozano‟s house at the time of the burglary. He heard screaming, and seconds later, saw two men jump over a wall and land on a dark hill. The men wore dark clothing and at least one of them was carrying a backpack. Palmer chased after the two men in his truck. He was able to detain one of the men, but the other man jumped a fence and ran away. He could not identify the other man, although he noticed a “flash of red.” DISCUSSION Appellant contends (1) that the trial court erred in denying his motion to discharge his privately retained counsel and retain new counsel; (2) that the court abused its discretion in admitting Detective Painter‟s testimony about the 2006 residential burglary; and (3) that the court erred in denying his Romero motion. A. Motion to Substitute Attorney 1.

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Bluebook (online)
People v. Martin CA2/4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-martin-ca24-calctapp-2013.