The People v. Martinez CA2/5

California Court of Appeal·Decided October 3, 2013·No. B242591·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 10/3/13 P. v. Martinez CA2/5 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 FIVE

THE PEOPLE, B242591

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. GA076492) v.

SEAN MATTHEW MARTINEZ,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Teri Schwartz, Judge. Affirmed. J. Kahn, 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, Eric E. Reynolds and Allison H. Chung, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

____________________________ This appeal arises out of a shooting on April 11, 2009, in which two young men were killed and four others were injured. The shooter, Vincent Casio, who was the subject of a separate appeal, was convicted of two counts of murder (Penal Code § 187, subd. (a)),1 four counts of premeditated attempted murder (§§ 664, 187, subd. (a)), and possession of a firearm by a felon (§ 12021, subd. (a)(1)). In the same trial, defendant and appellant Sean Matthew Martinez was convicted as an aider and abettor of two counts of second degree murder (§ 187, subd. (a)) and four counts of premeditated attempted murder.2 The jury found true allegations that the offenses were committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang (§ 186.22, subd. (b)) and a principal personally and intentionally discharged a firearm (§ 12022.53, subds. (b)-(e)). Defendant was sentenced to 40 years to life in state prison. A defendant may be liable under an aiding and abetting theory in two ways: he may be found to have possessed the necessary mental state to be guilty of the crime the perpetrator committed, or guilty of both the crime the perpetrator intended to commit (target offense) and any crime that is a natural and probable consequence of the intended crime (non-target offense). (People v. McCoy (2001) 25 Cal.4th 1111, 1117 (McCoy).) Throughout the trial, the prosecution proceeded on the theory that defendant possessed the necessary mental state to be guilty of murder and attempted murder as an aider and abettor, choosing not to rely on a natural and probable consequences theory. The jury was instructed accordingly. During deliberations, however, the jury sent questions to the trial court concerning whether it would be permissible to convict defendant if the crime defendant intended to aid and abet was not murder or attempted murder, but instead an uncharged crime. After discussion with counsel outside the presence of the jury, the trial court elected to instruct under Judicial Council of California Criminal Jury Instructions (2010) CALCRIM No. 403 (Natural and Probable Consequences (Only Non-Target

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise stated.

2 Defendant and Casio were both found not guilty of false imprisonment by violence (§ 236) in counts 7 and 8.

2 Offense Charged)), identifying the target crime as assault with a deadly weapon or by means likely to produce great bodily injury. The court permitted both sides to address the new instruction to the jury. Defendant contends: 1) there is insufficient evidence to support the convictions on a direct aiding and abetting theory; 2) the natural and probable consequences instruction was given in error because it was not supported by the evidence; 3) defendant was prejudiced by the natural and probable consequences instruction because he had inadequate notice that the instruction would be given and was denied the right to present a complete defense; 4) the jury was coerced into rendering guilty verdicts because it was instructed on natural and probable consequences in the midst of deliberations; and 5) the jury’s findings of premeditation on the attempted murder convictions were not pled and must be stricken. Defendant alternately requests that, if the judgment is affirmed, the trial court be ordered to amend the awards of direct victim restitution to reflect the imposition of joint and several liability. We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

FACTS

The Shootings

On April 11, 2009, Christina Sanchez rented a room at the Knights Inn in Rosemead for her brother Anthony Gonzalez’s sixteenth birthday party. The guests at the party included Jessica Boyle, Betty Fontenot, Francine Ortega, Richard Herrera, Toumaria Harris, Armando Davila, Raudel Ceballos, Gustavo Delatorre, and Angel Guerrero. When Sanchez, Gonzalez, and Davila arrived at the motel, approximately 15 people were already in the room. Less than an hour later, Sanchez let Richard Logan, whom she had gone to high school with, into the room. Defendant and Casio arrived together a little later. Sanchez did not want to let defendant and Casio in because she did not know them or like the way they looked, but she relented because Logan knew them.

3 Several of the guests described defendant and Casio as looking like gangbangers, which made them uncomfortable. Gonzalez told defendant and Casio that if they had any problems at the party, they should talk to him and he would take care of things. At some point, Casio called Harris a highly offensive racial epithet. Gonzalez reminded defendant and Casio that he had asked them to come to him if they had a problem and not to start any trouble. One of them apologized. Defendant and Casio remained at the party for about an hour to an hour and a half and left. They returned about an hour later. Casio had a bandana tied over his mouth. Casio pointed a gun at the balcony, where Gonzalez, Delatorre, Ceballos, Harris, and Davila were standing and told Guerrero, who was on the bed, to get on the balcony with them. Casio walked behind Guerrero, telling him to get outside. Logan ran toward the balcony and jumped over the edge. The balcony was high. Delatorre tried to stop Casio from corralling people onto the balcony, but Casio shot him in the face. More than ten shots were fired. Some of the guests testified that defendant was by the door during the shooting, and they heard him telling Casio to hurry out of the room when the shooting ceased. Herrera was in the bathroom when the shooting began. He opened the door, but immediately went back inside, along with Sanchez, after either Casio or defendant yelled at him to go back into the bathroom. Guerrero and Delatorre were killed in the gunfire. Gonzalez, Harris, Davila, and Ceballos were injured. A motel patron heard the gunshots and went outside to see what was going on. He saw people running, one of whom was a male with a bandana covering his face. One of the people running said, “This is a hood thing. Get back in your room.”

Statements by Jaki Arteaga

On April 21, 2009, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Richard Ramirez and Sergeant Edward Godfrey conducted an interview with Jaki Arteaga, which the prosecution introduced at trial. Arteaga was originally a codefendant in the case, but he

4 pled guilty as an accessory after the fact before the preliminary hearing. Arteaga stated that he picked up defendant on the night of the shooting and the two drove around for a while before picking up Casio, who was one of defendant’s “homies.” Arteaga dropped the two men off at a motel. Before getting out of Arteaga’s truck, defendant told Arteaga that he was going to “squabble with some fools.” Later, defendant called Arteaga again and asked him to return to the motel to pick them up.

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