People v. Pena CA2/1 ( 2014 )


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  • Filed 1/28/14 P. v. Pena CA2/1
    NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication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 ONE
    THE PEOPLE,                                                         B246900
    Plaintiff and Respondent,                                  (Los Angeles County
    Super. Ct. No. BA391840)
    v.
    RONALD PENA,
    Defendant and Appellant.
    APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Craig J.
    Mitchell, Judge. Reversed in part, affirmed in part, and remanded for further
    proceedings.
    Siri Shetty, 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, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Keith H. Borjon,
    Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and Joseph P. Lee, Deputy Attorney General, for
    Plaintiff and Respondent.
    _________________________________
    Defendant Ronald Pena appeals from the judgment entered following a jury trial in
    which he was convicted of three counts of attempted murder, three counts of assault with
    a firearm, and a single count of possession of a firearm by a felon. Defendant admitted an
    allegation that he had suffered a prior serious or violent felony conviction within the
    scope of the “Three Strikes” law (Pen. Code, § 667, subds. (b)–(i)) and was sentenced to
    a second strike term.1 Although he was not asked to admit the allegation, defendant’s
    sentence included a prior serious felony enhancement pursuant to section 667, subdivision
    (a)(1).
    Defendant contends the trial court erred by denying his motion for a judgment of
    acquittal at the close of the prosecution’s case-in-chief with respect to one of the three
    counts of attempted murder. We conclude one of defendant’s attempted murder
    convictions must be reversed because the evidence at the close of the prosecution’s case-
    in-chief was insufficient to show that defendant specifically intended to kill more than
    two people. Thus the trial court should have granted defendant’s motion for acquittal
    with respect to one of the attempted murder counts.
    Defendant further contends that he was not advised of his rights before admitting
    the second strike allegation (§ 667, subd. (b)–(i)) or the prior serious felony enhancement
    allegation (§ 667, subd. (a)). The Attorney General concedes this point. We further note
    that the trial court only asked defendant to admit the strike allegation, not the prior serious
    felony enhancement allegation (§ 667, subd. (a)(1))and the prosecutor offered no proof of
    that enhancement allegation.
    BACKGROUND
    1.        The prosecution’s case-in-chief
    a.        The shooting and arrest
    On the night of December 14, 2011, at about 9 p.m., 14-year-old Allan C., his 15-
    year-old brother Luis C., and their friend Angel N. were walking towards Santa Monica
    1   Undesignated statutory references pertain to the Penal Code.
    2
    and Western. All three boys were members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) gang, and
    were within territory claimed by their gang. At the same time, the 29-year-old defendant
    was walking down the same sidewalk in the opposite direction.
    As defendant passed the boys, he said “Fuck Mierdas” (an insult to the MS13
    gang) and displayed a gun in his waistband. Luis told defendant he was “stupid” because
    the “police is right there.” Defendant walked away. The boys began following defendant
    at a distance. Luis admitted at trial he was making gang hand signs.
    Defendant suddenly turned and fired two shots toward the boys, who were 40 to 50
    feet away. No one was struck. Luis testified that when defendant shot, the three boys
    were alongside one another, each about an arm’s length from the next. Allan testified that
    Angel was about five feet behind them. Luis thought defendant was shooting at him.
    Allan testified the gun was pointed at him and Luis.
    The boys ran away from defendant and toward several Los Angeles Police
    Department (LAPD) officers, including gang officers, who had been conducting a traffic
    stop and had heard the shots. The officers checked to see if the boys were armed and
    asked them what happened. All three boys pointed down the street and told the officers
    that “he” or “that guy” shot at them. Angel described defendant’s clothing. The officers
    looked in the direction the boys pointed and saw defendant walking along Western.
    The officers drove toward defendant, who ran across the street, then slowed to a
    fast-paced walk. The officers saw defendant toss a handgun into some bushes. An
    infrared scanner in a police helicopter indicated that the gun was hot. The officers
    detained defendant and recovered the handgun, which was a revolver containing two
    spent casings and one live round. Defendant wore a black glove on his right hand only.
