Filed 4/18/17 P. v. Rojas-Vazquez CA4/3








NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). The opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE


THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

CARLOS ROJAS-VAZQUEZ,

Defendant and Appellant.


G053889

(Super. Ct. No. 15CF0475)

O P I N I O N
Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, David A. Hoffer, Judge. Affirmed.
Nancy S. Brandt, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent.

* * *
A jury convicted Carlos Rojas-Vazquez (defendant) of misdemeanor domestic battery (Pen. Code, § 243, subd. (e)(1) [count 1 – Maria C.]; all statutory references are to the Penal Code) as a lesser included offense of willful infliction of corporal injury (§ 273.5, subd. (a)), assault with a deadly weapon (§ 245, subd. (a)(1) [count 2 - Maria C.]), attempted criminal threats (§§ 422, subd. (a), 664 [count 3 – Maria C.]) as a lesser included offense of the crim of criminal threats, and criminal threats (§ 422, subd. (a) [count 4 – Brenda S.]), and found he used a knife (§ 12022, subd. (b)(1)) as to counts 3 and 4. Defendant appealed, and his appointed counsel filed a brief under the procedures outlined in People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436 (Wende). Defendant did not file a supplemental brief. Because our review of the record discloses no arguable issues, we affirm the judgment.

I
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Brenda S. testified at trial in July 2016 she and Maria C. had been friends for five years at the time of the March 2015 incident. Defendant was Maria’s husband or boyfriend. On the evening of March 7, Brenda, Maria, defendant, and defendant’s friend, P.C., congregated at a Santa Ana nightclub. Everyone in the group except Brenda became intoxicated. Defendant and Maria argued at the club and defendant “was aggressive.” Defendant disappeared around midnight, but the others stayed at the nightclub until approximately 1:20 a.m.
P.C. drove the women back to Maria and defendant’s home. When they arrived, defendant was sitting in front of the house with a beer. He walked to the truck and began banging on Maria’s window. He held a black kitchen knife and appeared “really mad.” He yelled at Maria and called her names, including bitch and “hoe”, and complained she had not looked for him after he left the nightclub. He ordered her to get out of the truck or he would strike her, and he threatened to kill her. P.C. or Maria lowered the window, and defendant reached into the truck, grabbed Maria’s hair, struck her, and tried to pull her from the vehicle. Brenda held Maria’s other arm and told defendant to leave Maria alone. Defendant told Brenda not to “say a word or else” she “was going to get it too” and he “was going to kill” her.
According to Brenda, defendant reached across Maria’s body with the knife in his hand. When Maria opened the door, defendant tried to pull her out of the SUV, and defendant made a stabbing motion in the direction of her shoulder. The knife caused a 1/4 inch puncture wound on Maria’s left shoulder area, resulting in significant bleeding, but the wound did not require stitches. Defendant appeared startled, threw the knife into the street and departed in Maria’s vehicle. Photographs of the knife showed it near a can of Modelo beer, the same brand the group had been drinking that evening. The jury heard Brenda’s 911 call and recorded interview with a police officer at the scene for the jury.
Defendant testified he left the club and walked home after becoming upset that Maria was dancing with Brenda and ignoring him, but denied arguing with her. He also denied banging on the SUV’s window, but did place his hand against it and told Maria to get out. He grabbed Maria’s arm to pull her out of the SUV and told Brenda to let go of Maria. He denied making threatening statements to either woman. He had a large, unopened bottle of Corona beer and a knife in his right hand, he intended to use the knife to open his beer. He reached across Maria to “[l]ike hug her” to get her out of the vehicle, forgetting about the knife in his hand. He stopped trying to pull Maria from the car after Brenda shouted that Maria wanted to go with her and she was calling the police. He never saw any blood and did not realize he had cut Maria. Defendant departed because he was in the country illegally and did not want trouble with the police. He parked around the corner, sat in the car and drank his beer, using the sidewalk to take the top off the beer. P.C. told him the following day that he had stabbed Maria.
The jury convicted defendant as noted above. At sentencing in August 2016, the trial court suspended imposition of sentence and placed defendant on probation on various terms and conditions, including 364 days in local custody and a 52-week batterer’s program with an alcohol/drug component. The court imposed a $300 restitution fine and issued a protective order covering Maria and Brenda.
II
DISCUSSION
Following Wende guidelines, we have reviewed counsel’s brief and the appellate record. Appellate counsel notes she considered several issues in conducting her review, including whether defense counsel performed ineffectively by failing to argue defendant’s intoxication as it related to the specific intent element of criminal threats, whether the trial court erred in admitting Brenda’s recorded 911 call, and whether the court erred by denying defense counsel’s request for CALCRIM No. 225 in addition to CALCRIM No. 224. Our review of the entire record, including the matters identified by counsel, does not show the existence of an arguable issue. (Wende, supra, 25 Cal.3d at pp. 442-443.)


III
DISPOSITION
The judgment is affirmed.



ARONSON, J.

WE CONCUR:



O’LEARY, P. J.



BEDSWORTH, J.