People v. Martinez CA1/5

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 6, 2024
DocketA168068
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Martinez CA1/5 (People v. Martinez CA1/5) 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. Martinez CA1/5, (Cal. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

Filed 9/6/24 P. v. Martinez CA1/5 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 FIVE

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A168068 v. MARK ZAPATA MARTINEZ, (Sonoma County Super. Ct. No. SCR7207171) Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant and appellant Mark Zapata Martinez (appellant) appeals following his no contest plea to sexual molestation charges. He contends that the trial court erred in finding he was competent, that the court erred in denying his motion to withdraw his plea, that he received ineffective assistance of counsel, and that there was a violation of the Racial Justice Act (RJA) (Pen. Code, § 745).1 We reject appellant’s claims. BACKGROUND In July 2019, the Sonoma County District Attorney filed an information charging appellant with oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 years old or younger (§ 288.7, subd. (b); counts 1 & 3), forcible lewd act on a child (§ 288, subd. (b)(1); counts 2, 4, 5, 6, & 10), and lewd act on a child

1 All undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

1 (§ 288, subd. (a); counts 7, 8, & 9). The information was later amended to add an additional lewd act charge (§ 288, subd. (a); count 11).2 In March 2020, pursuant to an agreement, appellant pleaded no contest to counts 1 and 11, with an agreed sentence of 15 years to life for count 1 and a concurrent sentence on count 11. In February 2021, the public defender was appointed to represent appellant in a possible motion to withdraw his plea. In March, the public defender declared doubt as to appellant’s competence and criminal proceedings were suspended pursuant to section 1368. The trial court referred appellant for an expert competency evaluation. The evaluator opined in a report that appellant was not competent and the prosecution retained a second expert to perform another evaluation. The second evaluator opined in his report that appellant was competent. In April 2022, after a hearing, the trial court found appellant to be mentally competent and reinstated criminal proceedings. In June 2022, appellant moved to withdraw his plea. In April 2023, following a hearing and the receipt of testimony, the trial court denied the motion to withdraw. In May 2023, the trial court sentenced appellant according to the terms of the plea agreement—15 years to life on count 1 and six years concurrent on count 11. The present appeal followed, and appellant obtained a certificate of probable cause.

2 The underlying facts are not relevant to the issues on appeal.In brief, appellant, who was a foster parent, was accused of sexually abusing two foster children.

2 DISCUSSION I. The Trial Court Did Not Err in Finding Appellant Competent Appellant first contends the trial court erred in finding him competent in April 2022, after a competency trial. As explained below, viewing the record in the light most favorable to the trial court’s finding, we conclude the finding is supported by substantial evidence. (People v. Mendoza (2016) 62 Cal.4th 856, 871.) A. Evidence at Competency Trial Dr. Samuel Libeu, an expert in competency evaluations and acting chief psychiatrist at San Quentin State Prison, was appointed by the court to evaluate appellant following the public defender’s declaration of doubt regarding appellant’s competence. Dr. Libeu testified that appellant repeatedly redirected questions back to “a conspiracy to bring [the criminal] charges against him for the purposes of getting money out of him and his family.” That topic “was pervasive throughout [the] entire conversation.” Appellant “repeatedly reported” that individuals both outside and inside the legal system were involved in the conspiracy, including “at least two of his attorneys to that point, [police] officers, [and] possibly” the District Attorney and the Judge presiding over the case. Although appellant was “able to demonstrate . . . basic understanding” of the criminal proceedings, “his ability to understand really the purpose of a trial and how that actually takes place was constantly being brought back to this idea that he can’t possibly have a fair trial, that everybody is working against him for the reasons I just described because there’s this conspiracy to get money out of him.” Dr. Libeu diagnosed appellant with delusional disorder, a “milder form” of schizophrenia “in that it involves specifically and only delusions.” He explained that a delusion is a “fixed false belief that is not amenable to

3 change despite conflicting evidence,” which lasts for at least a month. As part of the evaluation, Dr. Libeu contacted appellant’s prior and then current attorneys—Chris Andrian, a retained private attorney, and Lynette Brown, an appointed public defender. They described how “they had made multiple attempts to explain to [appellant] the reality of the situation, the reality of his legal circumstances, and that in spite of their repeated attempts to provide him with this information that would contradict his beliefs, he persisted in having this belief . . . to the point that it was meeting the definition of a delusion, a persistent, fixed, false belief despite contradictory evidence.” Dr. Libeu opined that appellant’s delusion would “impair his ability to be fully forthcoming” with his attorneys and “to move past particular concerns and into having a more substantive conversation.” Defense counsel Andrian described to Dr. Libeu how appellant became “more and more suspicious of” him, and “more and more rigid about . . . not wanting a trial and mentioning he was feeling pressured into pleading guilty to avoid a trial.” Dr. Libeu admitted that when he performed his assessment he had not known about a civil lawsuit that had been brought against appellant by the alleged victims’ father. The expert also admitted he had not known that appellant’s prior counsel Mr. Andrian had a “familial or friend relationship” with the attorney in the civil lawsuit. But Dr. Libeu testified the new information did not affect his diagnosis because it is “very common . . . that a lot of the delusional ideas often have a nugget of truth, some event happened or some combination of events, which the mind in this illness warps . . . into a much more elaborate paranoid belief.” The prosecution asked Dr. Omri Berger, an expert in competency evaluations and a staff psychiatrist at San Quentin State Prison, to do a

4 second evaluation. Dr. Berger opined in his testimony that appellant was competent to stand trial because his ability to understand the proceedings and rationally cooperate with counsel was not impaired by a mental disorder. Dr. Berger opined that appellant’s conspiracy claim was a “strongly-held” belief “developed from . . . reality-based experiences,” rather than a delusion. Appellant “stated that he was innocent of what he’s accused of and he stated that he believed the father of the victim or victims . . . essentially orchestrated these charges for financial gain.” Appellant explained to Dr. Berger that the father was homeless and had filed a civil lawsuit against “him, his family, and the county.” He described his wife being “harassed” during service of papers relating to the lawsuit. Appellant “indicated that it was after he learned about the civil lawsuit that he began to be concerned about this idea of the father orchestrating the charges.” Dr.

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Related

Strickland v. Washington
466 U.S. 668 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Stanley v. Cullen
633 F.3d 852 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
People v. Kelly
822 P.2d 385 (California Supreme Court, 1992)
People v. Mendoza
365 P.3d 297 (California Supreme Court, 2016)
People v. Buenrostro
430 P.3d 1179 (California Supreme Court, 2018)
People v. Breslin
205 Cal. App. 4th 1409 (California Court of Appeal, 2012)

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Bluebook (online)
People v. Martinez CA1/5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-martinez-ca15-calctapp-2024.