    Allan and Luis separately identified defendant at a field show-up. Each told
    officers that defendant was the man who fired shots toward them.2
    2   The record does not indicate whether Angel identified defendant.
    3
    The prosecutor played a video recovered from an exterior security camera at a
    Burger King in the area. The prosecutor described the video as depicting defendant
    shooting with the gun aimed in front of him, not upward.
    b.     Expert testimony regarding gangs
    Officer Brandon Purece testified as the prosecution’s gang expert, although no
    gang enhancement was alleged. Purece opined defendant was a member of a small gang
    called La Raza Loca that did not get along with any other gangs. Purece testified that
    saying “Fuck Mierdas” to MS13 members was both a challenge and a warning of
    impending violence. Purece further testified that shooting at rival gang members
    enhances both a gang’s reputation and a shooter’s status within his gang.
    2.     Defense case
    Clinical psychologist Dr. Catherine Scarf testified defendant has an IQ of 66,
    which indicates “borderline intellectual functioning.” Scarf found defendant deficient in
    “non-verbal reasoning” and working memory, and “borderline” for “processing speed.”
    She explained that a person with this level of functioning might be gullible, lack common
    sense, or fail to understand what someone is saying and respond inappropriately or
    illogically, for example by misinterpreting a threat as being more serious that it actually
    is.
    Defendant testified that he was not a gang member and denied that he had ever
    told police he was a gang member.
    Defendant testified that the three boys identified themselves as members of MS13,
    made gang hand signs, and asked him where he was from, which defendant understood as
    a question about gang membership. Defendant had been beaten by members of MS13
    about a year earlier and had experienced problems with MS13 members since his years in
    middle school. He told the boys he did not “bang” and kept walking.
    The boys followed defendant and one of them said he was going to “fuck up”
    defendant. Defendant continued to walk and ignored the boys until he heard one of them
    threaten to kill him. Defendant knew they were “juveniles,” but there were three of them,
    4
    and defendant was scared. He turned and fired two shots into the air. The boys ran, and
    defendant crossed the street.
    Defendant admitted that after he was in custody he wrote a statement for the police
    saying, “‘They were going to kill me so I got scared, and I saw that one of them was
    going to pull something from his pockets so I started to go away.’” He also wrote, “‘I
    never said I was going to kill them or anything like that. I was just scared for my life, so I
    fired two shots to the air.’”
    Defendant explained that he had been drinking brandy and taking
    methamphetamine for several days straight. He was wearing one glove because it was
    cold out, but he had lost the other glove. He was carrying the gun, which he stole from
    his drug dealer a few days before, because “people” had threatened him.
    Defendant denied telling any police officers that he was hunting MS13 members or
    that he intended to hurt or kill the boys. He admitted suffering a prior felony conviction
    for making a criminal threat at his place of employment in 2005, but he was inebriated
    and remembered only that he argued with a security officer. The parties stipulated that,
    because of the prior felony conviction, defendant was precluded from owning or
    possessing a firearm.
    Defendant also presented evidence tending to show that Allan and Luis (or one of
    them) participated in an altercation resulting in a head injury to one of their neighbors in
    an unrelated incident during the month after the charged shooting.
    3.     Prosecution’s case in rebuttal
    Two LAPD officers testified that defendant admitted membership in the La Raza
    Loca gang in 2000 and 2010.
    LAPD Officer Bryan Delavan, testified that he spoke to defendant after arresting
    him on the day of the shooting. Defendant did not appear to be under the influence of
    methamphetamine and did not seem to be “particularly inebriated.” Defendant said he
    belonged to the “La Raza Trece” gang. He further stated that when he was growing up,
    5
    the MS13 gang was “kind of a problem.” He did not get along with MS13, and MS13
    had bothered his younger brother.
    On the day after the shooting, LAPD Officer Brian Oliver spoke with defendant at
    the jail. Defendant initiated the conversation and asked Oliver how much time he would
    get for “shooting at them.” Oliver and defendant then spoke about defendant’s
    background. Defendant said he began hating MS13 when members of that gang picked
    on, and “jumped” him in high school. Defendant told Oliver that earlier in the week
    MS13 members jumped his brother, and he wanted them to pay for what they had done.
    A few days prior to the charged shooting, defendant and some of his friends drove around
    with a gun, “hunting” for MS13 gang members in the area of Santa Monica and Western.
    Defendant knew that MS13 members congregated at that location, but he and his friends
    did not find any MS13 members that day. Defendant told Oliver that he felt that shooting
    an MS13 gang member would cause them to leave his brother alone.
    Regarding the charged shooting, defendant told Oliver that he thought if he shot
    one of the boys, the boy would not live; he was aiming at one that was wearing a long
    sweat shirt but he would have shot all three; he had a bullet for each of them; his shots
    missed because he was a little drunk.
