Justia California Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Nicandro Galaviz was committed to a state mental health institution for a term of 60 years to life after he was found not guilty by reason of insanity of possession of methamphetamine and assault with a deadly weapon. In July 2017, Galaviz filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the commitment order. Galaviz previously filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the trial court. After holding an evidentiary hearing, the court referred to the hearing as something “akin to a retrospective competency hearing” and denied Galaviz’s petition on the ground Galaviz failed to prove he was incompetent at the time of trial. The petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed with the Court of Appeal was granted; the Court found the trial court erred in 1996 by failing to hold a hearing to determine Galaviz’s competence at the time of trial. "Reports filed by mental health professionals in the months preceding trial raised serious doubt about Galaviz’s competence to stand trial. This error constitutes reversible error unless it is feasible to conduct a retrospective competency hearing to now determine whether Galaviz had been competent to stand trial in 1996. The prosecution failed to carry its burden of showing that conducting such a retrospective competency hearing is feasible based on a totality of the circumstances in this case." View "In re Galaviz" on Justia Law

Defendants Peter Holt, Holt Law Firm, and Bethany Holt (collectively Holt) appealed the denial of their special motion to strike (also known as an anti-SLAPP--Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation--motion). Peter Holt and his law firm briefly represented Charles and Victoria Yeager and successfully sued Victoria Yeager to obtain his fees in an action known as Holt v. Yeager (Super. Ct. Nevada County, No. L76533). Yeager then sued Holt, alleging professional negligence, misappropriation of name, and other claims. Holt moved to declare Yeager’s suit to be a SLAPP suit. The trial court found this suit did not chill protected expressive conduct or free speech on an issue of public interest. The Court of Appeal agreed and affirmed. View "Yeager v. Holt" on Justia Law

Defendant Michael Williams stabbed his wife, victim Tanganyika Hoover Williams, twice in the neck, and she bled to death. The trial court permitted the State to introduce evidence at trial of defendant’s then 23-year-old Oklahoma conviction for shooting with intent to kill, and circumstances leading to that charge. Defendant’s jury found him guilty of first degree murder with personal use of a deadly weapon. The jury then found defendant sane, and the trial court found he had a prior serious felony conviction and prior strike (the Oklahoma conviction). The court sentenced defendant to prison for 50 years to life plus six years. Defendant claimed on appeal, in part, that the trial court abused its discretion when it permitted the State to introduce evidence underlying his Oklahoma conviction. The California Court of Appeal agreed this evidence had scant relevance to this case, and any relevance it did have was vastly outweighed by its potential for unfair prejudice. "This evidence was heavily relied on by the prosecutor in arguing for premeditation and deliberation in what was otherwise not a strong case for first degree murder, thus the error was prejudicial." However, because sufficient evidence (apart from the prior acts evidence) was presented in the case-in-chief to support first degree murder, the Court rejected defendant’s claims that trial counsel should have moved to acquit and that no substantial evidence supported the verdict. Therefore, a retrial on the first degree murder charge was not precluded. View "California v. Williams" on Justia Law

Defendant Michael Williams stabbed his wife, victim Tanganyika Hoover Williams, twice in the neck, and she bled to death. The trial court permitted the State to introduce evidence at trial of defendant’s then 23-year-old Oklahoma conviction for shooting with intent to kill, and circumstances leading to that charge. Defendant’s jury found him guilty of first degree murder with personal use of a deadly weapon. The jury then found defendant sane, and the trial court found he had a prior serious felony conviction and prior strike (the Oklahoma conviction). The court sentenced defendant to prison for 50 years to life plus six years. Defendant claimed on appeal, in part, that the trial court abused its discretion when it permitted the State to introduce evidence underlying his Oklahoma conviction. The California Court of Appeal agreed this evidence had scant relevance to this case, and any relevance it did have was vastly outweighed by its potential for unfair prejudice. "This evidence was heavily relied on by the prosecutor in arguing for premeditation and deliberation in what was otherwise not a strong case for first degree murder, thus the error was prejudicial." However, because sufficient evidence (apart from the prior acts evidence) was presented in the case-in-chief to support first degree murder, the Court rejected defendant’s claims that trial counsel should have moved to acquit and that no substantial evidence supported the verdict. Therefore, a retrial on the first degree murder charge was not precluded. View "California v. Williams" on Justia Law

