People v. Walker CA4/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 1, 2022
DocketE077548
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Walker CA4/2 (People v. Walker CA4/2) 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. Walker CA4/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

Filed 7/29/22 P. v. Walker 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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, E077548

v. (Super.Ct.No. INF1402616)

FLOYD ROLAND WALKER III, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Charles J. Koosed, Judge.

Affirmed.

Siri Shetty, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and

Appellant.

Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney

General, Melissa Mandel, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland,

Warren Williams and Paige B. Hazard, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and

Respondent.

1 A jury convicted defendant and appellant, Floyd Roland Walker III, of inflicting

corporal injury upon a cohabitant. (Pen. Code, § 273.5, subd. (a), count 2.)1 The jury

also found that defendant personally inflicted great bodily injury (GBI) upon the victim,

under circumstances involving domestic violence. (§ 12022.7, subd. (e).) The court

found true allegations that defendant had served two prior prison terms (§ 667.5,

subd. (b)), had one prior serious felony conviction (§ 667, subd. (a)) (nickel prior), and

had one prior strike conviction (§§ 667, subd. (c), (e)(1), 1170.12, subd. (c)(1)). (People

v. Walker (Mar. 21, 2019, E067404) (Walker I).)2

The court sentenced defendant to an aggregate term of 17 years of imprisonment,

including the upper term of four years, doubled pursuant to the strike prior, on the

substantive offense. (Walker I, supra, E067404.) On remand from this court, the court

declined to exercise its newfound discretion to strike the nickel prior. However, the court

struck defendant’s prior prison term enhancements pursuant Senate Bill No. 136 (2019-

2020 Reg. Sess.), which resulted in a reduction in defendant’s aggregate term of

imprisonment of one year, but which still included the upper term on the substantive

offense.

On appeal, defendant contends the matter must be remanded for a second time for

resentencing pursuant to Senate Bill No. 567 (2021-2022 Reg. Sess.), which creates a

1 All further statutory references will be to the Penal Code, unless otherwise noted.

2 On our own motion, we take judicial notice of the record in Walker I, supra, E067404, defendant’s appeal of the judgment, including our unpublished opinion. (Evid. Code, § 459, 452, subd. (d).)

2 presumption for the imposition of the middle term at sentencing. The People respond

that any error was harmless because “there was undisputed evidence of the aggravating

circumstances that the trial court relied upon such that a jury would have found the

circumstance to be true beyond a reasonable doubt.” We affirm.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND 3

At the time of the offense, the victim had dated defendant for about two years;

they had a daughter together. On July 4, 2014, defendant, the victim, and their daughter,

who was about 16 months old at the time, were staying at a hotel-casino. Throughout the

day, defendant went back and forth between the hotel room and the casino, drinking and

gambling. He returned to the hotel room a final time around 11:00 p.m.; he was drunk

and angry. The victim was upset that she and their daughter had been stuck in the room

all day, and that they had not seen the fireworks together. (Walker I, supra, E067404.)

Defendant started yelling and slapped the victim on the face at least twice. The

victim went to lie down on the bed with their daughter to try and diffuse the situation.

However, defendant still yelled at her and called her names. Defendant then hit the

victim in the face. Their daughter woke up crying; the victim tried to calm her down.

Defendant grabbed their daughter from the victim and would not give her back. He then

stood up, held their daughter on his left side, and started punching the victim with his

3 On October 27, 2021, defendant filed a request that this court take judicial notice of the April 28, 2016, minute order of the jury’s verdict, which is contained in the record in Walker I, supra, E067404. The request is denied as moot since we are taking judicial notice of the record. (See fn. 2, ante.)

3 right hand; he also kicked her. The victim screamed and asked for their daughter back.

Defendant went into the bathroom; the victim called the front desk. Eventually, two

security guards knocked on her door. (Walker I, supra, E067404.)

The security guards observed that the victim had blood all over her face and was

crying hysterically. She said, “He’s beating me, get him, get my baby.” They entered the

room and saw defendant holding the baby, so they told him to put her down. The guards

observed blood all over the room, including on the nightstand, telephone, side of the bed,

the wall, and the carpet. The guards called the police. (Walker I, supra, E067404.)

A police officer arrived and observed that the victim was crying and shaking.

Both of her eyes were starting to swell and turn black and blue; she had a cut above her

left eye, bruising and swelling on her nose, and a bruise on the left side of her cheekbone.

The victim went to the hospital and the dentist to be examined. For several days, she

could not move her jaw or talk very well. (Walker I, supra, E067404.)

On April 12, 2016, the People charged defendant by first amended information

with cohabitant abuse resulting in a traumatic condition (§ 273.5, subdivision (e)(1),

count 1), cohabitant abuse (§ 273.5, subd. (a), count 2), and willful injury to a child

(§ 273a, subd. (a), count 3). The People additionally alleged that, as to counts 1 and 2,

defendant had inflicted GBI on the victim (§§ 12022.7, subd. (e), 1192.7, subd. (c)(8)),

and defendant had committed all three offenses while released from custody (§ 12022.1).

The People finally alleged that defendant had suffered two prior prison terms (§ 667.5,

subd. (b)), one prior serious felony conviction (§ 667, subd. (a)), and one prior strike

conviction (§§ 667, subds. (c), (e)(1), 1170.12, subd. (c)(1)).

4 The jury found defendant guilty of cohabitant abuse (§ 273.5, subd. (a), count 2)

but not guilty of cohabitant abuse resulting in a traumatic condition (§ 273.5, subd. (e)(1),

count 1). The jury deadlocked on the count 3 offense. The jury also found that, in his

commission of the count 2 offense, defendant personally inflicted GBI upon the victim

under circumstances involving domestic violence. (§ 12022.7, subd. (e).)

At the bench trial on the priors, the People moved into evidence two section 969,

subdivision (b), packets, which contained certified copies of defendant’s relevant criminal

records. The court found true allegations that defendant had served two prior prison terms

(§ 667.5, subd. (b)), had one prior serious felony conviction (§ 667, subd. (a)), and had

one prior strike conviction (§§ 667, subds. (c), (e)(1), 1170.12, subd. (c)(1)). (Walker I,

supra, E067404.)

The probation officer’s report reflects that defendant had convictions for 10 prior

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People v. Walker CA4/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-walker-ca42-calctapp-2022.