    The prosecution also presented additional evidence regarding the 2005 incident
    leading to defendant’s criminal threat conviction.
    4.     Verdict and sentence
    The jury convicted defendant of attempted murder and assault with a firearm with
    respect to each of the three boys, plus possession of a firearm by a felon. The jury found
    defendant personally used a firearm and personally and intentionally fired a firearm
    (§ 12022.53, subds. (b), (c)) in the commission of each attempted murder, and he
    personally used a firearm (§ 12022.5, subd. (a)) in the commission of each assault with a
    firearm. Defendant admitted an allegation pursuant to the Three Strikes law (§ 667, subs.
    (b)–(i)) that he had suffered a prior serious or violent felony conviction. Defendant was
    not asked to admit, and did not admit, a prior serious felony enhancement allegation (§
    6
    667, subd. (a)(1)). The prosecution offered no proof to support the section 667,
    subdivision (a)(1) allegation.
    The court sentenced defendant to prison for 35 years, consisting of a second strike
    term of 10 years for the attempted murder of Luis, plus 20 years for the section 12022.53,
    subdivision (c) enhancement, plus 5 years for the section 667, subdivision (a)(1)
    enhancement that had been neither proved nor admitted. The trial court made the terms
    on the other two attempted murders and the possession of a firearm by a felon count run
    concurrently and stayed the terms on the assault with a firearm convictions.
    DISCUSSION
    1.     Admission of strike and enhancement allegations
    a.     Defendant’s admission
    After the jury returned its verdicts, the trial court asked defense counsel whether
    defendant would “stipulate to the prior conviction of a strike prior within the meaning of
    Penal Code section 1170 et seq. and 667.5 et. seq. as well?” Defense counsel replied,
    “Yes.” The court then asked defendant, “[A]re you willing to admit that within the
    meaning of the Penal Code, that you have suffered a prior serious felony in case
    BA 293630, a violation of Penal Code section 422, that being a prior strike conviction in
    2006. [¶] Do you admit that prior conviction?” Defendant said, “Yes.”
    b.     Defendant’s admission of the strike allegation was involuntary, and he did not
    admit the section 667, subdivision (a)(1) enhancement allegation
    Defendant contends his “admission to a prior strike and serious felony conviction”
    cannot be deemed to have been voluntary and intelligent because he was not advised of
    his rights to a jury trial, confrontation, and the privilege against self-incrimination, nor
    was he advised of the consequences of his admission. The Attorney General aptly
    concedes this contention and asks this court to reverse the true finding on defendant’s
    “prior conviction allegation” and remand for a new trial of that allegation.
    We agree that the failure to advise defendant of the rights he would relinquish in
    order to admit the strike allegation and the section 667, subdivision (a)(1) enhancement
    7
    allegation rendered defendant’s admission involuntary. (People v. Howard (1992) 
    1 Cal. 4th 1132
    , 1175, 1179; In re Yurko (1974) 
    10 Cal. 3d 857
    , 863–864.)
    We further note that the trial court only asked defendant to admit the strike
    allegation. The court did not ask defendant to admit the section 667, subdivision (a)(1)
    enhancement allegation, defendant did not admit it, and the prosecution did not offer any
    proof of this enhancement allegation. The trial court nonetheless applied the
    enhancement allegation, adding a five-year enhancement to defendant’s sentence.
    Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s implied findings on both the strike and
    section 667, subdivision (a)(1) allegations and remand for a new trial upon these
    allegations.
    2.     Denial of motion for acquittal
    a.     Motion for acquittal
    At the close of the prosecution’s case-in-chief, defendant moved for acquittal of
    the attempted murder and assault with a firearm charges pertaining to Angel (counts 5 and
    6). The trial court denied the motion after noting that Luis testified that Angel was
    “within arm’s reach” of Allan.