Petitioner Alysia Webb filed a verified petition for mandamus relief with the superior court, alleging the City of Riverside (Riverside) violated Propositions 26 and 218 when it began transferring additional revenue from electric utility reserve fund accounts into the general fund without approval by the electorate. Webb contended the court improperly dismissed her case without leave to amend on a demurrer because the 120-day statute of limitations arising under Public Utilities Code section 10004.52 did not apply to her challenge of Riverside's change in calculation of its electric general fund transfer. She further argued the fund transfers constituted a tax increase because they altered the methodology used to calculate the amount of money Riverside transfers from the electric utility reserve to the general fund. After review, the Court of Appeal disagreed and affirmed the superior court. View "Webb v. City of Riverside" on Justia Law

Appellant Han Jing Huang filed requests for civil harassment restraining orders against thirty-one defendants who were prominent entertainment personalities, business leaders, poloticians and religious leaders. Finding appellant’s claims to be “patently frivolous,” “patently frivolous on petition[’s] face,” or “frivolous on petition’s face,” the trial court denied with prejudice the applications for permanent injunctions prohibiting harassment. The Court of Appeal consolidated the 31 appeals for disposition. Appellant alleged defendants were “a lot of people with Hollywood background or Scientology background . . . or political background,” who “control[ a] mental department in Texas,” by which “they falsely accuse[ him] and use[] technology from mental department (mind reading) [to] attack[ him] secretly[,] . . . ask[ing] some adults to keep on stalking [him] and harass[ing] and threaten[ing him] by nano probes.” In dismissing the cases, the trial court cited no legal precedent or statute, but relied on its “inherent power” to control its proceedings. As best as could be surmised, the Court of Appeal found appellant raised three challenges to the trial court’s orders dismissing the applications for permanent injunctions prohibiting harassment: (1) that the trial court thrice refused to allow appellant to present evidence; (2) that the trial court interrupted the interpreter and the interpreter was not “professional;” and (3) that the trial judge was not impartial. The Court found no reversible error and affirmed the trial court. View "Huang v. Hanks" on Justia Law

The issue this case presented for the Court of Appeals’ review centered on the trial court’s partial denial of a special motion to strike pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16, the anti-SLAPP statute, directed at causes of action arising out of the manner in which defendants, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and Robert Barton, in his capacity as Inspector General, conducted interviews with five correctional officers who previously worked at High Desert State Prison. The interviews were conducted as part of an investigation into that institution’s “practices . . . with respect to (1) excessive use of force against inmates, (2) internal reviews of incidents involving the excessive use of force against inmates, and (3) protection of inmates from assault and harm by others.” As relevant here, these officers and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) alleged in their first and second causes of action that defendants violated Penal Code section 6126.5 and Government Code section 3300 et seq. (the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights or the Act) by refusing the officers’ requests to be represented during the interviews. The trial court denied the anti-SLAPP motion as to these causes of action, concluding: (1) defendants carried their threshold burden of demonstrating the gravamen of these causes of action arose from protected activity; but (2) plaintiffs established a probability of prevailing on the merits of these claims. The Court of Appeal agreed defendants carried their burden on the threshold issue, but concluded plaintiffs failed to establish a probability of prevailing on the merits of these causes of action. The Court therefore reversed the portion of the trial court’s order denying the anti-SLAPP motion with respect to the first and second causes of action and remanded the matter to the trial court with directions to enter a new order granting the motion in its entirety and dismissing the complaint. View "Blue v. Cal. Office of the Inspector General" on Justia Law

