People v. Truong

108 Cal. Rptr. 2d 904, 90 Cal. App. 4th 887, 2001 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6039, 2001 Daily Journal DAR 7425, 2001 Cal. App. LEXIS 549
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 18, 2001
DocketA091063
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 108 Cal. Rptr. 2d 904 (People v. Truong) 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. Truong, 108 Cal. Rptr. 2d 904, 90 Cal. App. 4th 887, 2001 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6039, 2001 Daily Journal DAR 7425, 2001 Cal. App. LEXIS 549 (Cal. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

Opinion

KLINE, P. J.

Ty L. Truong was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, misdemeanor battery upon a spouse, and misdemeanor vandalism after an incident in which he committed a battery upon his wife, from whom he was separated, and stabbed her boyfriend. His sentence was increased pursuant to an enhancement for infliction of great bodily injury under circumstances involving domestic violence. On appeal, he contends this enhancement could not constitutionally be applied to great bodily injury inflicted upon a third party rather than upon one of the parties involved in a domestic relationship. He further maintains the enhancement must be *890 stricken because the trial court failed to instruct the jury on the definitions of “domestic violence” and “abuse.” We affirm.

Statement of the Case

Appellant was charged by information filed on November 23, 1999, with one count of infliction of corporal injury to a spouse/cohabitant/child’s parent (Pen. Code, 1 § 273.5, subd. (a)), assault with a deadly weapon (§ 245, subd. (a)(1)), first degree residential burglary (§§ 459, 460) and misdemeanor vandalism (§ 594, former subd. (b)(4)). In connection with the assault and burglary counts, it was alleged that appellant personally inflicted great bodily injury upon Edward Moreno under circumstances involving domestic violence (§ 12022.7, subd. (d)), personally inflicted great bodily injury against Edward Moreno (§ 12022.7, subd. (a)) and personally used a knife (§§ 667, 1192.7).

Jury trial began on January 3, 2000. On January 7, the jury found appellant guilty of the lesser included offense of misdemeanor battery upon a spouse/child’s parent (§ 243, subd. (e)(1)) in count one; assault with a deadly weapon in count two; and vandalism in count three, and found the special allegations in count two true. It found appellant not guilty in count three.

On February 25, the court sentenced appellant to 180 days in county jail on each of counts one and four, with 360 days of credit for time served. On count two, the court imposed the mitigated term of two years, plus a consecutive three years for the section 12022.7, subdivision (d), enhancement and a stayed three-year term for the section 12022.7, subdivision (a), enhancement. The court then suspended execution of sentence and placed appellant on formal probation for five years.

Appellant filed a timely notice of appeal on April 24, 2000.

Statement of Facts

Appellant’s wife, Hong Truong, testified that she and appellant separated in approximately June or July 1999. Appellant stayed at a friend’s apartment, although he sometimes stayed at Truong’s home and he kept clothes there. Truong and appellant had four children who were cared for by Truong’s landlady when Truong went to work.

In August 1999, Truong began to date Ed Moreno. On September 22, she and Moreno went to bed about midnight. About 3:00 a.m., Truong heard a *891 noise outside, checked around the house and saw appellant at the window. She opened the door for him and when he came in, he opened the door so fast that Truong was pushed into the wall. Truong initially testified that this caused a bruise on her face but no marks on the wall, then later testified that her face did not hit the wall and that she had lied at the preliminary hearing when she stated that her face was injured when appellant pushed her into the wall.

Truong testified that appellant went into the kitchen and, when she asked what he wanted to do, told her it was none of her business. Appellant went into the bedroom; as Truong walked behind him, she saw he was carrying a knife with a 10- to 12-inch blade. Truong grabbed appellant’s hand to stop him from doing something with the knife and when appellant pulled his hand she was cut. She did not see appellant stab Moreno, but saw the knife with blood. Appellant walked out of the bedroom, punched his hand in the wall, went to the kitchen and washed his face and hands, then left through the front door. Truong was walking beside him and, because appellant was walking too fast, Truong walked into the wall. After appellant left, she locked the security gate and called the police. She was not aware of anything going on outside.

When Truong went to bed on the night of September 22, her car was parked in her driveway with its windows intact. After appellant left and the police left, Truong saw that the car windows had been smashed out. In the morning, she saw that the windows on Moreno’s truck had also been smashed.

Truong initially testified that she read and understood her statement to the police before she signed it, then stated that she did not read the documents carefully. She testified that she did not remember what she had told the police and that she was truthful in her account to the police. Truong denied telling the officer that she and appellant had been divorced for five or six years before the incident, that appellant punched her in the side of her face with his fist when he came into the house or that appellant stabbed Moreno with two knives. She did not remember whether she told the officer that appellant took two knives from the kitchen, that he cut her hand with the knife when he pushed her as he was leaving the bedroom or that she heard glass breaking outside when she called 911. Truong testified that 80 percent of her police statement was not true.

Truong testified that she told Moreno that appellant was a good man and he should not make “a big deal” out of the incident. She felt she was at fault, not appellant, and would have preferred that charges against appellant not be pressed.

*892 Moreno, who was living with Truong at the time of trial, testified that he was awakened about 3:00 a.m. on September 23 by appellant, who was stabbing him in his leg. Appellant pulled the knife out and swung at Moreno’s chest; Moreno broke the knife off with his arm, and appellant’s glasses fell off. The knife entered Moreno’s upper outer thigh and exited on his inner thigh, cutting the muscles and nerves in Moreno’s leg and leaving him with no feeling in his leg. Moreno testified that the blood was running out “like a faucet” and he thought he was bleeding to death. As appellant left the room, he grabbed Truong’s head and shoved it into the wall, bruising the right side of her head and leaving an indentation on the wall. Moreno spent two days in the hospital and had to keep his leg elevated for about a month because it was still hemorrhaging.

Moreno testified that appellant was never at Truong’s house when he was there, appellant did not have clothes or a toothbrush at her house, and to Moreno’s knowledge, appellant did not spend nights there. Moreno described two incidents that predated the night of the stabbing. In the first, early in September, Moreno was sitting in the Star Club bar, where Truong was working as a bartender, when appellant came in yelling at Truong. Appellant told Moreno that Truong belonged to him and no man could have her. On the second occasion, about two weeks before the stabbing, Moreno and Truong were standing outside the Star Club bar, where Truong was a bartender. Appellant got out of a car, screaming and cussing at Truong and Moreno.

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Bluebook (online)
108 Cal. Rptr. 2d 904, 90 Cal. App. 4th 887, 2001 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6039, 2001 Daily Journal DAR 7425, 2001 Cal. App. LEXIS 549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-truong-calctapp-2001.