    Defendant contends the denial of his motion for acquittal pursuant to section
    1118.1 was error with regard to the attempted murder charge in count 5 because
    defendant fired only two shots from a distance of 40 to 50 feet, no one was struck by the
    shots, and the record did not show that all three boys “were directly in the line of fire,”
    “two bullets could have struck all three” boys, or defendant “intended to kill all three with
    two bullets.”
    b.     Evaluating sufficiency of evidence for a section 1118.1 motion for acquittal
    When reviewing a claim the trial court erred by denying a motion for acquittal
    under section 1118.1, we apply the same standard as when evaluating the sufficiency of
    evidence to support a conviction, but we consider only the evidence in the record at the
    time the motion was made. (People v. Augborne (2002) 
    104 Cal. App. 4th 362
    , 371;
    People v. Smith (1998) 
    64 Cal. App. 4th 1458
    , 1464.) Thus, we review the evidence
    8
    presented during the prosecution’s case-in-chief in the light most favorable to the
    judgment to decide whether substantial evidence supports the conviction, so that a
    reasonable jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. (People v. Tully (2012) 
    54 Cal. 4th 952
    , 1006.)
    c.     Legal principles applicable to attempted murder of multiple individuals
    “Attempted murder requires the specific intent to kill and the commission of a
    direct but ineffectual act toward accomplishing the intended killing.” (People v. Lee
    (2003) 
    31 Cal. 4th 613
    , 623.) “[A] person who intends to kill can be guilty of attempted
    murder even if the person has no specific target in mind. An indiscriminate would-be
    killer is just as culpable as one who targets a specific person.” (People v. Stone (2009) 
    46 Cal. 4th 131
    , 140.) “‘The act of firing toward a victim at a close, but not point blank,
    range “in a manner that could have inflicted a mortal wound had the bullet been on target
    is sufficient to support an inference of intent to kill . . . .”’” (People v. Smith (2005) 
    37 Cal. 4th 733
    , 741.) Where there are multiple alleged victims, the prosecution must prove
    that defendant intended to kill each victim, and the defendant’s guilt must be judged
    separately as to each victim. (People v. Perez (2010) 
    50 Cal. 4th 222
    , 230 (Perez).)
    Where a defendant shoots at a group of people, the maximum number of attempted
    murder victims will generally be equal to the number of shots fired, absent evidence that
    defendant specifically intended to kill two or more people with a single shot or
    specifically intended to kill a greater number of victims but was thwarted from firing the
    required additional shots by circumstances beyond his control. 
    (Perez, supra
    , 50 Cal.4th
    at pp. 230–231; People v. McCloud (2012) 
    211 Cal. App. 4th 788
    , 807 (McCloud) [where
    defendants fired 10 shots and 2 victims were killed, evidence supported 8 attempted
    murder convictions].)
    For example, in 
    Perez, supra
    , 
    50 Cal. 4th 222
    , the defendant fired one shot at a
    distance of 60 feet, from a car going 10 to 15 miles per hour, at a group of seven police
    officers and one civilian whom he believed to be rival gang members. The shot struck
    and injured one officer. (50 Cal.4th at pp. 226–227.) Perez was convicted of seven
    9
    counts of attempted murder of a peace officer, one count of attempted murder, and other
    offenses. The Supreme Court reversed all of the attempted murder convictions for
    insufficiency of evidence of intent to kill except the one pertaining to the injured officer,
    explaining, “In this case there is no evidence that defendant knew or specifically targeted
    any particular individual or individuals in the group of officers he fired upon. Nor is
    there evidence that he specifically intended to kill two or more persons with the single
    shot. Finally, there is no evidence defendant specifically intended to kill two or more
    persons in the group but was only thwarted from firing off the required additional shots
    by circumstances beyond his control. Without more, this record will not support
    conviction of eight counts of premeditated attempted murder.” (Id. at pp. 230–231, fns.
    omitted.) Although Perez “endangered the lives of every individual in the group into
    which he fired the single shot,” (id. at p. 225), which supported his eight assault with a
    firearm convictions, merely endangering them did not demonstrate an intent to kill.
    The “kill zone” theory argued by the prosecutor in the trial court and the Attorney
    General here addresses specific intent to kill all persons within a certain zone through use
    of a weapon so pervasively lethal that it is expected to kill all persons within the zone.
    The “kill zone” theory first was recognized by the California Supreme Court in People v.
    Bland (2002) 
    28 Cal. 4th 313
    . The Court held that although the doctrine of transferred
    intent is inapplicable to attempted murder (id. at p. 331), the nature and scope of an attack
    directed at a primary victim may support an inference that the defendant concurrently
    intended to kill everyone in the kill zone. Quoting a Maryland case, Bland provided
    examples of the types of attacks that would support a theory of concurrent intent to kill,
    including “‘plac[ing] a bomb on a commercial airplane intending to harm a primary target
    on board’” while ensuring the death of all other passengers as well or attacking the
    primary target and his or her companions by means of a spray of automatic weapon fire or
    an explosive device. (Id. at pp. 329–330.)
