People v. Turner

250 Cal. Rptr. 3d 296, 37 Cal. App. 5th 882
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 5th District
DecidedJuly 23, 2019
DocketC086476
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 250 Cal. Rptr. 3d 296 (People v. Turner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal, 5th District primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Turner, 250 Cal. Rptr. 3d 296, 37 Cal. App. 5th 882 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

Robie, J.

*884Mary H. was attacked and robbed at home in the early hours of the morning. A jury found defendants Heaven Leann Turner and Michael Benjamin Rafferty guilty of first degree robbery and found Turner guilty of mayhem as well. Defendants respectively raise several arguments on appeal.

In the published portion of this opinion, we reject Turner's instructional error claims. Turner argues the trial court prejudicially erred in failing to instruct the jury sua sponte that the infliction of great bodily injury is a required element to prove mayhem and that, like the disfigurement theory of mayhem, permanent injury is required to prove mayhem under the "slit of the lip" theory. In the unpublished portion of this opinion, we further reject Turner's arguments that: (1) defense counsel was ineffective for failing to request a modification of the mayhem instruction; (2) the prosecutor committed prosecutorial error during closing argument; (3) the prosecutorial error and the instructional error cumulatively violated her due process rights; (4)

*885her sentence violates Penal Code1 section 654 ; and (5) the trial court erred in denying her request to admit her whole interview with a police officer under Evidence Code section 356. We affirm the judgment after amending it to correctly reflect a consecutive sentence of 16 months for the robbery conviction.

Also in the unpublished portion of this opinion, we reject Rafferty's contention that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion for mistrial and conclude he forfeited his joinder in Turner's arguments. We, however, remand for the trial court to consider exercising its discretion to strike Rafferty's five-year enhancement under section 667, subdivision (a).

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Because of the nature of the issues raised on appeal, we provide only a brief summary of the facts in the light most favorable to the judgments here. (See People v. Jennings (2010) 50 Cal.4th 616, 638-639, 114 Cal.Rptr.3d 133, 237 P.3d 474.) Any other facts pertinent to our disposition are contained in the discussion of defendants' contentions.

Mary H. bought a truck from Rafferty in October 2016. Rafferty asked for the truck back a few days later because Turner, his girlfriend, was upset about the sale; Mary refused to return it. Over the next couple of months, Rafferty and Turner made additional requests for return of the truck and Rafferty also asked Mary *299for money he believed she owed him for the sale. One such return request occurred when Rafferty and Turner confronted Mary at her storage unit. Turner wanted to fight Mary and made threats. Mary declined to fight Turner and said her daughter was on the way. Turner responded "she didn't give an eff whose kid was -- you know, was around. She was going to kick [Mary's] ass." It is unclear how the altercation was resolved.

The bad blood between Turner and Mary was not limited to the truck purchase. Turner and Mary were also "having issues" about Turner's relationship with Rafferty because Mary felt Turner was not "treating him right."

In the early morning of December 4, 2016, Mary woke up to a scratching sound on the locked door of her bedroom. A few minutes later, Rafferty and Turner entered the bedroom with Rafferty shining a flashlight in Mary's eyes. Mary got out of bed and was "panic[ked] to get out of the room" because she "didn't want to be pinned in [her] room." Mary, who was unarmed, pushed against Turner to leave, but Turner did not budge.

*886Turner pulled out a knife and cut Mary in the face. "She missed [Mary's] eye by an inch, and it went all the way down [her] upper lip and split [her] upper lip."2 The cut "slit the front [of her lip] wide open." A police officer described it as a laceration starting on the left side of her nose, down her cheek, and across her upper lip that "flayed her lip open." Turner also broke Mary's front tooth and stabbed her in the left shoulder. Mary screamed for her roommate to help.

Turner yelled at Rafferty to grab the truck keys and other items from the bedroom. Rafferty did as he was told, but grabbed only Mary's backpack and her phone, accidentally leaving the keys behind. Turner and Rafferty then left.

Mary had to get "butterfly stitches" to her face. During her testimony before the jury, Mary explained that, although the injury had "healed very good," it left a visible scar on her lip and "if you look closely, there's a line on [her] face."3 Mary also had to get the remaining part of her front tooth removed.

Turner was charged with first degree robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and mayhem. She was also charged with great bodily injury allegations as to the robbery and assault with a deadly weapon charges. The jury found her guilty of mayhem and first degree robbery, but found her not guilty of assault with a deadly weapon. The jury further found not true the great bodily injury allegations. Rafferty was charged with and found guilty of first degree robbery.

DISCUSSION

I

Turner's Arguments

A

There Was No Instructional Error

The trial court instructed the jury with a modified version of CALCRIM No. 801 describing the elements of mayhem, as follows: "Defendant HEAVEN LEANN TURNER is charged in Count 3 with mayhem. [¶] To *887prove that the defendant is guilty of this crime, the People must prove *300that the defendant unlawfully and maliciously: [¶] 1. Permanently disfigured someone; [¶] OR, [¶] 2. Slit someone's lip. [¶] AND [¶] 3. The Defendant did not act in self-defense. [¶] Someone acts maliciously when he or she intentionally does a wrongful act or when he or she acts with unlawful intent to annoy or injure someone else. [¶] A disfiguring injury may be permanent even if it can be repaired by medical procedures."4

As we understand it, Turner essentially argues the trial court prejudicially erred by failing to instruct the jury sua sponte that: (1) great bodily injury is an element required to prove mayhem under either theory presented; and (2) like the disfigurement theory, permanent injury is an element required to prove mayhem under the slit of the lip theory. The People argue Turner waived the issue by failing to object to the instruction at trial. They further argue the instruction was sufficient because it tracked the statutory language of section 203 and no clarification or modification was requested.

We review the merits of the instructional error claim to determine whether the instruction was a correct statement of the law or affected Turner's substantial rights. (

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
250 Cal. Rptr. 3d 296, 37 Cal. App. 5th 882, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-turner-calctapp5d-2019.