People v. Profitt

8 Cal. App. 5th 1255, 214 Cal. Rptr. 3d 633, 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 160
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 27, 2017
DocketA147278
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 8 Cal. App. 5th 1255 (People v. Profitt) 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. Profitt, 8 Cal. App. 5th 1255, 214 Cal. Rptr. 3d 633, 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 160 (Cal. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

Opinion

BRUINIERS, J.

—Marvin Darrell Profitt was charged with felony driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) and misdemeanor driving with a license suspended for prior DUI convictions. The trial court bifurcated trial on three prior DUI convictions that were alleged as sentence enhancements for the felony charges, but rejected Profitt’s request to also bifurcate trial of the misdemeanor charges with prior DUI conviction elements. In the published portion of our opinion we reject Profitt’s contention that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to bifurcate trial on the misdemeanors. In the unpublished portion of the opinion, we reject Profitt’s arguments that he received ineffective assistance of counsel.

I. Background

Based on a single incident on February 23, 2013, Profitt was charged with felony DUI (Veh. Code, § 23152, subd. (a); 1 Count 1); felony driving with a *1259 blood-alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 percent or higher (§ 23152, subd. (b); Count 2); misdemeanor driving with a license suspended or revoked for DUI (§ 14601.2, subd. (a); Count 3); misdemeanor driving with a license suspended or revoked for driving with an excessive BAC (§§ 14601.5, subd. (a), 13353.2; Count 4); 2 and misdemeanor driving with a license suspended or revoked for other reasons (§ 14601.1, subd. (a); Count 5). As to the felony counts, it was alleged for sentencing purposes (see §§ 23550, 23550.5) that Profitt had three prior misdemeanor DUI convictions (one in 2007 and two in 2009) under section 23152.

Profitt sought bifurcation of trial on the prior DUI convictions alleged as sentence enhancements to felony Counts 1 and 2. He also sought bifurcation of trial on the three misdemeanor counts to preclude the jury from hearing about prior DUI convictions that were elements of two of the misdemeanors when deciding the felony counts. The court bifurcated trial on the sentence enhancement allegations, but not the misdemeanors. Both the prosecutor and the court questioned whether the court had authority to bifurcate trial of the misdemeanor and felony counts.

The following evidence was presented at trial. On February 23, 2013, at about 10:00 p.m. in Lakeport, California Highway Patrol Officer Ryan Erickson observed a pickup truck cross a limit line before coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, and later observed the buck’s left tires cross over double solid yellow fines as it proceeded down Soda Bay Road. The truck then turned onto a residential street and Erickson thought “perhaps [the driver] would get away with one for the evening. He made it home and he was safe to go.” However, the truck made a U-turn and returned to Soda Bay Road. Erickson testified: “[T]hat immediately alerted me to the fact that perhaps the driver’s allowing me to pass so I will no longer be following him. ... I recognized that as what I call a cat and mouse game.” Erickson left the road to let the truck pass and then resumed following the truck. “It took [Erickson] a little bit to catch up,” and he then saw the truck make an abrupt left turn. Erickson activated his emergency fights and pulled the truck over for an investigation.

Erickson walked to the driver’s door and spoke to the driver, Profitt. He noticed Profitt’s eyes were red and watery, his breath smelled strongly of alcohol, his speech was slurred, and his demeanor was argumentative, angry or upset. Profitt told Erickson he was on his way home from a casino, he had drunk four Coors Light beers between 5:00 and 9:30 p.m., and his license *1260 was suspended. Erickson conducted a number of field sobriety tests (FST’s), and Profitt displayed mental and physical impairment in all five tests. After the FST’s, Erickson gave Profitt a preliminary alcohol screening (PAS) breath test. At 10:34 p.m., the PAS reading of his BAC was 0.113 percent, and at 10:36 p.m. the reading was 0.109 percent. Erickson concluded Profitt was too impaired to drive and placed him under arrest. 3 Profitt took an evidentiary breath test (EPAS) at 11:00 p.m. and again at 11:04 p.m. The EPAS registered a BAC of 0.13 percent.

Erickson’s vehicle was equipped with a mobile video/audio recording system programmed to retain recordings from one minute prior to activation of the vehicle’s emergency lights. The recording of Profitt’s traffic stop was played for the jury.

Anthony Valerio, a senior criminalist from the California Department of Justice with training in forensic alcohol analysis, testified that the PAS and EPAS test results indicated Profitt’s BAC was rising during the interval between the tests. For Profitt’s BAC to have risen from a hypothetical 0.07 percent when stopped by Erickson to the 0.13 percent EPAS measurement one hour later, Profitt would have had to have drunk approximately three and a half beers (42 ounces of 4.2 percent beer or an equivalent amount of alcohol) over time to get his BAC up to 0.07 percent and then drink the equivalent amount of alcohol all at once just prior to driving so that much of the latter alcohol remained in his stomach at the time of the stop. On cross-examination, defense counsel posited that Profitt might have drunk shots of hard alcohol just before leaving the casino. Valerio said if Profitt did not have the alcohol equivalent of three and a half beers in his stomach when stopped by Erickson, the breath test results and Profitt’s performance on the FST’s indicated that Profitt—prior to the stop—was too impaired to drive. 4

Profitt’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) record was admitted in evidence. The record disclosed a 1998 conviction under section 23152, subdivision (a); a 2007 conviction under section 23152, subdivisions (a) and (b); and two 2009 convictions under section 23152, subdivision (a). The court told the jury the record was relevant only to the misdemeanor license suspension counts and was “not to [be] considered] for any purpose as to the DUI charges, Counts 1 and 2. It has nothing to do with those.”

*1261 The defense presented expert testimony by Jeffery Louis Zehnder, a forensic toxicologist, who opined that Profitt’s reported performance on the FST’s did not conclusively show he was impaired while driving. Only three of the FST’s given (horizontal gaze nystagmus, one-leg stand, and walk and turn) were standardized tests accepted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While the administered Romberg test was supported by scientific studies and had some value, Profitt’s performance on the test did not indicate alcohol impairment. Further, Profitt was 63 years old at the time of the FST’s and the walk-and-turn and one-leg tests were not very useful in detecting impairment in older people, who tend to have balance problems without alcohol consumption. Zehnder testified that Profitt’s rising BAC level indicated he was absorbing alcohol at the time of the tests, which would tend to overstate BAC results, and Profitt’s BAC probably was lower when he was driving than when he was tested.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
8 Cal. App. 5th 1255, 214 Cal. Rptr. 3d 633, 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-profitt-calctapp-2017.