P. v. Meeks

Filed 3/17/06 P. v. Meeks CA1/1

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.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

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

Defendant Curtis Jamell Meeks was sentenced to three consecutive life terms and a determinate term of 24 years 8 months in prison after he was found by a jury to have tortured (counts 2, 4, and 6 [Pen. Code, § 206]),^[1] assaulted (counts 1 and 3 [§ 245, subd. (a)(1)], count 5 [§ 240]), falsely imprisoned (count 8 [§ 236]), and inflicted great bodily injury on (counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 [§ 12022.7, subd. (e)]), his girlfriend, J.F. He contends that the judgment must be reversed because his motion for a new trial based on incompetence of counsel was erroneously denied, or because his right to confront the witnesses against him was denied given his inability to see them when they testified. He further contends that there was insufficient evidence to support the great bodily injury enhancements on two of the torture counts and one of the assault counts, and that the sentences on two of the assault offenses and their great bodily injury enhancements should have been stayed pursuant to section 654.

We agree with defendant's section 654 arguments, but conclude that his other claims lack merit. We will modify the judgment accordingly and affirm the judgment as modified.

I. FACTS

The crimes occurred on the nights of November 20 and 21, 2003, at a motel in Fairfield where defendant was living with J.F. and their son. J.F. testified as follows:

She and defendant had been in a relationship for about six years. In June and August of 2002, when they were living in the state of Washington, J.F. had to call the police because defendant assaulted her. In the first incident he hit her in the leg with a wet towel; in the second incident he hit her in the face.

On November 20, 2003, defendant became angry with J.F. because he thought she was cheating on him. He started choking her when she was putting their son to sleep because he thought she was ignoring him, and then threatened to hit her with the bar from a towel rack in the bathroom. He then told her to take her pants off, took a metal hanger from the closet, straightened it out, heated it with a lighter, and whacked her on the legs with it 20 times, leaving burn marks on her thighs.

Defendant became angry with J.F. the next night after J.F. objected to him going out to a club with another woman. He threw her on the bed, held her down, and choked her for hours. She could not breathe, foamed at the mouth, and kept blacking out. Defendant stopped choking her for a moment when their son got on the bed and asked him to stop. Defendant pushed the boy off the bed and ordered him to go into the bathroom. J.F. kept saying that she was sorry, telling defendant that she loved him, and asking him to stop, but he kept choking her, â€