People v. Taylor CA4/2

California Court of Appeal·Decided August 17, 2020·No. E072088·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 8/14/20 P. v. Taylor CA4/2

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, E072088 v. (Super.Ct.No. RIF1705016) DANIEL TAYLOR, OPINION Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. William S. Lebov, Judge.

(Retired judge of the Yolo Super. Ct. assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant to art. VI, § 6 of the Cal. Const.) Affirmed with directions.

Patricia L. Brisbois, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, A. Natasha Cortina and Amanda E. Casillas, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

A jury convicted defendant and appellant Daniel Taylor of four counts of robbery for his participation in separate robberies of a Sprint store (counts 4 & 5) and a Verizon store (counts 1 & 2) and one count of leading the police on a highspeed chase after the Verizon store heist (count 3). The jury found true firearm enhancement allegations for each robbery count, and defendant admitted he suffered prior convictions, including two strikes. The trial court dismissed one of defendant’s strike priors in the interest of justice and sentenced him to state prison for 25 years four months.

On appeal, defendant argues his convictions on counts 4 and 5 must be reversed because his trial attorney rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by not objecting when the prosecutor introduced testimony of an investigating officer who identified defendant, from a video, as one of the Sprint store robbers. In addition, defendant contends the trial court erred during sentencing by imposing full one-year terms for the gun enhancements tied to subordinate counts (counts 2, 4, & 5), instead of one-third the term, and the court erred by imposing certain fines and fees without first determining his ability to pay, as mandated by People v. Dueñas (2019) 30 Cal.App.5th 1157 (Dueñas).

We conclude defendant’s trial attorney provided effective assistance of counsel by not interposing a futile objection to properly admitted lay witness testimony identifying defendant as one of the robbers of the Sprint store and, Dueñas error during sentencing, if any, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The People concede, and we agree, the trial court erred by imposing full one-year terms for the firearm enhancements tied to subordinate counts. We will modify the sentence on those enhancements and affirm the judgment as modified.

I.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND1 On the afternoon of October 19, 2017, A.R. was working as a sales associate at a Sprint store in Moreno Valley, when a man—later identified as Jamahd McCoy2— entered the store and asked about service. A.R. described McCoy as “5-7, skinny guy, young guy, African-American guy like me.” McCoy said he would probably come back later and left the store. A.R. went into a locked back room, where his supervisor G.C. was performing an inventory count, then walked back to the front of the store. About a minute and a half later, McCoy ran back into the store, pulled out a semiautomatic handgun, and pointed it at A.R. McCoy said something about shooting A.R. and told him to open the back room. A.R. tried to open the back room door, but he was scared and had trouble entering the code on a keypad. McCoy said, “If you keep messing around, I’m going to shoot you.”

When A.R. finally unlocked the door to the back room, he opened the door and said to G.C., “he’s got a gun.” McCoy pointed his gun at G.C. and said, “Get down” and “Don’t look at me.” A.R. and G.C. got down on the floor. Another African-American

1 Because defendant does not challenge his convictions for robbing the Verizon store (counts 1 & 2) or his conviction for leading the police on a highspeed chase after that robbery (count 3), we need not set forth the facts of those offenses, including the testimony of the sole witness called by the defense.

2 McCoy pleaded guilty before trial and is not a party to this appeal.

man entered the store, walked into the back room, and kicked A.R.’s foot out of the way because it was holding the door open. When the door closed, McCoy and the other man said, “Just don’t do anything stupid,” and “Don’t look at us and everything will be all right.”3 The second man had bags and ties in his hands, and the two men filled the bags with “83 or 85” phones. After taking the phones, the two men asked where the money was. Fearing she might get shot, G.C. gave them $400 from the cash registers. G.C. testified she did not recognize defendant as being the second man who entered the back room, and A.R. testified he did not see the second man’s face. Video footage taken during the robbery of the Sprint store was played for the jury.

Investigator Sinclair of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department was assigned to investigate the Sprint store robbery and collected the surveillance video. He watched the video “dozens of times,” “looking for any unique investigative options to pursue including clothing, weapons, identification of persons, . . . actions, mannerisms, vehicles, you name it.” When defendant and another man were arrested on the day of the December 4, 2017 robbery of the Verizon store and the highspeed chase, Sinclair had the opportunity to see defendant in person. Sinclair described defendant as African- American, about six-foot-one-inch tall, and weighing over 250 pounds. He also testified defendant was born in December 1970, meaning he was almost 47 years old at the time of the Sprint store robbery. Sinclair instantly recognized defendant from the video.

3 G.C. testified she saw McCoy, and she described him as African-American and “maybe like early 20s.” She also described the second man as African-American and “[p]robably about the same age,” but added, “[i]t was so fast,” and “I didn’t see him very well.”

After seeing defendant in person, Sinclair reviewed the video again “and uniquely identified [defendant] by what he carried himself as, [how] he walked, his unique facial features, [and] his build.” Defendant was wearing a hat and sunglasses during the robbery. Although the cameras did not capture defendant’s face directly from the front, Sinclair testified the portion of the video showing defendant entering the inventory room captured “his profile, his unique chin line, and [the] lower part of his face was very clear once you do a frame by frame continuous analysis of it.” Sinclair also testified the second man in the video had “a very upright and vertical walk” and swung his arms in front of him in a nontraditional way. Sinclair observed defendant walk the same way in person.

On cross-examination, Sinclair testified he did not take measurements of defendant’s neck or note how long his arms were when comparing him to the second man depicted in the video. About a snapshot taken from the video, Sinclair testified, “I examined this angle, again dozens of times, trying to find unique things, perhaps tattoos, piercings, things that would be unique to an individual. I did not note any. I didn’t measure any symmetry or measurements in any way.” Sinclair testified DNA samples and fingerprints were collected from the store. Although the video showed the second man touch some surfaces, neither the DNA samples nor the fingerprints matched defendant.

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