    However the “kill zone” theory does not apply when a defendant merely endangers
    more than one person. As this division explained in 
    McCloud, supra
    , 211 Cal.App.4th at
    10
    p. 798, “The kill zone theory thus does not apply if the evidence shows only that the
    defendant intended to kill a particular targeted individual but attacked that individual in a
    manner that subjected other nearby individuals to a risk of fatal injury. Nor does the kill
    zone theory apply if the evidence merely shows, in addition, that the defendant was aware
    of the lethal risk to the nontargeted individuals and did not care whether they were killed
    in the course of the attack on the targeted individual. Rather, the kill zone theory applies
    only if the evidence shows that the defendant tried to kill the targeted individual by killing
    everyone in the area in which the targeted individual was located. The defendant in a kill
    zone case chooses to kill everyone in a particular area as a means of killing a targeted
    individual within that area. . . . [¶] The kill zone theory consequently does not operate as
    an exception to the mental state requirement for attempted murder or as a means of
    somehow bypassing that requirement. In a kill zone case, the defendant does not merely
    subject everyone in the kill zone to lethal risk. Rather, the defendant specifically intends
    that everyone in the kill zone die. If some of those individuals manage to survive the
    attack, then the defendant—having specifically intended to kill every single one of them
    and having committed a direct but ineffectual act toward accomplishing that result—can
    be convicted of their attempted murder.”
    d.     At the time of defendant’s motion for acquittal, the evidence supported only
    two counts of attempted murder
    At the conclusion of the prosecution’s case-in-chief, the evidence showed that
    defendant had fired two shots in the direction of the three boys, from a distance of 40 to
    50 feet. The firing of two shots supported an inference that defendant specifically
    intended to kill two boys. As demonstrated in Perez, however, the firing of two shots did
    not indicate an intent to kill the third boy without evidence that defendant specifically
    intended to kill two or more of the boys with a single shot, or was thwarted from firing
    the third shot by circumstances beyond his control such as a malfunction of his gun or a
    bystander thwarting him. Thus, the firing of two shots supported, at most, two counts of
    attempted murder. There was no evidence that defendant specifically intended to kill two
    11
    or more of the boys with a single shot or specifically intended to kill all three boys but
    was thwarted from firing the required additional shots by circumstances beyond his
    control. Nor was there any evidence that it was either possible, or defendant believed or
    had reason to believe it was possible, to kill more than one person with a single shot.
    Although the police recovered defendant’s revolver, the prosecution introduced no
    evidence of its caliber. Therefore, there was no evidence indicating defendant had the
    ability to penetrate two boys with a single high-caliber round fired from a distance of 40
    to 50 feet. Thus, there was insufficient evidence at the close of the prosecutor’s case-in-
    chief to support an inference that defendant specifically intended to kill all three of the
    boys. Accordingly, the trial court should have granted defendant’s section 1118.1 motion
    with respect to one of the attempted murder charges. Because defendant’s motion was
    addressed to the counts naming Angel as the victim, the trial court should have granted
    the motion with respect to count 5.
    The Attorney General’s brief on appeal is deficient in part because it relies upon
    matters in defendant’s various statements to the police, which were not introduced until
    the prosecution’s rebuttal case. Because defendant is challenging the denial of his section
    1118.1 motion, not the sufficiency of evidence to support his convictions, we do not
    consider evidence introduced after the section 1118.1 motion.
    The Attorney General’s brief on appeal also lacks merit to the extent it relies upon
    the kill zone theory. Firing two shots of unspecified caliber at three boys from a distance
    of 40 to 50 feet was not an application of force so pervasively lethal that it is reasonable
    to infer defendant intended to kill everyone in the area at which he fired in order to kill
    one or more primary targets.
    The Attorney General also relies upon People v. Chinchilla (1997) 
    52 Cal. App. 4th 683
    and 
    Smith, supra
    , 
    37 Cal. 4th 733
    , both of which concluded the evidence was
    sufficient to support two attempted murder convictions where the defendant fired a single
    shot at two people who were lined up, one behind the other. Neither case supports the
    trial court’s denial of defendant’s 1118.1 motion in this case.