R.W. appeals a judgment of dissolution of his marriage with his former husband, respondent, G.C. In the published portion of its opinion, the Court of Appeal addressed two of many claims R.W. raised. In particular, R.W. claimed the trial court erred in determining that the parties' date of union was in 2009 when the parties married, rather than in 2004, when they entered into a domestic partnership under New Jersey law. R.W. contended the parties' New Jersey domestic partnership was "substantially equivalent" (Fam. Code, sec. 299.2) to a California domestic partnership such that it could be dissolved pursuant to section 299, and thus, that the court should have considered the date of the parties' domestic partnership to be the date of union for purposes of the dissolution. After interpreting the meaning of "substantially equivalent" in section 299.2 as a matter of first impression, the Court of Appeal concluded that in light of the limited nature of the rights and obligations that the parties obtained in entering into a domestic partnership under New Jersey law, the trial court properly determined that the parties' 2004 New Jersey domestic partnership was not "substantially equivalent" to a California domestic partnership under section 299.2 so as to permit its dissolution under California law. Second, R.W. claimed the trial court erred in failing to divide equally the appreciation of the value of certain real property that the parties acquired as joint tenants during their marriage, as a community asset. Specifically, R.W. argued the trial court erred in applying a formula for apportioning separate and community property interests in the value of the appreciation because the joint title community property presumption contained in section 2581 applied to the property, and the appreciation therefore belonged entirely to the community. To this point, the Court of Appeal agreed with R.W. and concluded the trial court erred in failing to divide the appreciation in value of the marital residence equally. The Court rejected the remainder of R.W.'s claims in the unpublished portions of the opinion. View "Marriage of G.C. and R.W." on Justia Law

After defendant Brady Dee Douglas’s former boyfriend, a male prostitute, told him victim Jeffrey B. had shorted him money following a prearranged sexual encounter, defendant and codefendant Clifton Sharpe tracked down Jeffrey and demanded payment. During a high-speed chase, defendant pointed a gun at Jeffrey and shot at his car several times. A jury found defendant guilty of attempted second degree robbery, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, shooting at an occupied vehicle, exhibiting a firearm against a person in a vehicle, and carrying a loaded firearm with intent to commit a felony, and found true certain firearm enhancements. The trial court sentenced defendant to prison for six years. On appeal, defendant contended the trial court erred in denying his Batson/Wheeler motion after the prosecutor peremptorily excused the only two openly gay prospective jurors. He also argued the trial court erroneously instructed the jury with CALCRIM No. 460, the pattern jury instruction for attempt, which he asserts was unconstitutionally vague and impermissibly creates a mandatory presumption of intent. The Court of Appeal initially rejected defendant’s instructional challenge, but found the trial court did not properly evaluate defendant’s Batson/Wheeler motion. The Court ordered a remand for the trial court to apply a mixed-motive analysis to the prosecutor’s proffered reasons to determine whether those veniremen would have been challenged regardless of their sexuality. The Court then granted defendant’s rehearing petition and obtained supplemental briefing by the parties and by amici curiae. After review, the Court of Appeal reversed for a new trial “before a jury uninfected by discrimination.” In light of this holding, the Court did not address defendant’s instructional challenge again. View "California v. Douglas" on Justia Law

Defendant Charles Brady stabbed a former customer following a “street side jewelry transaction gone awry.” Based on that incident, defendant was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting great bodily injury. By convicting Brady, the jury necessarily rejected his primary defensive theory: that he was acting in self-defense. On appeal, he defendant asserted no reasonable jury could reach that conclusion. While his argument ultimately challenged the sufficiency of the evidence underlying his conviction, before arriving there, the Court of Appeal found defendant raised an interesting question as to the relevant legal standard. Because the objective standard looks from "the defendant's perspective," Brady contended it should take into account his mental condition and past traumatic experiences. “Essentially, Brady argued that the relevant question is what a reasonable person with bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and his personal history would have done in the situation—i.e., what would a reasonable Brady do?” That, the Court determined, was not the proper standard. Applying the correct legal standard (as the jury did), the Court concluded sufficient evidence supported its rejection of Brady's self-defense theory for want of objective reasonableness. Moreover, there was sufficient evidence for the jury to repudiate his self-defense claim on other grounds. “The jury may have concluded that Brady was not acting out of actual fear for his life since, contrary to his testimony at trial, he told police officers shortly after the event that he was acting to protect his property and made no mention of protecting his person. Alternatively, the jury may have determined that any threat to Brady was not imminent or that the force he used was unreasonable, given that video surveillance showed Brady acting more aggressively than his victim.” View "California v. Brady" on Justia Law