Opinion
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS
Superior Court County of Santa Barbara Edward H. Bullard, Judge Super. Ct. No. 1222966.
Lisa M. J. Spillman, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent.
PERREN, J.
Rodolfo R. Zuniga appeals the judgment entered after a jury convicted him of commercial burglary (Pen. Code, § 459). The trial court subsequently found true the allegations that Zuniga had suffered two prior prison terms and two felony convictions that rendered him presumptively ineligible for probation (Pen. Code, §§ 667.5, subd. (b), 1203, subd. (e)(4)). He was sentenced to a total term of four years state prison.
On August 31, 2006, California Ag Specialists (CAS) operated a storage trailer, three trucks, and a cooler at a lettuce field on Brown Road in Santa Maria. At approximately 8:15 p.m., CAS employee Humberto Flores locked the trailer with a combination lock and left with Nancy Rodriguez. When Flores and Rodriguez returned approximately 30 minutes later, they saw a man walking near the storage trailer with an empty gallon bottle in his hand. When Flores asked the man what he was doing, the man said he was looking for water for his overheated pickup truck, which he had parked between two of the CAS trucks. Flores told the man there was no water there, and asked him to leave. Flores got the license plate number from the man's pickup and told Rodriguez to write it down. After the man drove away, Flores discovered that the lock on the storage trailer had been broken and that a chop saw used to cut metal was missing. Flores subsequently found the saw under the trailer, along with a large battery charger that had been inside the trailer when Flores locked it earlier that night.
Flores called the police, who arrived shortly thereafter. Rodriguez gave Officer Gary Wilberding the license plate number to the pickup, which she and Flores both described as a gray or primer-colored Ford Ranger. Flores also provided a description of the man, and pointed out the tire prints that had been left in the dirt by his pickup.
Less than an hour later, the police traced the license plate number Rodriguez had given them and discovered that the pickup truck was registered to Enrique Gomez, who lived at 258 Tognazzini in Guadalupe. Flores and Rodriguez came to the residence and identified the pickup in the driveway as the one they had seen earlier that night. Officer Wilberding touched the hood of the pickup and felt that it was warm. The officer also testified at trial that the tread pattern on the pickup's tires matched the pattern he had seen in the dirt on Brown Road.
Rodriguez apparently transposed two of the numbers on the license plate.
Officer Wilberding knocked on the front door to the residence. Zuniga's wife, Claudia Gutierrez, answered the door. Gutierrez said that the pickup had not been moved. When Officer Wilberding told her the hood was warm, she said that she had backed it out of the driveway. Gutierrez also said that she was home alone and claimed she did not know where her husband was. With Gutierrez's consent, the officers searched the residence and found Zuniga hiding in a bedroom closet. No other adult males were present. Zuniga was brought to the front yard, where Flores positively identified him as the man he had encountered earlier that night. Zuniga was arrested. A tire from a semi-truck and a tire iron were recovered from the bed of the pickup. Flores told the police that the tire had been taken from underneath the CAS storage trailer.
Gutierrez, who does not speak English, spoke to an officer who translated for Officer Wilberding.
Zuniga and Gutierrez testified that they lived at the Tognazzini residence with their son and Gomez. Zuniga denied being present at the Brown Road property or driving the gray pickup on the night of August 31. According to Zuniga and Gutierrez, they had spent the afternoon of August 31 moving furniture into their garage from a storage facility in Santa Maria. The furniture had been moved in Zuniga's brown truck, and Gutierrez had temporarily moved the gray truck from the driveway so that they could unload the furniture in the garage. Gomez left in the gray truck at some point, then returned shortly before the police arrived. Zuniga hid in the closet because he was afraid he had arrest warrants for unpaid traffic tickets. Gutierrez claimed that Gomez was present when the police searched the house and that one of the officers spoke to him.
We appointed counsel to represent Zuniga in this appeal. After counsel's examination of the record, she filed an opening brief raising no issues and requesting this court to independently examine the record pursuant to People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436.
On June 8, 2008, we advised Zuniga that he had 30 days within which to personally submit any contentions or issues that he wished to raise on appeal. We have received no response from him.
We have reviewed the entire record and are satisfied that Zuniga's attorney has fully complied with her responsibilities and that no arguable issue exists. (People v. Wende, supra, 25 Cal.3d at pp. 441-442.)
The judgment is affirmed.
We concur: YEGAN, Acting P.J., COFFEE, J.