PEOPLE v. JONES



























Filed 8/9/10











CERTIFIED
FOR PUBLICATION





COURT
OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT



DIVISION
ONE



STATE
OF CALIFORNIA






>

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. AHMANDA DIA JONES, Defendant and Appellant.

D055087 (Super. Ct. No. SCD215947)

APPEAL from
a judgment of the Superior Court
of San Diego
County, Frank A. Brown, Judge.
Affirmed.



David L.
Polsky, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Edmund G.
Brown Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney
General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Barry Carlton and Pamela
Ratner, Deputies Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Defendant
Ahmanda Jones appeals from her conviction for shooting at an occupied vehicle. A jury convicted Jones of attempted voluntary
manslaughter and of shooting at an occupied vehicle after an incident in which
Jones shot at a man with whom she had a disagreement concerning payment for
sexual services. During deliberations,
the jury asked the court whether a person could be convicted of shooting at an
occupied vehicle if her body was outside the vehicle, but her hand and/or the
gun were inside the vehicle when she pulled the trigger. In response to the jury's question, the court
instructed the jury that a person could be convicted of shooting at an occupied
vehicle under those circumstances.

On appeal,
Jones contends that the trial court
erred in instructing the jury that it could convict her of shooting at an
occupied vehicle if it believed that her hand and/or the gun were inside the
vehicle when she shot into the vehicle.
We reject this contention and conclude that the trial court correctly
instructed the jury that a person standing outside a vehicle who, while holding
a gun, reaches into the vehicle through an open window or door and fires the
gun, may be convicted of shooting "at" an occupied vehicle. We therefore affirm the judgment of the trial
court.

II.

FACTUAL
AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Factual background

1. >Prosecution case

On the
night of August 29, 2008,
Angel Torres arranged to meet with Jones, a prostitute whom he had met a few
nights earlier, to have sex. Jones
picked up Torres in a borrowed black two-door Ford Explorer and drove to a
parking structure in Mission Valley.

After Jones
parked the car, Torres paid Jones $60 to have intercourse with her and for her
to orally copulate him. The two moved to
the back seat of the vehicle, where Jones performed oral copulation on Torres
for five to 10 minutes. After that,
Torres engaged in intercourse with Jones. While they were having intercourse, Jones and
Torres got into a dispute about the length of time that Torres was taking
"to finish." Jones demanded
more money from Torres to continue having intercourse. Torres said that he did not have more
money. Jones then told Torres to get off
of her, which he did, and threatened to drive away and leave him in the parking
structure.

Torres took
the keys out of the vehicle's ignition in order to prevent Jones from driving
off without him. Jones became angry and
got out of the vehicle. She lifted the
hood of the Explorer and retrieved a gun from the engine compartment. Torres was inside the vehicle looking for his
possessions when he heard a shot coming from the driver's side of the
vehicle. Torres did not look to see
where Jones was because he was thinking only about getting out of the
vehicle. However, the last time that he
saw Jones, she was standing in front of the car. As Torres was getting out of the vehicle, he
heard two more shots. Torres ran through
the parking structure to escape Jones and eventually made his way onto a nearby
freeway, where he collapsed.

Paramedics
took Torres to the hospital. Torres had
been shot once in the neck and twice in the upper torso. None of the gunshot wounds was life threatening. Torres was treated at the hospital and
released the following day.

2. Defense
case

Jones
testified in her own defense. According
to Jones, when she asked Torres for more money, he became upset and aggressive,
which caused her to worry about her safety.
Jones became frightened when Torres grabbed the keys out of the
ignition. Torres continued to be
aggressive with her, and she resisted.
Jones saw an object in Torres's pants and grabbed it. The object was a gun. As Jones raised the gun, Torres reached for
her hand and the gun went off.

Jones
testified that Torres threatened to kill her.
She tried to get out of the vehicle, but the door was locked. She fired at Torres two more times. After Jones fired these shots, Torres got out
of the vehicle and ran off.

B. >Procedural background

A jury
convicted Jones of attempted voluntary manslaughter (Pen. Code,[1]
§§ 664, 192) ― a lesser included offense of attempted murder as
charged in count 1, and of shooting at an occupied motor vehicle
(§ 246 (count 2)). With
respect to count 2, the jury found true the allegation that Jones
personally discharged a firearm causing great bodily injury, within the meaning
of section 12022.53, subdivision (d). As
to count 1, the jury found true the allegation that Jones personally used
a firearm within the meaning of section 12022.5.

Jones
admitted that she had suffered a prior strike conviction within the meaning of
sections 667, subdivisions (b) through (i) and 1170.12.

The trial
court sentenced Jones to state prison
for a term of 14 years on count 2, one year four months for a probation
violation, and an additional 25 years to life for the section 12022.53,
subdivision (d) enhancement, for a total term of 15 years four months,
plus 25 years to life. The court stayed
imposition of sentence on count 1.

III.

DISCUSSION

During
deliberations, the jury sent the court a note in which the jury asked the
following question: "If the
Defendant's body is outside the vehicle but [the defendant] fires the gun when
the gun is inside the vehicle does the law about shooting at an occupied
vehicle apply[â€