Opinion
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, No. BA299936 Jose I. Sandoval, Judge.
Landra E. Rosenthal, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent.
KLEIN, P. J.
Anthony Lionel Jones appeals from the judgment entered following a jury trial which resulted in his conviction of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)), during the commission of which he personally and intentionally discharged a handgun which proximately caused the death (§ 12022.53, subd. (d)). The trial court sentenced Jones to 50 years to life in prison. We affirm the judgment.
All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
1. Facts.
In 2004, Carolyn Craig lived on North New Hampshire Avenue between Franklin Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. At approximately 5:30 p.m. on December 24, Craig heard three gunshots which had been fired “very, very close” to her home. Craig waited a few minutes and, when she heard sirens, went outside and saw “[a] gentleman laying dead in the street.”
Phichat Laohasongkram was also living on North New Hampshire Avenue on December 24, 2004. At approximately 5:45 that afternoon, Laohasongkram was washing his car in front of his apartment building when he saw a light blue car approach from Franklin Avenue and drive toward Hollywood Boulevard. At the same time, Laohasongkram saw a man walking toward Franklin. The driver of the car called to the pedestrian as if he wished to speak with him. The man walked toward the passenger side of the car and he and the driver appeared to have a conversation. Laohasongkram then heard three gunshots fired in a row. The pedestrian fell to the ground and the blue car drove off.
At approximately 5:45 on Christmas Eve 2004, Claudia Flores and her mother were walking from Claudia’s home on New Hampshire toward Hollywood Boulevard. They passed Julio Roque, who Flores referred to as “Julio.” Roque was walking in the opposite direction, toward Franklin. Shortly after passing Roque, Flores heard gunshots. She turned around to see Roque lying on the ground and a blue car driving away. Flores called 911. The two women then ran back toward Roque and stayed with him until police arrived. Flores did not see the police remove any kind of weapon from Roque’s body.
Los Angeles Police Officer Curtis Davis and his partner, Officer Giberson, were on patrol on December 24, 2004 when, at approximately 6:00 p.m., they received a call directing them to New Hampshire Avenue. Davis, who was the first officer to arrive on the scene, saw Roque’s body lying in the street. He did not remove any weapons from the body. Davis interviewed Laohasongkram, who described the “shooting vehicle” as “a dark blue four-door sedan” with tinted windows.
Prior to 1999, 31-year-old Tamika Reynolds had been convicted of a felony theft offense in Texas. After serving a term in prison for the crime, Reynolds came to California. Here, between 1999 and 2004, Reynolds suffered five misdemeanor convictions for prostitution.
Reynolds had met Jones in 1999 and had dated him for a time. However, in 2004, the two were “[j]ust friends.” At approximately 5:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, 2004, Jones picked up Reynolds from a friend’s home in Hollywood. Reynolds was meeting with Jones so that she could buy some cocaine from him. Reynolds had purchased cocaine from Jones in the past and thought he could “hook [her] up” with some that day.
The two spent some time “[j]ust driving around,” the Hollywood area in Jones’s blue Chevrolet Lumina until Jones turned up New Hampshire. Reynolds, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, did not know why Jones had driven to New Hampshire Avenue. As they were traveling north on New Hampshire, Jones spotted a man walking south. Jones turned around and drove back to where the man was walking, “pulled up on the guy” and stopped the car approximately three feet away from the man. The pedestrian appeared to be a “Mexican” in his “early 20s” and was wearing a checkered jacket. When Jones asked him where he was from, the man, who was standing on the passenger side of the car, answered, “White Fence.” The man then began to act as though he was reaching for something. The next thing Reynolds heard were three gunshots fired from Jones’s handgun. Jones then drove away from the area “real fast.” Reynolds had not seen Jones’s gun until after the shooting.
After Jones fired the weapon, Reynolds began “screaming and crying.” Jones took her to “somewhere in L.A. and dropped [her] off.” Someone then came and picked up Reynolds.
Reynolds did not go to the police immediately. She was taken into custody in July 2005 for prostitution and, at that time, told police about the shooting which occurred on Christmas Eve of 2004. She spoke to the police officers about the shooting because, although she was “interested in having [the] prostitution allegation go away,” she also “felt bad about what happened.” Initially, Reynolds told police officers that she had not been in the car during the shooting. She told the officers “what the [victim] looked like and what happened, but... instead of... saying that [she] was in the car when [Jones] did it, [she] said he dropped [her] off at Rite Aid” before the murder. She told officers that the shooter had been Anthony Jones and described what kind of car Jones had been driving. Reynolds told the police “[e]verything except the fact that [she was] in the car.”
Later, in September when she was not in custody, Reynolds gave the police a “complete statement,” Reynolds admitted that she was in the car when the shooting occurred and stated that she had not told the officers sooner because Jones had threatened to kill her if she did not “keep [her] mouth shut.” Reynolds had not told the police she was in the car during the shooting because she was afraid they would think she had “something to do with it.” In addition to telling police about the shooting, Reynolds told officers she had heard that Jones had been robbed by members of the White Fence gang while he was living at the Holiday Hollywood Express Motel.
Reynolds testified she was a regular user of cocaine until January of 2005. The reason she was in contact with Jones was because he could supply her with the drug. However, after the shooting, she distanced herself from Jones and would not accept his telephone calls. At the same time, she began using much less cocaine. At the time of trial, she was sober and had been for some time.
