Crimes

Name: People v. Carney (2023) 14 Cal.5th 1130
Case #: S260063
Court: CA Supreme Court
Opinion Date: 07/20/2023
  • Categories: Crimes, Crimes Against the Person

Opinion by: Justice Jenkins (unanimous decision) A defendant’s life-threatening deadly acts in a gun battle may be the proximate cause of a bystander’s death, even where someone else fired the fatal shot. A jury convicted two brothers (the Mitchells) of…

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Name: People v. Zemek (2023) 93 Cal.App.5th 313
Case #: D080917
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 4 DCA
Division: 1
Opinion Date: 07/11/2023
  • Categories: Areas Constitutional Law, By CALCRIM Number, COVID-19, Crimes, Crimes Against the Person, Jury Instructions, Other, Trial Proceedings

Trial court’s ruling requiring defendant’s husband and sister to attend her trial via livestreaming on the Internet during the COVID-19 pandemic did not violate her right to a public trial. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zemek was convicted of first degree…

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Name: People v. Gaines (2023) 93 Cal.App.5th 91 (and People v. Ross)
Case #: F083168, F083228
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 5 DCA
Opinion Date: 06/15/2023
Subsequent History: Ordered published 7/5/2023
  • Categories: Accomplices, Crimes, Evidence, Insufficiency/Sufficiency of, Legislation, Statutory Construction

The offenses of discharging a firearm from a vehicle, and permitting another person to discharge a firearm from a vehicle, do not require that the shooter be inside the vehicle at the time of the shooting. At a store, Gaines…

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Name: People v. Madrigal (2023) 93 Cal.App.5th 219
Case #: H046577
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 6 DCA
Opinion Date: 07/06/2023
  • Categories: Discovery, Felony Murder, Murder--Banks/Clark, Murder--Felony Murder, SB 1437

Retroactive application of Senate Bill No. 1437 entitled defendant to reversal of first degree murder conviction, where the jury was not instructed on the new elements of felony-murder. Madrigal was among a group of four or five men who got…

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Name: Counterman v. Colorado (2023) __ U.S. __ [143 S.Ct. 2106]
Case #: 22-138
Court: US Supreme Court
Opinion Date: 06/27/2023
  • Categories: Areas Constitutional Law, Crimes, Freedom of Speech, Mens Rea

Majority opinion: Justice Kagan delivered the opinion of the court, in which Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Kavanaugh, and Jackson joined. Concurring opinion: Justice Sotomayor filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which Justice…

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Name: People v. Reyes (2023) 14 Cal.5th 981
Case #: S270723
Court: CA Supreme Court
Opinion Date: 06/29/2023
  • Categories: Accomplices, Actus Reus, Aiding and Abetting, Crimes, Mens Rea, Murder--Aiding and Abetting Implied Malice Murder

Opinion by: Justice Liu (unanimous decision) Trial court’s conclusion that Penal Code section 1170.95 (now 1172.6) petitioner’s second degree murder conviction was sustainable on a direct perpetrator theory was not supported by substantial evidence. After traveling with fellow gang members…

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Name: People v. Lewis (2023) 14 Cal.5th 876
Case #: S272627
Court: CA Supreme Court
District CalSup
Opinion Date: 06/22/2023
  • Categories: Crimes, Crimes Against the Person, Elements of Crimes

Majority opinion: Chief Justice Guerrero authored the opinion of the Court, in which Justices Corrigan, Liu, Kruger, Groban, Jenkins, and Evans concurred. Concurring opinion: Justice Kruger filed a concurring opinion, in which Justice Groban concurred. The force requirement for kidnapping…

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Name: People v. Waqa (2023) 92 Cal.App.5th 565
Case #: A163761
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 1
Opinion Date: 06/14/2023
  • Categories: Lesser-Included Offenses, One Strike Law, Sentencing

There was insufficient evidence of asportation to support the jury’s aggravated kidnapping finding under the One Strike law where the rape victim was moved from one bathroom stall to another. A jury convicted defendant of forcible rape after he sexually…

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Name: In re Ferrell (2023) 14 Cal.5th 593
Case #: S265798
Court: CA Supreme Court
Opinion Date: 04/06/2023
  • Categories: Appeals, Crimes, Elements of Crimes, Enhancements, Mens Rea, Murder--Felony Murder, Review Principles, Sentencing

The jury’s true finding on a firearm enhancement (Pen. Code, § 12022.53, subd. (d)) did not render Chun error harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Ferrell was convicted of the second degree murder of his fellow-gang member who was killed when…

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Name: People v. Coulthard (2023) 90 Cal.App.5th 743
Case #: H049755
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 6 DCA
Opinion Date: 03/30/2023
Subsequent History: Ordered published 04/19/2023
  • Categories: Areas Constitutional Law, Confront/Cross-exam, Crimes, Due Process, Elements of Crimes, Ex Post Facto, Legislation, Present a Defense, Statutory Construction, Supremacy Clause

To convict defendant of child abduction, the prosecution was not required to prove that the foreign court order or child custody order used to prove defendant’s guilt had previously been registered in California. Defendant’s daughter, M.C., lived with her mother…

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