P. v. Smith

Filed 3/20/06 P. v. Smith CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.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

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Daniel

J. Didier and William L. Evans, Judges. Affirmed.

Richard Schwartzberg, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Robert M. Foster, Pamela A. Ratner Sobeck and Bradley A. Weinreb, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Appellant was convicted of various fraud-related offenses for participating in an identity theft scheme that landed him a new Lincoln Navigator. He contends the trial court erred in (1) denying his motion for a new attorney, and (2) denying his motion for a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel. Finding these contentions unmeritorious, we affirm the judgment.

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In 2002, Laquasha Smith (no relation to appellant) worked as a salesperson at a car dealership in Huntington Beach. On January 15, she got a call from Steve Lawson, who was a freelance broker of sorts for the dealership. He had brought in customers before, and on this occasion, he told Smith he had a buddy who was interested in buying a Lincoln Navigator. Smith, who was fairly new at the job, was very excited about the prospect of making the sale.

The next day, Lawson arrived at the dealership with a black man who identified himself as Robert Gomez. Lawson did most of the talking. He negotiated the deal with manager Ahmed Ismail, while Gomez paced around the sales floor. From time to time, Smith tried to converse with Gomez, but he wasn't very chatty. He just wanted to know if the deal was going to go through. He seemed antsy and anxious and even threatened to leave a couple of times. However, Smith was able to appease him, and eventually Ismail and Lawson came to terms on a deal for Gomez to purchase a Navigator.

Smith gave Gomez some paperwork, including a credit application and purchase agreement that he filled out. On the credit application, Gomez listed a driver's license number that was only slightly different than appellant's.^[1] And for his residence, he listed the address of Dayna Brown, who is a good friend of appellant.

Ismail ran the credit application and spoke with Lawson and Gomez. Gomez also spoke with finance manager Kelly George in her office. After the deal was finalized, Smith had the vehicle brought around, handed the keys over to Gomez, and he drove it away. According to Smith, the entire transaction took around three hours. She did not talk or interact with Gomez much during that time. She said he didn't smile much and she didn't notice anything peculiar about his teeth. Neither did George.

Ten days later, on January 25, 2002, appellant was stopped for speeding in the Navigator. Although he did not have his driver's license, he gave the officer his driver's license number, as well as his name and date of birth. A computer check revealed appellant's license had been suspended, but everything else checked out, so he was released.

About nine months later, in October 2002, appellant was pulled over for having expired license tabs. He was driving a white El Camino on this occasion, and inside the vehicle there was a briefcase that appellant said he used for â€