People v. Rodriguez

160 Cal. App. 3d 207, 206 Cal. Rptr. 563, 1984 Cal. App. LEXIS 2533
California Court of Appeal·Decided September 20, 1984·No. Crim. 6846·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinions

[209]*209Opinion

ANDREEN, J.

Defendant Rafael Rodriguez appeals from a judgment of conviction of seven counts: assault with a deadly weapon upon a police officer (count I, Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (b)); kidnaping (count II, Pen. Code, § 207); auto taking (count III, Veh. Code, § 10851); forcible rape (count IV, Pen. Code, § 261, subd. (2)); forcible sodomy (count V, Pen. Code, § 286, subd. (c)); forcible oral copulation (count VI, Pen. Code, § 288a, subd. (c)) and robbery (count VII, Pen. Code, § 211). The jury found true a firearm use allegation for each of the above offenses.

Defendant was sentenced to an aggregate term of 44 years.1

Defendant argues the court committed prejudicial error in denying his motion to exclude a 13-year-old prior burglary conviction (People v. Beagle (1972) 6 Cal.3d 441 [99 Cal.Rptr. 313, 492 P.2d 1]); his sentence on auto theft should have been stayed pursuant to Penal Code section 654 because it was incident to the kidnaping offense; and under the authority of In re Culbreth (1976) 17 Cal.3d 330 [130 Cal.Rptr. 719, 551 P.2d 23], the court should have imposed only a single Penal Code section 12022.5 enhancement for the sex offenses rather than the three it imposed. (All statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.)

I. Facts

On an April evening in 1981, Officer Craig Wright of the Merced County Sheriff’s Department noticed a green Mercury automobile enter Henderson Park in Merced County and stop. The officer approached the car and asked defendant, who had raised the hood, what the problem was; defendant declined an offer of assistance, identified himself as Ralph Rodriguez, and stated he had to be in court in a couple of days for sentencing on a conviction.

Wright requested a warrant check, discovered there were outstanding warrants and told defendant he would have to arrest him and transport him [210]*210to jail. As the officer leaned into his patrol car to replace the radio microphone, defendant lunged toward him and grabbed the officer’s pistol. The officer struck defendant twice in the face, but defendant obtained the service revolver.

While pointing the weapon at the officer, defendant stated something to the effect that he ^as going “ ‘to blow [the officer’s] fuckin’ brains out.’ ” Wright turned to run and heard the weapon discharge; he felt the physical sensation of heat, a high-pitched hum, and the hair rise on the side of his head, suggesting that a bullet passed by his head. Wright continued running and hid behind a tree.

Defendant shot out a tire of the police car, returned to his vehicle which contained two other occupants, and drove away. The vehicle made a U-turn and drove back toward the officer at a high rate of speed; an individual was leaning out the window of the car with the gun in his hand. Wright could not remove his shotgun from the patrol unit because of the locking mechanism. Wright was unable to follow the vehicle because of the flat tire.

Defendant immediately dropped off his nephew Don Shelton at the side of a road. Defendant told him to “get out of the car because he didn’t want [his nephew] to get in trouble . . . .”

Defendant abandoned the vehicle near the rural residence of Robert and Aleta B. Aleta B. (Aleta) and her one and one-half-year-old son were home alone. Aleta heard a “hard” knocking on the door which she partially opened; defendant pointed a gun at her and pushed his way through, hysterically yelling “how he had just shot a cop at the park” and that he would kill her also because he had “nothing to lose.”

Defendant ordered Aleta to get her purse and leave the house with him; she was to drive the family’s Jeep truck; the child was to remain at home. Once outside, defendant called to “Maria,” who was behind a tree in the front yard. The trio got into the truck and defendant ordered Aleta at gunpoint to drive where he instructed. At one point, Aleta was allowed to call her mother-in-law, Shirley B. (Shirley), from a phone booth for help with the sleeping child. Shirley went to her son’s home, called her husband, and reported Aleta’s disappearance to the police.

Defendant directed Aleta to drive into a trailer court where he pulled Maria out of the car, shook her around and then told her to find her way home. Defendant and Aleta went to the south Merced area and stopped at the home of Timothy Ramos. Defendant told Aleta she was to wait for him [211]*211in the bathroom and pretend to be his girlfriend while he obtained some marijuana from Ramos.

They left the house after defendant acquired the marijuana; defendant ordered Aleta to drive the truck and stop next to a ditch bank near an open field. Defendant made sexual advances toward Aleta, eventually forcing her to have sexual intercourse with him. After he sodomized and orally copulated her, he gave her a portion of her clothing and directed her to drive the truck.

When they reached a rural area approximately one-quarter mile from a house, defendant ordered her to stop the truck. Before letting her go, defendant took $80 in cash from her purse. Aleta ran to the house and called the sheriff’s office. She recounted to an officer that defendant on one instance referred to himself as “Ralph.”2

Later that evening, at the Merced Community Hospital, Aleta was given a sexual assault examination by a physician. A vaginal specimen proved positive for the presence of sperm.

Two days later, Aleta identified defendant in a photographic lineup as her assailant. Seven months later, the truck was located in Shreveport, Louisiana. Defendant was apprehended in Louisiana and ordered extradited to California.

Defense

Timothy Ramos testified for defendant and stated he recalled the evening when Aleta and defendant were at his residence, but that he did not see defendant with a gun. Ramos testified defendant and Aleta stayed a few minutes for defendant to obtain some marijuana and left. Defendant’s mother, Shirley Kelley, testified that several years ago, defendant was a good shot. Defendant did not testify.

II. Defendant’s Beagle Motion

V. Firearm Use Enhancements

After imposing full consecutive aggravated sentences for the three sex crimes pursuant to section 667.6, subdivision (c), the court added con[212]*212secutive two-year weapon use enhancements under section 12022.5 as to each. We must examine whether the imposition of the three separate weapon use enhancements6 was permissible under In re Culbreth, supra, 17 Cal.3d 330, where the Supreme Court held that if “all the charged offenses are incident to one objective and effectively comprise an indivisible transaction, then section 12022.5 may be invoked only once. ...” (Id., at p. 333; People v. Cardenas (1982) 31 Cal.3d 897, 913 [184 Cal.Rptr. 165 , 647 P.2d 569].)

The Attorney General argues that the Culbreth “single-occasion rule” has been abrogated by the enactment of section 1170.1, subdivision (i).7

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People v. Rodriguez, 160 Cal. App. 3d 207, 206 Cal. Rptr. 563, 1984 Cal. App. LEXIS 2533 (Cal. Ct. App. 1984).

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