People v. Smith CA4/3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 26, 2014
DocketG047479
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Smith CA4/3 (People v. Smith CA4/3) 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. Smith CA4/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Filed 3/26/14 P. v. Smith CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, G047479

v. (Super. Ct. No. 09WF1258)

TODD LEROY SMITH, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Dan McNerney, Judge. Affirmed as modified. Renee Rich, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Steve Oetting and Andrew Mestman, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. During a fit of anger, appellant Todd Smith fired a gun at his mother and aimed the weapon at his teenage son, resulting in his convictions for attempted murder and aggravated assault. Appellant contends that, due to his attorney’s negligence and trial court error, the jury did not have enough information to properly consider his claim the shooting was an accident. We disagree. Although there is merit to appellant’s secondary contention that the abstract of judgment must be modified to comport with the trial court’s sentencing decision, we affirm the judgment in all other respects. FACTS During 2008 and 2009, appellant was feeling down on his luck. A 40-year- old divorcee with severe diabetes, he was unable to work due to charcot neuroarthropathy of the foot and ankle. Despite undergoing multiple surgeries, appellant was still hobbled and in pain, so his mother and stepfather, Debra and Ken Davis, took him into their home and cared for him. They also gave appellant financial support. At the time, Ken was undergoing treatment for cancer, so Debra found herself caring for two men, which was very stressful and created a lot of tension in the household. Although appellant appreciated all that his mother was doing for him, he didn’t particularly like living with her because he felt she was too hard on him and yelled at him too much. At trial, he likened living with Debra to being on an “emotional roller coaster,” because he never knew whether things would go well or poorly with her. Yet, because of his health and money problems, he felt dependent on her to a large extent. Feeling helpless and demoralized, appellant spent most of his time in bed and was taking Xanax and painkillers to help him cope with the situation. The one bright spot in appellant’s life was his 15-year-old son Josh. Although Josh lived in Georgia, he and appellant communicated often and seemed to enjoy a pretty good relationship. But when Josh came out to visit appellant in early June 2009, things did not go as expected. Josh had planned on staying with appellant for three weeks, but after a couple of days, they hit a rough patch and things turned ugly.

2 The turning point occurred on the night of June 9, 2009. That evening, appellant got into an argument with Debra that did not involve Josh. But in the wake of their fight, Josh isolated himself in his room and refused to speak with appellant. The next day, appellant tried to initiate conversation with Josh several times. Josh persistently ignored him and went about playing his video games as if appellant wasn’t there. This made appellant very upset. In fact, the more Josh ignored him, the angrier he became. As the day wore on, appellant texted Josh’s mother, Tina, to get her advice on how to deal with the situation. Appellant told Tina that Josh was being a “dick” and that he was about to put him on a plane back to Georgia. Tina advised appellant to calm down and give Josh some space, but appellant’s frustration only increased. In a series of texts starting around 3:00 p.m., appellant sent Tina the following messages to which she did not reply: “17 hours now and the little fuck hasn’t talked.” “Thanks for answering. I’m going to take drastic action then.” “Obviously from the way he calls you a cunt, he has no respect for you either. At least he is still alive.” “Tried to be reasonable. Guess drastic is the way to go.” At approximately 4:00 p.m., Debra and Ken arrived home from a trip to the doctor’s office. Tina called and informed Debra that appellant and Josh were not getting along, so Debra talked to appellant in his room to find out what was going on. Not getting much out of him, she then talked to Josh in his room. All he said was that he was bored and wanted go back home to Georgia. Neither he nor appellant explained to Debra why they were not getting along. Debra wasn’t having any of it. She marched back into appellant’s room and told him to grow up and start getting along with Josh, whom she referred to as an “ungrateful little bastard.” Appellant started talking back to Debra, and they got into a heated exchange. As they were arguing, appellant said “fuck you all” and grabbed a gun from a tall wire rack next to his bed that contained a computer and other electronic

3 equipment. With the gun pointed toward Debra, appellant extended his shooting arm out in front of him. Seeing the weapon, Debra pushed the rack over onto appellant and turned and ran toward the door. Appellant then fired two shots, seconds apart. The first shot went into the ceiling, but the second shot came close to hitting Debra. It landed a foot to the right of the doorway as she was making her way out of the bedroom.1 After fleeing appellant’s room, Debra ran out into the living room and told Ken to get out of the house, but he stayed inside to find out what was going on. While hiding in the entryway, he saw appellant walk down the hallway toward Josh’s room with the gun in his hand. Appellant slowly opened Josh’s door about a third of the way. Then he raised his arm and pointed the gun at Josh, who was sitting on his bed. After a moment, appellant started to lower his arm and close Josh’s door a bit. But then he brought the gun back up and opened the door again. At that point, Ken jumped appellant from behind and wrapped his hands around the gun. At Ken’s urging, appellant surrendered the weapon to him without a fight. Appellant was taken into custody at the scene. When questioned by one of the responding officers about the incident, he said, “It was a big mistake[,] luckily nobody got hurt.” Describing the shooting, he claimed he slipped and squeezed the trigger of his gun as he was falling backwards and did not see where the shots landed. At another point in the interview, he said, “It wasn’t until [Debra] started to push the rack on top of me on the bed that I pulled the gun . . . off the rack. She kept coming at me like she was going to attack me.” During the interview, appellant seemed coherent and did not display any signs of intoxication. When the officer asked him if he had been drinking or using any drugs that day, he said no. However, at trial, appellant testified he was so worked up over Josh on the day of the shooting, he took about 10-12 Xanax, which was three times

1 The exact location of the bullet mark was 12 inches to the right of the door frame and 58 inches off the floor.

4 his usual amount. He also said that during that time, he was taking painkillers such as Tylenol and codeine to help him cope with his foot pain. Appellant testified that while arguing with Debra in his room, he “snapped” and grabbed the gun from the rack. However, the only person he intended to shoot was himself.

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Bluebook (online)
People v. Smith CA4/3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-smith-ca43-calctapp-2014.