Michelle Chase has known Jones for six years and had been his girlfriend in 2004. Chase had met Jones through Reynolds, who had been her roommate for a time. Chase’s identification card showed Jones’s grandmother’s address as her home address. Chase told a police officer that members of the White Fence gang had robbed Jones of $2,000 while she and Jones were in the rear parking lot of a Hollywood motel.
Los Angeles Police Detective Jose Carrillo was the investigating officer for the killing of Julio Roque. A review of the crime scene revealed no bullet casings. This indicated that the shooting had occurred from inside a car and not by someone standing outside on the street. When the victim’s jacket was removed, it revealed a tattoo which read “Cerco Blanco” Locos or “White Fence” Crazies.
Jones’s car was found at his residence on South Stanford Street. The windows of the car had been left open so the interior was filled with leaves and trash. From inside the car, police recovered a letter from “Steve Westley, State Controller, addressed to Anthony Jones” and two of Jones’s “social security stub[s].”
It was stipulated by the parties that Dr. Raffi Djabourian, a deputy medical examiner, conducted an autopsy on the body of Julio Roque on December 28, 2004. The doctor “determined that... Roque died from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest.... Roque had three gunshot wounds to his chest, and one gunshot wound to his right hand. [The coroner] noted in his report that Julio Roque had a tattoo at the back of his neck which read Cerco Blanco Locos....” Roque also had “tattoos with the letters W F on both hands.”
2. Procedural history.
On August 11, 2008, an information was filed charging Jones with the murder of Julio Roque (§ 187, subd. (a)). It was further alleged that, during the commission of the crime, Jones “personally and intentionally discharged a firearm, a handgun, which proximately caused” Roque’s death. (§ 12022.53, subds. (b), (c) & (d).)
The trial court denied Jones’s section 995 motion to dismiss on December 1, 2008. The matter was called for trial on March 3, 2009. After presentation of the evidence and review of the instructions with counsel, the trial court instructed the jury.
During deliberations on March 9, 2009, the jury submitted the following inquiries to the trial court: “For our deliberations on Tues., March 10th, we would like a copy of the testimony given by Ms. Tamika Reynolds. [¶] Please provide the testimony given by Detective Carrillo, regarding ‘the robbery.’ (Both times.) [¶] Please provide the testimony given by Ms. Michelle Chase, regarding the ‘robbery.’ ” Both counsel and Jones waived their right to be present at the “read back,” and the court reporter read the requested testimony to the jury in the deliberation room.
At proceedings held on March 10, 2009, the jury indicated it had reached a verdict. With Jones and both counsel present, the court clerk read the verdict form finding Jones “guilty of the crime of murder of Julio Roque in the first degree, in violation of Penal Code section 187[, subdivision] (a), a felony as charged in count 1.” In addition, the jury found “the allegation that the defendant, Anthony Jones, personally and intentionally discharged a firearm, a handgun, which proximally [sic] caused death to Julio Roque, within the meaning of... section 12022.53[, subdivision] (d) true.”
After Jones waived time for sentencing, those proceedings were set for April 3, 2009. On that day, the trial court indicated it had received a notarized declaration from Jones’s sister which stated: “I, Tiffany Darby, would like to inform you that on March 6th 2009 Michelle Chase testified while being intoxicated. I, Tiffany Darby, smelled alcohol all on her. The case regarding this matter is case No. BA29993601, Anthony Jones.” With regard to the allegation, the prosecutor stated: “By way of comment, I was very close to Ms. Chase when she testified because I was showing her the hotel records and came up near her. I did not smell any alcohol on her, and I did not observe any evidence whatsoever of intoxication.” The trial court indicated it had not been “close enough even though [it sat] next to the witnesses.” The court continued, “Frankly, I don’t remember,... so I can’t address that either way.”
After indicating it had reviewed the probation reports and that no sentencing memoranda had been submitted, the trial court sentenced Jones to 25 years to life for his conviction of first degree murder (§ 187, subd. (a)). For the allegation he personally and intentionally discharged a handgun proximately causing the death, the trial court imposed a consecutive term of 25 years to life (§ 12022.53, subd. (d)). In total, the trial court sentenced Jones to 50 years to life in prison.
The trial court ordered Jones to pay restitution in the amount of $4,999.95, the amount of Roque’s funeral expenses (§ 1202.4, subd. (f)), a $200 restitution fine (§ 1202.4, subd. (b)), a $20 court security fee (§ 1465.8, subd. (a)(1)) and a suspended $200 parole revocation restitution fine (§ 1202.45). The trial court awarded Jones presentence custody credit for 591 days actually served. Jones was awarded no conduct credits (§ 2933.2).
Jones filed a timely notice of appeal on April 3, 2009.
This court appointed counsel to represent Jones on appeal on June 24, 2009.
CONTENTIONS
After examination of the record, counsel filed an opening brief which raised no issues and requested this court to conduct an independent review of the record.
By notice filed August 14, 2009, the clerk of this court advised Jones to submit within 30 days any contentions, grounds of appeal or arguments he wished this court to consider. No response has been received to date.
REVIEW ON APPEAL
We have examined the entire record and are satisfied counsel has complied fully with counsel’s responsibilities. (Smith v. Robbins (2000) 528 U.S. 259, 278-284; People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436, 443.)
DISPOSITION
The judgment is affirmed.
We concur: CROSKEY, J. ALDRICH, J.