People v. Saavedra CA6

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 8, 2015
DocketH041166
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Saavedra CA6 (People v. Saavedra CA6) 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. Saavedra CA6, (Cal. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Filed 12/8/15 P. v. Saavedra CA6 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE, H041166 (Santa Cruz County Plaintiff and Respondent, Super. Ct. No. F26297)

v.

JAIME SAAVEDRA,

Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Jaime Saavedra was convicted by a jury of one felony count of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(4))1 and one misdemeanor count of assault (§ 240). The trial court sentenced Saavedra to the middle term of three years, suspended, on the felony conviction and granted probation, subject to conditions including serving 360 days in jail. On appeal, Saavedra raises the following arguments: (1) his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to exclude certain portions of Saavedra’s interview with police following his arrest; (2) the trial court improperly punished him for exercising his right to a trial by imposing a harsher sentence than was offered to him before trial; and (3) the trial court erred by failing to award custody credits. We find no merit to Saavedra’s first two arguments, but find the trial court erred in awarding credits. Because there is insufficient information in the record which would

1 Unspecified statutory references are to the Penal Code. permit this court to calculate the appropriate amount of credits, we will reverse and remand for resentencing only on that issue. I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND A. Charges against Saavedra On March 25, 2014, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office filed an amended information alleging Saavedra in counts 1 and 2 committed felony assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury (§ 245, subd. (a)(4)), and in count 3 committed misdemeanor battery on a cohabitant (§ 243, subd. (e)(1)). B. Testimony and evidence presented at trial 1. The victim’s testimony Saavedra first met the victim at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings sometime in 2011 or 2012. On October 31, 2013, the victim was taking her 10-year-old son trick or treating when she randomly encountered Saavedra on the street. They began dating shortly thereafter. Although Saavedra never moved in with the victim, he would stay over at her house up to five nights a week and sleep in her room. Sometime around Christmas that year, Saavedra and the victim went to a Walgreens together. Saavedra waited in the car with the victim’s son as she went inside. When she came out of the store, she saw a woman standing next to Saavedra, holding his arm through the driver’s side window. The woman seemed angry and asked the victim if she was Saavedra’s girlfriend. The victim did not respond, but Saavedra told the woman the victim was “just his friend.” The other woman asked the victim again if she was Saavedra’s girlfriend and she said she was. When the victim asked the woman who she was, the woman responded that she was Saavedra’s girlfriend and had been for 10 years. The victim and Saavedra left the store together, although the victim was confused by what had happened. Later that evening, as the victim and Saavedra were getting ready for bed, she confronted him about the woman at Walgreens. She felt Saavedra was lying to her 2 because the woman at the store was under the impression she was his girlfriend. The victim told Saavedra she no longer wanted to be with him. Saavedra suddenly put his hands around her throat and started choking her. He had his thumb on her windpipe and she started to black out. The victim thought she was going to die, but once she started losing consciousness, Saavedra immediately let go of her. The victim tried to remain calm “so that it would just be over” and Saavedra apologized, saying he did not know what he was doing. Saavedra had been very angry and, although the victim was scared, she did not call the police. The victim did not think Saavedra would do it again, so they continued dating. Toward the end of January 2014, the victim and Saavedra were in her bedroom, arguing. She told him she did not want to be with him anymore and tried to get up from the bed. Saavedra grabbed her arms and held her down on the bed. He told her she had better not leave him for her ex-boyfriend who lived across the street or he would kill both of them. Saavedra said he would slice open their stomachs and disembowel them. When the victim responded that Saavedra would go to jail if he did that, Saavedra told her he would knock all her teeth in and put her where the police would not find her. He would be gone before anyone even knew to look for him. The victim felt threatened and scared, and was struggling to get up from the bed. Saavedra suddenly got off her, grabbed a folding chair, and pressed it down on her, with the chair’s metal bar against her forearms. The victim yelled for her friend, who was in the living room, to help her. Saavedra got off of the victim before her friend came in. The victim had bruises on her upper arms and forearms,2 photographs of which were shown to the jury and admitted into evidence. However, the victim again did not call the police nor did she follow through immediately on breaking up with Saavedra.

2 The victim admitted that, because of various medications she takes, she tends to bruise very easily.

3 Approximately a week later, on February 3, 2014, the victim was arguing with Saavedra over the telephone. The victim accused Saavedra of stealing items from her apartment, including a toy radio-controlled helicopter which her son had just received as a Christmas present. Saavedra admitted taking the helicopter but claimed it was broken and he was going to repair it. Saavedra told the victim he was going to come over and that he was “gonna be mad.” The victim was afraid Saavedra would hurt her, so she called a long-time friend, Philip Brewer, to come over in case Saavedra did anything to her. When Saavedra showed up at her house, the victim said she did not want to be with him and Saavedra told her he was going to hurt her. He reached into his pocket, where the victim knew he carried a knife. Saavedra “motioned with his fist like he had a knife in his hand” and hit her in the throat with his fist as if he were stabbing her. Saavedra did not actually have a knife in his hand, however. He pushed her down onto the couch with his fist still pressed against her throat and she could not get up with Saavedra on top of her, with one knee on her back. The victim struggled to breathe and was trying to tell him to stop and not hurt her. She started to lose consciousness and thought Saavedra would not stop choking her. The victim urinated on herself and Saavedra finally let go of her. The victim told Saavedra to leave but he refused, asking why she wanted him to go and acting as if he had done nothing wrong. They continued to argue for a few minutes when Brewer arrived and got Saavedra to leave. The victim testified that, during the course of her four or five month relationship with Saavedra, he may have once expressed doubts about “the way things were going, but he never left.” Saavedra was not trying to break up with her, however, during the three occasions where he injured her. The victim further explained that, although her 10-year-old son was in his room for each incident, he is deaf and could not hear what transpired elsewhere in the home. 4 On cross-examination, the victim said that Saavedra and her son did not have a good relationship because Saavedra would get overly rough when playing or wrestling with him, causing her son to cry. 2.

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People v. Saavedra CA6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-saavedra-ca6-calctapp-2015.