People v. Sanchez CA2/3

California Court of Appeal·Decided April 11, 2014·No. B251336·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 4/11/14 P. v. Sanchez CA2/3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THREE

THE PEOPLE, B251336

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BA373638) v.

JOSE LUIS SANCHEZ,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Sam Ohta, Judge. Affirmed.

California Appellate Project, Jonathan B. Steiner and Richard B. Lennon, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent.

_________________________

Defendant and appellant, Jose Luis Sanchez, appeals from the judgment entered following his pleas of no contest to two counts of attempted willful, premeditated and deliberate murder (Pen. Code, §§ 664, 187)1 and one count of assault with a firearm (§ 245, subd. (b)), and his admissions that, during one of the attempted murders, he inflicted great bodily injury (§ 12022.7), during each of the offenses he personally used a firearm (§§ 12022.5, 12022.53) and each of the offenses was committed for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a criminal street gang (§ 186.22, subd. (b)(1)). The trial court sentenced Sanchez to 38 years in state prison. We affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND 1. Facts 2 At approximately 2:10 a.m. on June 21, 2010, Mark Armendiriz and two friends left the Echo Club (the club), a bar on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, and began to walk west to look for a taxi or a place to have something to eat. When Armendiriz then heard what sounded like firecrackers popping, he and his friends ran down the street. Armendiriz slipped in behind a short wall and ducked down. One of Armendiriz’s friends asked him if he had been shot and when Armendiriz looked down, he saw blood and realized he had been shot in the chest. It was later determined, the bullet had penetrated his lung and come out the side of his back. Armendiriz was ultimately taken to a hospital where he stayed for “a little over a week.” Since that first week, Armendiriz has had to return to the hospital several times. In total, he has spent approximately one month there. Although his doctor told him his recovery would be complete by June 2011, as of the end of October 2010, he still could not lift heavy objects. Both inside and outside the club, Armendiriz had not seen any trouble or heard anyone exchange words. The atmosphere had been peaceful and “the shooting came out of left field.” It was “totally unexpected.”

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated. 2 The facts have been taken from the transcript of the preliminary hearing. As Sanchez’s trial resulted in a mistrial and he decided to enter a plea rather than be retried, the court reporter’s notes of the trial, prior to proceedings held on April 3, 2012, were not transcribed.

2 Allan Judd, an audio engineer, was also at the club on the night of June 21, 2010. Judd, who had been wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt with the word Hollywood written across the front in red, and his girlfriend, Sophia Sadrina, had come to the club to hear a particular band. The mood inside the club had been “relaxed [and] social. It just seemed like a typical crowd to see a band.” While at the club, Judd, who rode motorcycles and owned a motorcycle shop, ran into a friend, David Drasin, who was wearing a denim vest with a “Hells Angels Motorcycle Club” patch on the back. According to Judd, a full-fledged member of the Hells Angels would be wearing a vest with a “full-patch.” Such a patch would say “Hells Angels across the top . . . , have the logo in the middle . . . [and the] name of [a] state or other. . . location at the bottom.” The writing on the patches would most likely be in red. Someone who is not a full member, or is working toward becoming one, would be known as a “prospect” and would have a patch on his vest which only showed the name of a location. Judd’s friend Drasin had the full three patches on the back of his vest. Judd “associate[ed]” with a number of members of the Hells Angels, including Drasin, and had ridden motorcycles with them “a few times.” Judd had never associated with a member of the Mongols Motorcycle Club. At approximately 2:00 a.m., after the club had closed, Judd, Sadrina, Drasin and a fourth person stood in front, just to the west of the entrance, and talked for a time. As the group was standing there, Judd heard what “sounded . . . like the rack of a slide of a semiautomatic handgun.” After Judd then heard some yelling and a “number of [gun]shots in fast succession” coming from the center of Sunset Boulevard, he and his girlfriend began to run toward the west while Drasin apparently ran toward the east. As Judd and Sadrina were running, Judd felt a gunshot hit him in the right forearm. The bullet entered on one side and exited on the other, breaking the bone. Judd was later required to have surgery, during which a plate was placed across the bone to fuse it back together. As of October, his arm was still “very weak” and he was unable to perform his regular work.

3 After Judd had been shot, he and his girlfriend took cover behind a short wall. There, they saw Armendiriz. Judd had not seen the individual who had fired the gunshots and, at the time of the shooting, he did not know whether shots had been fired by more than one person.3 He believed, however, that whoever had fired the shots had been “tracking” him. While Judd was in the hospital, he was interviewed by the district attorney and members of other “law enforcement” agencies. Shortly after he was released from the hospital, he received a phone call from law enforcement personnel. The next contact he had with law enforcement officers was approximately one week before the present hearing, when detectives came to his home and served him with a subpoena directing him to appear. Judd had not wanted to come to court for the hearing and had initially refused to accept the subpoena. Judd had then telephoned the district attorney and told him he did not wish to be involved in the matter “[b]ecause according to what the detectives [had] told [him and] what [he had seen] in the media, this [case] was connected to the conflict between . . . two motorcycle clubs, and [he did not] want to get in the middle of it.” Judd was concerned, not only for his business, but for his “personal safety.” He had “already been shot once over this and [he] just didn’t want to get caught up in the middle.” Accordingly, Judd was testifying reluctantly. He had appeared only because he had been “ordered to come to court.” Adam D’Zurilla had also been at the club on the night of June 21, 2010. He had gone to the club to see two of the bands playing there that night and had stayed until the club closed at approximately 2:00 a.m. After the club closed, D’Zurilla remained out in front where he was talking with a group of people just to the west of the entrance. As he and the others were standing there, a man “pull[ed] up on a motorcycle, walk[ed] into the middle of Sunset [Boulevard], shout[ed] ‘Fuck you, mother fuckers,’ and . . . started

3 Judd was later shown a videotape of the scene which indicated there had been only one person firing shots from the street.

4 shooting into the crowd.” In total, D’Zurilla heard between eight and 10 shots fired. One of the shots “grazed [D’Zurilla’s] right temple.” D’Zurilla then saw the shooter get back on his motorcycle and ride east down Sunset.

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People v. Sanchez CA2/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2014).

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