Opinion
B328877
04-16-2024
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. DANIEL JOSHUA NAJERA, Defendant and Appellant.
Richard L. Fitzer, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Marc A. Kohm and Nikhil Cooper, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County No. SA106706, Christopher W. Dybwad, Judge.
Richard L. Fitzer, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Marc A. Kohm and Nikhil Cooper, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
WILEY, J.
Police were looking for a man described as white, bald, no teeth, and wearing a red shirt. They detained Daniel Joshua Najera, a Hispanic man wearing a red hat and a red shirt. They had reasonable suspicion to detain Najera under the circumstances of this case.
Johnny Assmann called the police and said three people, including a white woman and a white man named Taylor had stolen two motorcycles from him. Officer Jorge Carpio and his partner went to meet Assmann at Olympic Boulevard and Barrington Avenue within a few minutes of the call. Assmann told them he had been at Exposition Boulevard and Barrington with two motorcycles when a man and woman had forced him away from the motorcycles. He fled to Olympic and Barrington, about two blocks away. Assmann said the man was bald and wearing a red shirt and the woman was white. Carpio radioed officers Shawn Hetherington and Charles Kumlander in a helicopter over the area. Carpio told them the suspect was wearing a red shirt and had short hair and that the stolen motorcycles were black and blue. Carpio said short hair instead of bald because he did not know if Assmann "meant completely buzzed or just shaven." Assmann told Carpio that Taylor had no teeth, but Carpio did not relay this information to the officers in the helicopter.
Near the intersection of Exposition and Barrington, Hetherington in the helicopter saw a motorcycle parked on the street and a man in a red shirt standing within five feet of it. Hetherington pointed the man out to Kumlander. The man in the red shirt then got on a bicycle and rode beneath a nearby underpass of the 10 freeway. The officers remained above the underpass.
Officer Aaron Gland and a partner approached the underpass in a patrol car. While en route, about two minutes after receiving the initial radio call, Gland received information from the officers in the helicopter that the suspect was a Hispanic man on a bicycle wearing a red shirt. It is unclear where the Hispanic descriptor came from. Hetherington admitted he could not distinguish race from his vantage nor was that the original information he received.
Hetherington saw Gland and his partner "key in" on a man in a red shirt on the other side of the underpass from where Hetherington had seen the man enter the underpass. Hetherington could not tell if it was the same man in a red shirt.
When Gland and his partner reached the underpass, he saw a Hispanic man wearing a red shirt and a red bucket hat standing on the sidewalk: Najera. Najera looked toward Gland and immediately began walking in the other direction. Gland did not see anyone else wearing a red shirt in the vicinity. Gland told Najera to stop and turned on his red light and siren. Najera began to run. Gland and his partner gave chase and caught and handcuffed Najera. Gland found a handgun in Najera's waistband.
An information charged Najera with being a felon in possession of a firearm and possessing a firearm with an outstanding misdemeanor warrant. Najera moved to suppress the evidence of the firearm, arguing the detention was illegal. The trial court denied the motion. Najera pleaded no contest to the charges against him. The trial court sentenced Najera to 16 months in state prison.
Najera appeals.
We defer to the trial court's express and implied findings that are supported by substantial evidence and independently apply federal constitutional standards to determine if the seizure violates the Fourth Amendment. (People v. Tacardon (2022) 14 Cal.5th 235, 242 (Tacardon).) An officer may detain a person only when specific and articulable facts justify the officer in objectively believing the person was, was about to be, or just had been involved in criminal activity. (In re Tony C. (1978) 21 Cal.3d 888, 893.) The specific and articulable facts must exist before the detention. (Tacardon, supra, 14 Cal.5th at p. 242.)
Officers in the field may rely and act on information they receive through official channels. (In re Eskiel S. (1993) 15 Cal.App.4th 1638, 1643.) However, when it comes time to evaluate the officers' action in a court of law, we look to the source of the information and determine whether the originating officer would have been justified in taking the action of the field officer. (Ibid.)
Thus, the question we face is whether Carpio would have been justified in detaining Najera as Gland did. We hold that he would.
Assmann told Carpio the man who stole his motorcycles was a bald, white man with no teeth wearing a red shirt near Exposition and Barrington. Police then saw a man in a red shirt riding a bicycle away from a motorcycle in that area to an underpass. Gland saw Najera wearing a red shirt next to that underpass minutes later. He did not see anyone else wearing a red shirt in the vicinity. (People v. Brown (2015) 61 Cal.4th 968, 984 [facts that defendant was near crime scene shortly after crime and no one else around significant factors justifying detention].) Under the circumstances, Gland was justified in briefly detaining Najera to determine if he had stolen Assmann's motorcycles. (Illinois v. Wardlow (2000) 528 U.S. 119, 126 [Terry stop more minimal intrusion than arrest allowing officers to investigate further briefly and requiring individual to be allowed to go if probable cause not found].)
Najera makes much of the fact that he is Hispanic and Assmann said the thief was white. While a factor in whether the detention was reasonable, this is not determinative. If there had been two men in red shirts and officers detained Najera while ignoring a white man, certainly the detention would have been unreasonable. That is not the situation. Najera was the only man in the area who partially matched the description. It was reasonable for officers to attempt to question him. (People v. Craig (1978) 86 Cal.App.3d 905, 911-912 [finding detention reasonable even where defendant did not perfectly match description].) This is especially true where the part of the description that matched was an objective measure like a red shirt and the part that did not match was race. Race can be an ambiguous characteristic.
Najera alternatively argues that "Hispanic man in a red shirt" is too general a description to justify a detention. However, descriptions that would otherwise be too general can justify a detention when combined with other factors such as close temporal and geographical proximity, as was the case here. (In re Carlos M. (1990) 220 Cal.App.3d 372, 381-382 [while vague description is not enough, additional circumstances of time and place can add to reasonableness of detention].) Although Najera argues it is of little significance that he was in the general area in the middle of the day, the fact that he was close to the crime scene at nearly the same time is significant. (Ibid.) Najera also argues he was wearing a hat and not near a bicycle or motorcycle. Bucket hats, however, fit in a pocket. One can swiftly move away from a bicycle or motorcycle.
Najera argues that citizens are free to avoid contact with the police, and he was entitled to walk away from the officers. This is certainly true. The fact remains that other circumstances made it reasonable for the officers to detain Najera for questioning.
DISPOSITION
We affirm.
We concur: GRIMES, Acting P. J. VIRAMONTES, J.