Opinion
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Merced County No. 30447A. Brian L. McCabe, Judge.
Thomas P. Owen, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent.
OPINION
Before Vartabedian, Acting P.J., Cornell, J., and Gomes, J.
On April 27, 2006, appellant, Robert Angelo, took his nine-month-old daughter to Mercy Medical Community Campus Hospital. Afterwards, the hospital contacted the Merced Police Department to report that an extremely malnourished infant had been admitted to the hospital. Officer Ryan Rasmussen was dispatched to the hospital and observed that the infant was extremely malnourished, she was not responsive, and her eyes would just roll back in her head. Rasmussen contacted the baby’s mother, Andrea Angelo, and she told him her daughter had problems with constipation and began to lose weight four months earlier. She noticed that her daughter started getting sick a month earlier. Andrea also stated that her daughter lived with her and Angelo. Rasmussen took Andrea into custody and at that time she spontaneously stated, “I can’t believe I let my daughter get this way.”
For purposes of clarity, Andrea Angelo will be referred to as Andrea and Robert Angelo will be referred to as Angelo.
Rasmussen spoke with Angelo at Angelo’s residence prior to arresting him. Angelo told him he did not think his daughter was sick and that she was a healthy girl. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that she began to lose weight a month earlier.
Social worker Janice Olson testified that she spoke with Andrea at the hospital and even though her daughter was no more than “skin and bones,” Andrea kept insisting she was fine. When asked why she had not taken her daughter to a doctor, Andrea stated that Angelo told her that if she did anything with the children, he would take them and she would never see them again.
Dr. Donald Fields testified the infant weighed five pounds when she was admitted to the hospital. She was diagnosed with failing to thrive and had low levels of sugar, potassium, and phosphorus in her system and an e coli infection in her blood. She was also suffering from refeeding syndrome, mild brain atrophy and stunted growth. The cause of the baby’s medical problems was that she was not fed properly from a few weeks to a few months.
On March 7, 2007, the district attorney filed an information charging Angelo and Andrea with attempted murder (Pen. Code, §§ 664, 187) and felony child endangerment (§ 273a, subd. (a)). Each count alleged a great bodily injury enhancement (§ 12022.7, subd. (d)) as to Angelo and Andrea. As to Angelo alone, each count alleged two prior prison term enhancements (§ 667.5, subd. (b)), a serious felony enhancement (§ 667, subd. (a)(1)), and alleged that he had a prior conviction within the meaning of the three strikes law (§ 667, subd. (b)-(i)).
All further statutory references are to the Penal Code.
On May 9, 2008, Angelo pled no contest to endangering a child and admitted the great bodily enhancement after it was amended to charge an enhancement pursuant to section 12022.7, subdivision (d) and the allegations that he had a prior conviction within the meaning of the three strikes law. In exchange for his plea, the remaining count and enhancements were dismissed. The court then sentenced Angelo to a seven-year aggregate term consisting of the mitigated term of two years on the child endangerment count, doubled to four years because of his prior strike convictions, and a three-year great bodily injury enhancement.
Angelo’s appellate counsel has filed a brief which summarizes the facts, with citations to the record, raises no issues, and asks this court to independently review the record. (People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436.) Angelo has not responded to this court’s invitation to submit additional briefing.
Following independent review of the record, we find that no reasonably arguable factual or legal issues exist.
DISPOSITION
The judgment is affirmed.