People v. Ochoa CA2/4

California Court of Appeal·Decided August 21, 2026·No. B345754·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 8/21/26 P. v. Ochoa CA2/4 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, B345754

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. TA084621)

v.

JESSE OCHOA,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Robert G. Chu, Judge. Affirmed as modified.

Steven A. Torres, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Assistant Attorney General, Kenneth C. Byrne and Allison H. Chung, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

INTRODUCTION

In 2007, a jury found defendant Jesse Ochoa1 guilty of two counts of willful, deliberate, and premeditated attempted murder, shooting at an occupied motor vehicle, and possession of a firearm by a felon. The jury found true that he used and discharged a firearm in the commission of one of the attempted murders. Defendant admitted he served a prior prison term within the meaning of Penal Code section 667.5.2 The trial court sentenced defendant to two consecutive life terms with seven-year minimum parole eligibility periods for the attempted murders, which included the upper term of three years for the possession of a firearm by a felon, a twenty-year firearm enhancement, and a one-year prior prison term enhancement. In 2025, the trial court resentenced defendant pursuant to section 1172.75, striking the now-invalid prior prison term enhancement but otherwise left defendant’s sentence intact.

On appeal, defendant contends the trial court erred in reimposing the upper term on the possession of a firearm by a felon count and declining to dismiss the firearm enhancement. We are not persuaded. Defendant also argues, and the Attorney General concedes, that the abstract of judgment must be amended to accurately reflect defendant’s custody credits and his

1 Defendant was charged and tried with his two brothers, Lee and Marcus Ochoa. For ease of reference and to avoid confusion, we refer to the brothers by their first name only. We intend no disrespect.

2 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise stated.

restitution fine must be vacated due to recent amendments to section 1465.9. We agree. Therefore, we affirm the judgment as modified.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On our own motion, we take judicial notice of the opinion, written by a different panel of this court, resolving defendant’s direct appeal. (People v. Ochoa (Aug. 21, 2008, B202220) [nonpub. opn.].) The following facts are taken directly from the opinion.

I. Prosecution’s Evidence3

a. Lomeli’s Testimony

Sesar Lomeli testified that at approximately 8:00 p.m. on May 7, 2006, he and Jonathan Aguilar dropped off a friend on 137th Street in Compton. As Aguilar stood outside of Lomeli’s truck, Lomeli saw a male carrying a rifle coming toward the back of his vehicle. Aguilar left the location. Lomeli saw the male getting closer, causing him to drive away. As he did so, he heard approximately six or seven gunshots strike his truck. The truck’s back window was shattered. Bullets struck the radio, the front window, and the bumper. Another bullet went through the air conditioner and exited through the hood. Lomeli drove home and contacted the police about a half hour after the incident.

b. Aguilar’s Testimony

3 Defendant did not call any witnesses.

Aguilar testified that on May 7, 2006, he was on 137th Street in Compton. At about 8:30 p.m., he was sitting in Lomeli’s vehicle. Lomeli had dropped off a friend and had turned the vehicle around. Lomeli asked Aguilar to close a window near the back of the truck. Aguilar got out of the vehicle and saw someone wearing all black and carrying a long rifle run toward the driver’s side of the vehicle. As Aguilar stood on the passenger side of the truck, he could hear the man with the rifle and Lomeli screaming, but Aguilar did not pay attention to what they were saying. Aguilar heard a female (or females) say, “It's okay[.] [N]o, they are friends, no, Lee, no Jesse.” Lomeli drove the truck away, and as Aguilar ran toward some apartments, he heard seven to eight gunshots. Aguilar believed he heard two different guns firing based on the sound and repetition of the gunshots.

c. Deputy Meraz’s Testimony

Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Anthony Meraz spoke to Aguilar and Lomeli after receiving a call reporting the shooting. Aguilar reported that he and Lomeli had driven to a party at 137th Street and Wilmington Avenue in Lomeli’s vehicle. Lomeli parked and Aguilar exited the passenger side. Two male Hispanics approached on foot and shot at them with either rifles or shotguns. Aguilar told Deputy Meraz that just prior to the shooting he heard a female voice say, “No, it’s okay, they’re our friends[.] [N]o, Jesse. No, Lee.” Deputy Meraz testified that Lomeli gave him the same information regarding the shooting as Aguilar had.

Deputy Meraz was present when Aguilar and Lomeli participated in a field show-up. He told them they were under no obligation to identify anyone and that it was equally important to identify the guilty suspects and to

exonerate those who were innocent of any wrongdoing. Each identified defendant and his brother Lee as a shooter.

d. Jimenez’s Testimony

Ivan Jimenez testified that on May 7, 2006, he drove two friends to Wilmington Avenue in the City of Compton. After his passengers got out of the car, Jimenez parked. A Hispanic male wearing what Jimenez called a “hooded sweater” approached and told Jimenez to move his car because it was blocking the driveway. Jimenez performed a U-turn and parked on the opposite side of the street.

As Jimenez sat in the parked car, a female and a male carrying a large rifle approached on the driver’s side of his vehicle. They walked in front of his car and toward a truck parked across the street. Jimenez said the male could have been the same person who told him to move his car, as he was also Hispanic, seemed to have the same build, and appeared to be wearing the same black hooded sweater. Jimenez was not sure what kind of rifle the man had, although he acknowledged he might have told the police the rifle was an AK-47 with a banana clip.

The man stood behind the truck and began firing at the vehicle. The female ran back in Jimenez’s direction, stood in front of his car, and called for somebody to shoot him. He looked in the rear-view mirror and saw two or three men coming at him with guns. He was unable to describe the men because they were too far away. As soon as Jimenez heard the first shot, he ducked and left the scene. He stated that he might have hit the female who was standing in front of his car. As Jimenez drove away, he was struck in his lower back. However, nothing penetrated the skin.

He testified that with the exception of the front windshield, all of the windows in his car were broken and bullet holes were “everywhere” in his vehicle. When Jimenez was about a block from the scene of the shooting, he stopped and called his friend (one of the people Jimenez had dropped off). He then picked up his friend, who told him to contact the police. Jimenez did so.

e. Sergeant Gray’s Testimony

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

People v. Ochoa CA2/4, (Cal. Ct. App. 2026).

People v. Ochoa CA2/4 (People v. Ochoa CA2/4) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

People v. Superior Court (Romero)
917 P.2d 628 (California Supreme Court, 1996)
People v. Marshall
919 P.2d 1280 (California Supreme Court, 1996)
People v. Fares
16 Cal. App. 4th 954 (California Court of Appeal, 1993)
People v. Williams
61 Cal. App. 4th 649 (California Court of Appeal, 1998)
People v. Myers
81 Cal. Rptr. 2d 564 (California Court of Appeal, 1999)
People v. Buckhalter
25 P.3d 1103 (California Supreme Court, 2001)
People v. Sandoval
161 P.3d 1146 (California Supreme Court, 2007)
People v. Carmony
92 P.3d 369 (California Supreme Court, 2004)
People v. Jones
82 Cal. App. 4th 485 (California Court of Appeal, 2000)