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People v. Coxum

COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
Apr 26, 2018
F075276 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 26, 2018)

Opinion

F075276

04-26-2018

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. ANTHONY DEVON COXUM, Defendant and Appellant.

Stephen M. Hinkle, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Office of the State Attorney General, Sacramento, California, for Plaintiff and Respondent.


NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115. (Super. Ct. No. 1461234)

OPINION

THE COURT APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Stanislaus County. Nancy Ashley, Judge. Stephen M. Hinkle, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Office of the State Attorney General, Sacramento, California, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Before Detjen, Acting P.J., Peña, J., and, Meehan, J.

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A jury convicted appellant Anthony Devon Coxum of premeditated first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)) and found true a personal use of a knife enhancement (§ 12022, subd. (b)). Following independent review of the record pursuant to People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436, we affirm.

All statutory references are to the Penal Code.

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On May 15, 2014, the Stanislaus County District Attorney filed an information charging appellant with premeditated first degree murder and a personal use of a knife enhancement.

On April 29, 2016, defense counsel filed a Pitchess motion that, in pertinent part, sought discovery of records relating to complaints against one officer for any acts involving dishonesty, morally lax character, unnecessary acts of violence, or excessive force.

Pitchess v. Superior Court (1974) 11 Cal.3d 531.

On June 2, 2016, the court heard and denied Coxum's Marsden motion.

People v. Marsden (1970) 2 Cal.3d 118.

On July 12, 2016, pursuant to the defense's Pitchess motion, the court agreed to conduct an in camera review of the officer's personnel file for any records relating to incidents of the officer being untruthful.

On July 18, 2016, the court conducted an in camera review of the officer's personnel file and found there were no discoverable records.

At the trial in this matter, which began on January 18, 2017, the prosecution's evidence established that Coxum lived with his father, Anthony McNeill, in Modesto until June 2012, when he began living with Eldoris Graham, who also lived in Modesto. Graham's best friend, Christine Perry, spoke with Graham daily. Perry last spoke to Graham by phone on December 13, 2012, at approximately 1:42 p.m., and at that time she could hear Coxum in the background.

On December 16, 2012, Perry texted Coxum asking where Graham was and Coxum replied that he was not with her. At around noon, Perry went to the Modesto Police Department and filed a missing person's report. While speaking with Officer Troy Cross, Perry received a call from Coxum on her cell phone and activated her speakerphone. With Cross listening, Coxum first told Perry that on December 13, 2012, he and Graham had done laundry in Modesto and then gone to Panda Express. He then said they had gone to eat and then to a movie. Coxum further stated that Graham went to Oakland to be with another man and that he accompanied her. However, after they argued Graham made him get out of the car in Oakland and left him there. He also stated that after selling her car to a Mexican man, Graham got on a bus to Michigan, that she was with a male friend, and that Perry should speak with him.

According to Cross, Coxum also stated that he went to bed on December 13, 2012, and the following morning when he woke up, Graham was not there.

On December 17, 2012, Officer Bonn Panyanouvong called Graham's cell phone and received a message that it was disconnected. She then called Coxum several times and left a message for him to call her back.

On December 19, 2012, at 5:00 p.m., Coxum called Panyanouvong and told her he last saw Graham on December 13, 2012, when she dropped him off in Oakland and that he thought she might have gone to Michigan. Coxum claimed that he and Graham had spontaneously gone to Oakland for a few days, that they packed a suitcase, and that Graham took her medication. Coxum also stated that he had Graham's car, that she gave it to him, and that he had the documents to support the exchange. Panyanouvong asked Coxum if he could come to the police station and told him to bring the documents. Coxum agreed and said he would meet with her the following day. However, he did not show up and he did not answer or return subsequent phone calls from Panyanouvong.

Graham was diabetic and took insulin.

On December 19, 2012, between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m., Coxum arrived in Dunn, North Carolina in Graham's car, at the trailer where his childhood friend, Frederick Elliot, lived with his wife, Tonya Edwards. After Coxum and Elliot sat down and were talking in the living room, Coxum received a call on his cell phone from McNeill. During the ensuing conversation, which was loud enough for Elliot to hear, McNeill was very excited and said that several police officers had been to his residence and questioned him about a woman "being dead." He asked Coxum where he was and Coxum replied that he was in Nevada, that he did not know where the woman was, and that he had gone to Nevada after leaving her at a bus station in Oakland. Coxum then hung up the phone and asked Elliot to go outside with him. Elliot complied and once outside, Coxum called his mother, who lived in Erwin, North Carolina. Coxum told her that if anybody called looking for him, she should say she had not seen him and that he was in Nevada. After the call ended, Elliot asked Coxum if he was alright and Coxum responded, "That bitch dead, man. That bitch in the ground." Coxum then drove off in Graham's car.