    12
    In 
    Chinchilla, supra
    , 
    52 Cal. App. 4th 683
    , defendant fired a single shot at two
    police officers who were crouched, with one “crouched down behind and ‘just above’”
    the other. (Id. at p. 687.) Although Chinchilla challenged the sufficiency of the evidence
    to support two attempted murder convictions, he “conceded that one shot could support a
    conviction on two counts of attempted murder if there was evidence that the shooter saw
    both victims.” (Id. at p. 690.) The appellate court concluded it was reasonable to infer
    that defendant saw both officers, and held, “Where a defendant fires at two officers, one
    of whom is crouched in front of the other, the defendant endangers the lives of both
    officers and a reasonable jury could infer from this that the defendant intended to kill
    both.” (Id. at p. 691.)
    If two of the three boys toward whom defendant fired had been in a single-file line
    and defendant had aimed one of his shots at the boy at the front of that line, the evidence
    in the present case might support an inference that defendant specifically intended to kill
    all three boys. That was not what happened in this case. Either all three boys were
    alongside one another or Luis and Allan were alongside one another and Angel was
    somewhere behind them. The latter scenario does not mean that Angel was directly
    behind Luis or Allan. Angel may have been behind the gap between Luis and Allan.
    Accordingly, Chinchilla is distinguishable.
    Similarly, in 
    Smith, supra
    , 
    37 Cal. 4th 733
    , the defendant fired one .38-caliber shot
    at the rear windshield of a car pulling away from a curb. The driver (Smith’s former
    girlfriend) testified that defendant fired from directly behind her, and her baby was in an
    “infant car seat in the backseat directly behind her.” The bullet struck the driver’s
    headrest and barely missed both the driver and the baby. Just before he shot, Smith had
    walked up to the open passenger-side front window and looked inside the car, and
    defendant admitted in his trial testimony that he had seen the baby in the car. (Id. at
    pp. 736–738.) The Supreme Court rejected Smith’s contention that the evidence was
    insufficient to support attempted murder convictions with respect to both the driver and
    her baby, explaining, “The ballistics evidence established that the large-caliber bullet
    13
    defendant fired into the vehicle from a distance of one car length away missed the mother
    and baby by a matter of inches. Defendant’s own testimony established he knew the
    baby was in the backseat positioned directly behind the mother, and hence directly in his
    line of fire when he fired the shot into the vehicle. When the facts are considered under
    the standard of review applicable to this sufficiency of evidence claim, . . . we find the
    evidence sufficient to support the jury’s finding that defendant acted with intent to kill the
    baby.” (Id. at pp. 746–747.)
    Smith is also distinguishable from the present case. Here there was no evidence
    that two of the three boys were directly behind one another and in defendant’s direct line
    of fire. Nor was there evidence of the caliber of defendant’s revolver, and defendant was
    much farther than one car-length away from the boys when he shot toward them.
    Given the state of the evidence at the close of the prosecution’s case-in-chief, the
    trial court erred by denying defendant’s section 1118.1 motion with respect to count 5.
    Accordingly, we reverse the conviction as to that count. This reversal does not affect
    defendant’s conviction of assault with a firearm with respect to Angel (count 6) or the
    length of defendant’s sentence because the term for count 5 runs concurrently with the
    term on count 1.
    3.     Error in authority for firearm enhancement
    We note that both the trial court’s sentencing minute order and the abstract of
    judgment indicate that the 20-year firearm enhancement was imposed pursuant to section
    12022.53, subdivision (e), which was inapplicable in this case. During the sentencing
    hearing, the trial court cited section 12022.53, subdivision (a) as authority for the
    enhancement. The correct authority is section 12022.53, subdivision (c). On remand, the
    trial court should issue an amended abstract of judgment correcting this error.
    DISPOSITION
    Defendant’s conviction for the attempted murder of Angel N. (count 5) is reversed
    for insufficient evidence and may not be retried. The trial court’s implied findings upon
    the Penal Code section 667, subdivision (a) and strike (§§ 667, subds. (b)–(i), 1170.12)
    14
    allegations are reversed and the cause is remanded for a new trial upon those allegations.
    The judgment is otherwise affirmed. The court is directed to issue an amended abstract of
    judgment that includes citation of Penal Code section 12022.53, subdivision (c) as
    authority for the 20-year firearm enhancement to defendant’s sentence.
    NOT TO BE PUBLISHED.
    MILLER, J.*
    We concur:
    ROTHSCHILD, Acting P. J.
    CHANEY, J.
    *  Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant
    to article VI, section 6 of the California Constitution.
    15
    

Document Info

Docket Number: B246900

Filed Date: 1/28/2014

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 10/30/2014