People v. Reyes

247 Cal. Rptr. 3d 247, 35 Cal. App. 5th 538
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 5th District
DecidedMay 17, 2019
DocketA152557
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 247 Cal. Rptr. 3d 247 (People v. Reyes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal, 5th District primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Reyes, 247 Cal. Rptr. 3d 247, 35 Cal. App. 5th 538 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

Miller, J.

*540A jury found defendant Denys Reyes guilty of receiving a large capacity magazine and possession of a firearm by a felon after police found a firearm in a car in which Reyes was the front seat passenger.

Reyes raises three claims of evidentiary error. He contends the trial court committed prejudicial error in (1) admitting evidence of a Snapchat story found on his cell phone, (2) excluding a hearsay declaration against penal interest made by the driver of the car, which he contends should have been admitted under Evidence Code section 1230, and (3) admitting evidence of a prior incident in which Reyes was found with firearms in his car.

We conclude Reyes's second and third contentions have merit, and reverse.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Traffic Stop

Around 6:00 p.m. on September 3, 2016, Richmond Police Officer Douglas Gault and his colleagues conducted a traffic stop of a green Infiniti. The driver was Jose Navarro. Reyes sat in the front passenger seat with a green *541lunch pail on his lap. Gault suspected Reyes "was trying to hide something because he wouldn't move and he was breathing heavily," so he asked Reyes to step out of the car and pat searched him. Gault then leaned into the car and noticed an orange backpack unzipped with a loaded firearm inside. The backpack was on the "[p]assenger floorboard to the feet of Mr. Reyes leaning against the center console." The firearm was a Glock with an extended magazine capable of holding 50 rounds of ammunition. There were at least 40 rounds of ammunition in the magazine. According to Gault, the magazine was "pretty unique." The firearm was not registered to either Reyes or Navarro.

Charges

Reyes and Navarro were charged with receiving a large-capacity magazine ( Pen. Code, § 32310, subd. (a) ; count 2), and Reyes was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon (id ., § 29800, subd. (a)(1); count 3). It was further alleged that Reyes committed count 3 while he was released from custody on bail (id., § 12022.1).1

Reyes and Navarro were tried together. The jury found Navarro guilty as charged but was unable to reach a verdict on Reyes, and the trial court declared a mistrial. Reyes was retried.

*250Prosecution's Case

On retrial, Gault testified about the traffic stop, and his body camera video of the traffic stop was played for the jury.2 Gault testified Reyes was cooperative throughout the traffic stop but Navarro was not.

Snapchat Evidence

Gault confiscated Reyes's cell phone, and Darryl Holcombe, a senior inspector with the district attorney's office, extracted data from the phone. Reyes's phone had the social media application Snapchat, which Holcombe explained allows a user to take a photograph and send it to other users to view for a short period of time and "then the photograph goes away." The application has a feature called "Snapchat Story," which allows a user to share information with the user's "friends" on Snapchat.

*542Holcombe extracted data showing a Snapchat story had been posted by a user called "Meatball" on September 2, 2016, the day before the traffic stop, at 8:27 p.m. The text of this Snapchat story read, "Glock 17 with a 50 attached." The Snapchat story originally included a photograph, but the photo had been deleted.3 Holcombe determined that this Snapchat story had been viewed on Reyes's phone about an hour and a half after it was posted.

Prior Conduct

On March 9, 2016, Napa Police Officer Thomas Keener found Reyes with two semiautomatic .45-caliber handguns in his car. The firearms were in a tan nylon gun case on the rear passenger floorboard of Reyes's car. There were magazines in the firearms, but there was no ammunition in the magazines or in the firearms. On August 16, 2016, Reyes was convicted of possessing the firearms found in his car.

The parties stipulated Reyes was previously convicted of a felony for purposes of count 3 (possession of a firearm by a felon).

Defense

Lucy Reyes is Reyes's sister. She lived with their mother in Napa, and Reyes lived with them until he was arrested. The day of the traffic stop, Lucy and their mother picked up Reyes from work between noon and 1:00 p.m., and they all went home. Around 4:00 p.m., Lucy, Reyes, and their mother drove to Richmond, where Reyes was dropped off at his young cousin's house for a visit, and Lucy and their mother went to a nail shop.

Navarro is Reyes's cousin, but he was not the cousin Reyes was visiting, and Navarro did not live at the house where Reyes was dropped off. According to Lucy, Reyes and Navarro sometimes hung out, but "it wasn't very common." She had never seen Reyes with the orange backpack found in Navarro's car. Lucy identified the lunch pail observed on Reyes's lap as his usual lunch bag. She testified Reyes did not have any bag with him when they *251dropped him off at his cousin's house. She thought Reyes left his lunch bag in Navarro's car a few weeks earlier.

Reyes did not testify. The parties stipulated that the car stopped by the police was registered to Navarro.

*543Verdict and Sentence

The jury found Reyes guilty of counts 2 (receiving a large-capacity magazine) and 3 (possession of a firearm by a felon). In a subsequent court trial, the on-bail enhancement allegation was found to be true.

The trial court sentenced Reyes to three years, four months in state prison.

DISCUSSION

We address Reyes's three claims of error in the order he raises them.

A. Admitting Snapchat Evidence

Reyes contends the trial court erred in admitting evidence of the Snapchat story found on his cell phone. We disagree.

1. Procedural Background

Before trial, defense counsel objected to admission of the Snapchat evidence, arguing it was "minimally probative" and required the jury "to make some assumptions." The prosecutor responded that the gun found in Navarro's car in this case was a Glock 17 with a 50-round drum attached, and the Snapchat story at issue included text that read, "Glock 17 with a 50 attached." The prosecutor argued evidence that Reyes received and viewed a Snapchat story with a description of a gun and magazine that matched the gun and magazine found near Reyes the very next day was probative of whether Reyes had knowledge "of the gun at his feet" in Navarro's car. Finding it had probative value, the trial court admitted evidence of the Snapchat story.

2. Analysis

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
247 Cal. Rptr. 3d 247, 35 Cal. App. 5th 538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-reyes-calctapp5d-2019.