P. v. Laurel
Filed 5/24/06 P. v. Laurel CA2/3
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS
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IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION THREE
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. JAVIER LAUREL, Defendant and Appellant. | B178176 (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. KA063759) |
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County,
Charles E. Horan, Judge. Modified and, as so modified, affirmed.
Alisa A. Shorago, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters and Susan Sullivan Pithey, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
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Javier Laurel appeals the judgment entered following his conviction by jury of two counts of attempted willful, deliberate and premeditated murder in which he personally discharged a firearm. (Pen. Code, §§ 664/187, subd. (a), 12022.53, subd. (c).)[1] The trial court sentenced Laurel to two consecutive life terms plus 40 years in state prison. Laurel claims his convictions must be reversed because a videotaped statement, offered as a prior inconsistent statement of a prosecution witness, should have been excluded as involuntary, and the trial court admitted prejudicial evidence of firearms unrelated to this case. We reject these claims but modify the award of presentence custody credit and, as so modified, affirm the judgment.
BACKGROUND
1. The freeway shooting incident.
On August 16, 2003, at approximately 7:15 p.m., Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies Andrew Shackelford and Victor Ruiz were carpooling home on the 10 Freeway in a convertible Camaro. The deputies, both of whom were wearing street clothes, noticed a silver Toyota Highlander driving next to them. Laurel, the driver of the Highlander, was wearing a white cowboy hat. He repeatedly made eye contact with the deputies, then spoke to the passengers in the Highlander and looked back at the deputies. Laurel laughed, shrugged and then flipped the deputies off. Shackelford alternately sped up and slowed down but the Highlander matched the speed of the Camaro. Laurel displayed a blue steel pistol in his left hand, looked directly at the deputies, gestured and smiled. Shackelford got behind the Highlander, which had paper dealer plates, and called 911.
The Highlander exited the freeway at Vincent Avenue and stopped on the off ramp. Shackelford stopped 100 to 150 feet behind the Highlander. Laurel leaned out the driver's window of the Highlander and fired three rounds from the handgun, one of which ricocheted off the center of the Camaro's windshield. Ruiz fired nine rounds at the Highlander with Shackelford's pistol. The Highlander then proceeded into a shopping center at the corner of Vincent and Cameron Avenues. Shackelford followed and, when the Highlander stopped and the doors opened, both deputies got behind the Camaro. Shackelford ordered people on the sidewalk to get down and identified himself and Ruiz as Sheriff's Deputies. The Highlander sped across the parking lot and went north in the southbound lanes of Vincent Avenue. Shackleford attempted to follow the Highlander but the Camero's tires went flat on the center median.
2. Investigation.
On August 24, 2003, at 2:10 a.m., Sheriff's Deputy Richard Laflin stopped the Highlander based on a flyer that described the vehicle involved in the freeway incident. Also, the driver of the Highlander, Jose Valenzuela, bore some similarities to a composite sketch of the freeway shooting suspect. Valenzuela and his passenger, Valenzuela's fiancée Lazette Parillo, were taken into custody and questioned by West Covina Police Detective Steven Wheeless. In his interview, Valenzuela identified Laurel as the individual depicted in the composite sketch. Valenzuela told Wheeless that he obtained the Highlander on August 21 at Diana Busalacchi's house in Baldwin Park. Valenzuela met Laurel there and overheard him tell Busalacchi he had been involved in a shooting incident with police officers on the freeway and in a parking lot. Laurel said he fired shots at the officers and there were bullet holes in his vehicle. Valenzuela did not realize the Highlander was the vehicle involved in the shooting.
3. Laurel's first arrest.
Detectives Wheeless and Cruz Garcia went to Laurel's home on August 29, 2003, to serve an arrest warrant. Garcia saw Laurel, his wife Beatriz Laurel (hereafter Beatriz) and two of their children leave the location in a Dodge truck that was registered to Busalacchi. When City of Ontario police officers stopped the truck, Garcia found a nine-millimeter pistol in Beatriz's purse. Wheeless told Laurel he was being arrested for a shooting but did not mention it involved off-duty peace officers.
West Covina Police Officer Ken Plunkett transported Laurel from Ontario to the West Covina police station. During the drive, Laurel laughed at a Bob Marley song, I Shot the Sheriff, playing on the radio. The song's lyrics include the line, â€
