People v. Williams CA2/8

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 5, 2014
DocketB249425
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Williams CA2/8 (People v. Williams CA2/8) 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. Williams CA2/8, (Cal. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Filed 6/5/14 P. v. Williams CA2/8 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

THE PEOPLE, B249425

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BA372156) v.

CALVIN WILLLIAMS,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Curtis B. Rappe, Judge. Affirmed with directions.

Christine C. Shaver, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Rama R. Maline, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

****** A jury convicted appellant Calvin Williams of attempted premeditated murder and shooting from a motor vehicle. Pursuant to People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436 (Wende), appellant’s counsel filed an opening brief requesting that this court review the record and determine whether any arguable issues exist on appeal. We advised appellant he had 30 days within which to submit any contentions or issues he wished us to consider. On January 2, 2014, appellant filed a supplemental brief raising a single issue. Our subsequent review of the record identified a sentencing issue for which we requested supplemental briefing from counsel -- namely, whether appellant’s sentence for shooting from a motor vehicle under Penal Code section 654 should have been stayed.1 We order the abstract of judgment to be amended but otherwise affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND On June 1, 2010, at approximately 4:25 p.m., Officer Ted Lockhart of the Los Angeles Police Department had just gotten off work. Officer Lockhart was in his car around the vicinity of 85th Street and Western Avenue in Los Angeles. He saw a man, later identified as Michael Douver, walking down the street and a blue pickup truck traveling next to him very slowly down the street. Douver was on the driver’s side of the truck. The truck came to a complete stop. Officer Lockhart heard approximately five or six gunshots, and Douver reacted as if he had been hit by the gun fire. The shots appeared to come from the driver’s side of the truck. The truck accelerated and drove away. Douver ran in the opposite direction to a bus bench where he laid down. Officer Lockhart did not observe Douver say anything to the truck’s occupants or make any aggressive gestures toward the truck. Douver did not have anything in his hands. Officer Lockhart called the police department’s inside communication line and reported the shooting. He also described the truck. Douver had a gunshot wound in the area of his right hip. As paramedics were tending to him at the scene, he told

1 Further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

2 Officer Chad Butler that he was walking down 85th Street when a blue pickup truck pulled alongside of him. There were three black males in the truck. The driver produced a handgun and fired approximately four shots at him. Officer Butler collected two spent .32 caliber bullet casings at the scene. Officer Michael Stewart was also at the scene and observed gang tattoos on Douver. Officer Stewart talked to Douver’s friend at the scene; his friend was a member of the Eight-Trey Gangster Crips and said Douver was also a member. Approximately 30 minutes after the shooting, a call went out over the police radio that the suspect vehicle had been located on 108th Street. Charlotte Taylor lived at the address where the vehicle was located. She was friends with appellant’s mother and aunt, and appellant was friends with her sons. Just before police officers arrived, Taylor came home from the store and found appellant standing at the front gate of her residence. She knew appellant drove a blue truck and saw his blue truck in her driveway. She had seen him next to the driver’s side of the truck like he had just gotten out of it, and then he walked around the back of the truck to her gate. Appellant was with two men, John Powell and a Hispanic man she did not know, who was Christian Chan. She talked to them at the gate and all three men followed her into the house. She put her bags down and then she, her son, and Powell went outside to go to a store around the corner. Appellant did not leave the house with them. When they walked out of the house, Officer Brent Banachowski and his partner were there. They asked her who was driving the blue truck; she told them appellant. When she went back into her house, appellant had fled. The officers detained Powell and Chan. Officers Butler and Stewart also responded to Taylor’s house. Officer Stewart found a .32-caliber semiautomatic handgun in appellant’s truck and a spent bullet casing on the driver’s side floorboard. He also found some paperwork in the glove box with appellant’s name on it, including a photo copy of a driver’s license in appellant’s name. The handgun was swabbed for DNA and compared with DNA swabs from appellant, Powell, and Chan. The DNA on the gun was a mixture, but there was only one major male contributor for the DNA found on the gun. Powell and

3 Chan were excluded as possible contributors. Appellant’s DNA profile matched the profile of the major male contributor found on the gun. In addition, the casings Officer Butler collected at the scene were determined to have been fired from this same gun found in appellant’s truck. Chan was charged in this case with attempted murder and pleaded no contest. He testified in the prosecution’s case. He said he pleaded no contest because he did not want to go to trial and be convicted for something he did not do. He was 17 years old at the time of the shooting and 19 years old at the time of trial. In June 2010, Chan and appellant were members of the same gang, Six-Seven Neighborhood Crips. Powell also belonged to this gang. According to Chan, the Eight-Trey Gangster Crips were enemies of the Six-Seven Neighborhood Crips. Chan handwrote a statement after his arrest describing the following facts. Appellant and Powell picked him up on June 1, 2010 in a blue truck, and appellant was driving. Appellant was “talking smack” and seemed mad about something. As they were driving down Western Avenue, Chan noticed a man on the sidewalk looking inside the truck. Appellant took a gun out from the center console and started shooting at the man. At trial, Chan testified his written statement was not true and he simply wrote what the officers told him to write. He wrote the false statement because one of the investigating officers was threatening to pin a robbery on his mother, and he wanted to protect her. He also decided to write the statement because he was willing to do whatever it took not to spend the rest of his life in jail. At the same time, he did not want to be labeled a snitch and was scared for his own safety. The prosecution played a videotaped interview of Chan in which he told the officer the same story he recorded in his written statement. Toward the end of the interview, Chan was recorded voluntarily writing out his statement with no coercion from officers. Officer Stewart was the prosecution’s gang expert. One of the long-time rivals of the Six-Seven Neighborhood Crips was the Eight-Trey Gangster Crips. The area of 85th Street and Western Avenue was the territory of Eight-Trey Gangster Crips. Officer Stewart testified about gang culture. Gangs maintain control in their territories

4 through violence, fear, and intimidation.

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People v. Williams CA2/8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-williams-ca28-calctapp-2014.