P. v. Fuentes
Filed 7/31/06 P. v. Fuentes CA2/1
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION ONE
| THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. JOSE FRANCISCO FUENTES, Defendant and Appellant. | B184728 (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BA268366) |
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Robert J. Perry, Judge. Reversed.
Kathy M. Chavez, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, and Tara M. Mulay for Defendant and Appellant.
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Susan D. Martynec, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and Robert S. Henry, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
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Jose Fuentes appeals from the judgment entered following a jury trial in which he was convicted of second degree murder and found to have personally used a knife during the commission of the offense. He contends that the trial court prejudicially erred in rejecting arguments that his confession was taken in violation of Miranda[1] and was involuntary. We conclude that the confession was involuntary and its admission into evidence was prejudicial, and reverse the judgment on that basis.
FACTS
Defendant, the victim Gustavo Ortiz, and the witnesses in this case were residents of the William Penn Hotel, a residential hotel on West Eighth Street in Los Angeles. In the late evening of Saturday, July 10, 2004, Ortiz was found unconscious in a stairwell of the hotel, having sustained a single stab wound to the chest. He died early the next morning.
Kevin Armstrong testified that he had been standing outside his fifth floor apartment that evening with five or six other residents, including defendant and Ortiz. Everyone except Armstrong spoke to each other in Spanish, and the Spanish speakers other than defendant spoke to Armstrong in English. (Armstrong does not speak Spanish, and defendant said nothing to Armstrong in either language.) Armstrong described defendant as being intoxicated and â€
