People v. McGruder CA2/3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 9, 2014
DocketB245785
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. McGruder CA2/3 (People v. McGruder CA2/3) 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. McGruder CA2/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Filed 6/9/14 P. v. McGruder CA2/3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THREE

THE PEOPLE, B245785

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. TA123817) v.

DERICK TYRONE MCGRUDER,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Laura R. Walton, Judge. Affirmed. Alexander Paul Green, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, James William Bilderback II and Peggy Z. Huang, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

_________________________ Appellant Derick Tyrone McGruder appeals from the judgment entered following his convictions by jury on count 1 – first degree burglary with a person present (Pen. Code, §§ 459, 667.5, subd. (c)(21)) and count 2 – assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(4)) with admissions he suffered a prior felony conviction (Pen. Code, § 667, subd. (d)), a prior serious felony conviction (Pen. Code, § 667, subd. (a)(1)), and prior prison terms (Pen. Code, § 667.5, subd. (b)). The court sentenced appellant to prison for 13 years. We affirm. FACTUAL SUMMARY 1. People’s Evidence. Viewed in accordance with the usual rules on appeal (People v. Ochoa (1993) 6 Cal.4th 1199, 1206), the evidence established on June 27, 2012, Oscar Casillas lived in his house on South Essey in Compton. The front entrance to Casillas’s house had two doors, i.e., a wooden front door (hereafter, front door) and a screen door. The screen door opened to the right of a person exiting the house. Casillas testified as follows. About 1:15 p.m., Casillas was at home with his children and his wife’s nephew. The front door was open because it was a hot day, but the screen door was closed. Casillas and his children were playing in the living room. The nephew was asleep. Casillas saw appellant next to the screen door. Appellant’s hands were cupped around his eyes and he began looking through the screen door. Casillas greeted appellant and asked, “What’s going on?” Appellant replied, “All good. All good.” After appellant looked through the screen door for a total of about five seconds, Casillas went to the front door. Casillas opened the screen door, erroneously thinking appellant was a neighbor. Appellant, whom Casillas did not know, asked who else lived with Casillas. Casillas thought the question was strange but replied his family and nephew lived with Casillas.

2 Appellant grabbed the screen door with his left hand.1 Casillas said he had to go and needed to take a bath because he was going to work. Appellant, using his open right hand, grabbed the doorframe where the front door normally closed (hereafter, doorframe). (That doorframe apparently was on the left of a person exiting the house.) Appellant’s right hand was extended and his fingers were bent. Casillas testified the fingertips of appellant’s right hand were “inside” “where the door was.” Appellant was trying to enter. He was saying, “Wait, don’t leave. Don’t close it. I’m thirsty. Give me water.” Casillas felt he needed to close the screen door, in part because he did not want his children frightened. Appellant’s left foot was at the screen door. He positioned his right foot as if he wanted to enter. Appellant took a step “inside” and his right foot was “halfway into [Casillas’s] door.” Appellant’s right foot “was . . . half in and half outside” and “crossing the threshold to [Casillas’s] building.” The prosecutor asked what was Casillas thinking when appellant “put his feet in through the door” and Casillas indicated he thought appellant was going to enter. The prosecutor asked what happened after appellant “put his feet in there,” and Casillas replied appellant was telling Casillas to give appellant water. Casillas started pulling on the screen door and appellant was pulling the other way. Casillas yelled to his daughter to call the police. Appellant grabbed the screen door with both hands. Casillas, grasping the handle of the screen door, was trying to exit so the screen door would close and lock behind him. Casillas was concerned “if [appellant] had something and he entered, [Casillas’s] children were going to be there.” Casillas’s four children were most important to him. Appellant released the screen door and began hitting Casillas with appellant’s fist. When appellant hit Casillas the first time, Casillas was “between outside and inside.”

1 During his testimony, Casillas frequently referred to one of appellant’s hands or feet without explicitly identifying it as appellant’s left or right hand, or left or right foot. However, where the record, fairly read, indicates which hand or foot Casillas was referring to, we identify it below.

3 Casillas later testified the first few times appellant hit Casillas, Casillas was inside his house and appellant was outside. Appellant hit Casillas about three times in the head. When appellant was inflicting the first blows, Casillas’s head was hitting a wall. Casillas exited and the screen door closed and locked. Appellant hit Casillas perhaps four more times in the head. Appellant was quickly hitting Casillas with both fists as if appellant wanted to knock Casillas out. Because of the blows, Casillas felt dizzy and fell into nearby bushes. Casillas never pushed or struck appellant. After appellant struck Casillas the third or fourth time outside, Casillas yelled to his daughter to call the police. After Casillas yelled the third time to his daughter to call the police, Casillas’s daughter began yelling at appellant. Appellant later left. Appellant walked around the front of Casillas’s house, crossed the street, and walked parallel to the side of Casillas’s house. Appellant was looking towards Casillas’s house, its backyard, and the house’s side windows. Appellant was looking at Casillas’s house as if appellant was trying to see something or wanted to jump over something. This made Casillas think appellant perhaps was on drugs. Appellant’s grandmother, who lived in a house catercorner to Casillas’s house, called for appellant and he went to his grandmother’s house. As a result of appellant’s blows, Casillas bled profusely from his nose and mouth, his face and mouth were swollen, and he received scratches. Cuts on Casillas’s lip remained perhaps four days. Casillas did not seek medical treatment because he could not afford it. During cross-examination, Casillas testified as follows. When appellant initially approached and was talking to Casillas, appellant’s left hand was on the screen door and Casillas believed appellant’s right hand “had entered the doorway.” Later, appellant’s right foot was “in” when appellant told Casillas to wait and give water to appellant. When Casillas was trying to close the screen door, he thought that, based on what appellant was doing, appellant might have been under the influence of narcotics or alcohol. However, appellant did not need assistance to stand.

4 The following occurred between appellant’s counsel and Casillas: “Q. So at this time, his foot’s in the door, his hand’s in the doorway, and he says, ‘Wait. Don’t go. Give me some water. I’m thirsty’? [¶] A. Yes.” Casillas replied to appellant, “ ‘No. Why? I already have to go to work.” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Ignacio Garcia went to the scene and saw appellant was uninjured.

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People v. McGruder CA2/3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-mcgruder-ca23-calctapp-2014.