Edwards overheard Coxum tell McNeill on the phone, that he was "in Nevada" and that he left "her" in Oakland. While the men were outside, she was in the kitchen and overheard Coxum tell Elliot that the "bitch [was] in the ground." After Coxum left, she became hysterical and the following morning she went to stay with her mother.

During the next two days, Coxum visited Elliot and stayed over one night. During that time, he sometimes took the license plates off Graham's car and placed them behind a couch. Additionally, once when Elliot told Coxum his wife would not come home because Elliot had people there, Coxum told Elliot he should do to her what Coxum did to his girlfriend. On another occasion, while Coxum gave Elliot a ride to the unemployment office, Coxum's cell phone rang several times and Coxum ended the calls before answering them. Coxum then told Elliot to return the call and tell the person on the other end that Elliot bought the phone from a man at the Oakland bus station. Elliot called the man as instructed because he was afraid Coxum might harm his wife.

On December 21, 2012, Modesto police officers executed a search warrant at Graham's apartment. During the search, officers found Graham's purse, wallet, identification, insulin and syringes, and a suitcase full of women's clothes.

On December 26, 2012, while Coxum and a female friend were in Elliot's living room, Elliot went outside, ostensibly to smoke a cigarette, and called 911. A few minutes later, police officers arrived at Elliot's trailer and arrested Coxum.

On January 11, 2013, Graham's body was found in a shallow grave under a pedestrian bridge. Graham had been gagged with a white cloth secured with duct tape. She suffered multiple stab wounds, including one to the chest that penetrated a lung and one on the right side of her neck that cut her jugular vein. Graham died from loss of blood caused by multiple stab wounds.

Approximately one gallon of blood was found in her chest cavity.

In June 2013, Detective Michael Hicks traveled to North Carolina and interviewed Coxum. Coxum told Hicks that on December 13, 2012, he and Graham went to a laundromat, to Panda Express to get something to eat, and then back to the laundromat. Coxum claimed Graham drove them both to Oakland and that the original plan was for her to drop Coxum off at the bus station; instead, she left him stranded there. According to Coxum, at approximately 1:30 a.m., on December 14, 2012, they got off on Martin Luther King Boulevard and started walking. However, Coxum returned to Graham's car to get his coat. When he turned around, Graham was gone. Coxum sat in Graham's car and texted her. He also called Graham's phone several times, but it was turned off and Coxum's calls went straight to voice mail. At approximately 3:00 a.m., he was back at Graham's apartment in Modesto and he, again, called and texted her. At 9:30 a.m., after getting his paycheck from his employer, Coxum went back to Oakland and walked around until approximately 3:00 p.m. He called Graham but did not get an answer. He also called her two or three days later.

Detective Hicks also brought Graham's car back to California. In the trunk, Hick's found the car's license plates, a bottle of bleach, and clothes. --------

Detective Phillip Weber testified as an expert on cell phone records and cell phone tower transmissions. According to Weber, cell phone records indicated that on December 13, 2012, at approximately 9:27 p.m., Graham's phone and Coxum's phone received calls while in the same general area of Modesto. However, after Graham's cell phone received a call in Modesto at 9:52 p.m., it stopped transmitting a signal. On December 14, 2012, at 4:00 a.m., a call was made on Coxum's cell phone from east Modesto to Graham's cell phone. From 8:00 to 8:10 a.m., calls were made on Coxum's cell phone from central Modesto. Starting at 8:30 a.m., Coxum's phone began traveling south and reached the San Diego area before it traveled north to Hollywood. From December 15 through December 18, 2012, Coxum's cell phone travelled from Hollywood to North Carolina. The cell phone records, however, did not show that Graham's phone went to Oakland on December 13 or that Coxum's phone went to Oakland on December 13 or 14, 2012.

On February 3, 2017, the jury found Coxum guilty of first degree murder and found true the arming enhancement.

On March 7, 2017, the court sentenced Coxum to an aggregate, indeterminate term of 25 years to life on his murder conviction and a one-year term for the arming enhancement.

Coxum's appellate counsel has filed a brief that summarizes the facts, with citations to the record, raises no issues, and asks this court to independently review the record. (People v. Wende, supra, 25 Cal.3d 436.) Coxum has not responded to this court's invitation to submit additional briefing.

Following an independent review of the record, we find that no reasonably arguable factual or legal issues exist.

DISPOSITION

The judgment is affirmed.


Summaries of

People v. Coxum

COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
Apr 26, 2018
F075276 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 26, 2018)
Case details for

People v. Coxum

Case Details

Full title:THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. ANTHONY DEVON COXUM, Defendant…

Court:COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

Date published: Apr 26, 2018

Citations

F075276 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 26, 2018)