P. v. Avila
Filed 1/10/07 P. v. Avila CA2/7
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IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION SEVEN
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. ERNESTO AVILA, Defendant and Appellant. | B186580 (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. TA072090) |
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Allen J. Webster, Judge. Affirmed.
Edward H. Schulman, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Mary Jo Graves, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Mary Sanchez and Rama R. Maline, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
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Ernesto Avila, convicted of second degree murder (Pen. Code,[1] § 187), appeals his conviction on the grounds of erroneous evidentiary rulings and ineffectiveness of counsel. We affirm.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Just days after removing gang graffiti spray-painted on tarps at his home, Al Yasin Aleem was shot to death by assailants who escaped in a car driven by Avila. The prosecution's trial theory was that Avila and the others were part of a team that killed Aleem in retribution for removing their gang's graffiti. Avila admitted driving in the area before the shooting but claimed not to have known the shooting would occur; he claimed he merely happened upon the scene, knew the two assailants, and picked them up after the shooting.
The jury deadlocked in Avila's first trial, resulting in a mistrial. On retrial, the trial court made some different evidentiary rulings than the court had in the first trial. First, the court permitted the prosecutor to offer a broader scope of expert testimony pertaining to the Compton Varrio 155 Street (â€
