P. v. Morales

Filed 1/23/07  P. v. Morales CA2/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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  This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.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

            APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County,

Ronald S. Coen, Judge.  Affirmed.

            Mark D. Greenberg, 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, Assistant Attorney General, Kenneth N. Sokoler and Russell A. Lehman, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

_________________________

            Defendant and appellant, Erick Isaac Morales, appeals from the judgment entered following his conviction, by jury trial, for two counts of first degree murder with a multiple murder special circumstance finding, and enhancements for firearm use and gang activity (Pen. Code, §  187, 190.2, subd.  (a)(3), 12022.53, 186.22, subd.  (b)(1)).^[1]  Sentenced to state prison for consecutive terms of life without possibility of parole, plus 35 years to life, Morales contends there was trial and sentencing error.

            The judgment is affirmed.

BACKGROUND

            Viewed in accordance with the usual rule of appellate review (People v. Ochoa (1993) 6 Cal.4th 1199, 1206, we find the evidence established the following.       

            1.  Prosecution evidence.

                        a.  The murders.

            On July  21, 1999, Eduardo Cervantes was found lying in the street near the Ninth Street off-ramp of the 10  freeway.  He was unconscious and not breathing.  Paramedics took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.  The autopsy showed Cervantes had been shot once in the face and three times in the back.

            On November  1, 2000, Detective Jose Martinez, responding to the report of a homicide in Sylmar, found the body of Cesar Flores.  Martinez also found a broken knife, and bloodstains and shoe prints between Flores's body and the broken knife.  The autopsy showed Flores had abrasions, scrapes and scratches on his forehead, face and jaw; these injuries were consistent with his having fallen on pavement.  Bruises and abrasions to Flores's forearms were suggestive of defensive wounds.  Flores had been shot.  He had also been stabbed in the chest and in the back, and his throat had been slashed.

                        b.  The confessions.

            On June  17, 2003, defendant Morales walked into a police station in Stayton, Oregon, and asked to talk to a detective.  Detective Jason Hess spoke to Morales, who confessed to having committed two murders in Los Angeles.  In a tape-recorded interview, Morales acknowledged having come to the police station on his own accord and he described the killings.

            In August 1999, a man named C. gave Morales a gun and told him to shoot Cervantes.  Morales was in the back seat of a car being driven by C. and Cervantes was in the front passenger seat.  As the car was being driven down the freeway, Morales shot Cervantes and then dumped his body along the highway.

            The second murder occurred on November  1, 2000, in Sylmar.  Flores and a man named T. had been trying to set Morales up.  At some point, Morales learned they were lying in wait for him outside his grandmother's apartment.  The next day, Morales and Flores were driving around in a car being driven by a third person.  Morales stabbed Flores three or four times, and then shot him when he tried to run.  Morales also talked about a man named N.C., who worked for another man who was a leader of the Mexican Mafia.

            Detective Martinez went to Oregon and returned with Morales in custody.  Martinez also took a tape-recorded statement.  Morales said he joined the Mara Salvatrucha gang in 1998.  Cesar Flores joined the same gang in 1994, but Morales was friends with him from before that time.  Eventually, Morales started to hang around with N.C. and other members of the Wilmer clique of Mara Salvatrucha.  N.C. worked for someone in the Mexican Mafia.

            Eduardo Cervantes stole money and drugs from David, a man who sold drugs for N.C.  David apparently informed C., who worked as a wholesaler to drug dealers like David.  On the day of the murder, C. picked up Morales and gave him a gun.  They picked up Cervantes and drove him to a bar where Cervantes wanted to buy drugs.  When C. stopped the car, he signaled Morales to kill Cervantes, but Morales hesitated because he had never murdered anyone before.  When Cervantes got out, C. told Morales to give him back the gun.  But Morales â€