CA Unpub Decisions

Defendant Joseph Corral appeals after a jury convicted him of second degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187) and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated (§ 191.5, subd. (a)). The trial court sentenced defendant to an indeterminate prison term of 15 years to life.
On appeal, defendant challenges the jury instructions on both offenses, the sufficiency of the evidence to support both convictions, and the admission of evidence that he refused to consent to a blood draw. Defendant also contends the prosecutor engaged in prejudicial misconduct. We will affirm the judgment.

Defendant Rickey Paul Murray appeals after a jury convicted him of 12 offenses involving weapons possession, narcotics possession, and shooting a firearm. The jury also found true several firearm allegations. The trial court sentenced defendant to an aggregate prison term of 15 years 8 months. The aggregate sentence included a consecutive term for one of the firearm use allegations and consecutive terms for three counts of possession for sale of different narcotics.
On appeal, defendant contends: (1) Penal Code section 654 required the trial court to stay two of the three terms imposed for possession for sale of narcotics; (2) three of his shooting-related convictions must be reversed because there was no substantial evidence to warrant a jury instruction on mutual combat; (3) a remand for resentencing is required so the trial court can exercise its discretion to strike the firearm use enhancement; and (4) the abstract of judgment reflects the incorrect number of custody credit

Plaintiff Lisa Wheeler was walking through a wet tunnel located by Davenport Beach when she slipped and fell, allegedly sustaining injuries. The tunnel, which had existed for decades, was made of natural rock that had been cut out by human activity. The ground in the tunnel contained rocks, along with water from a diverted creek that ran through the tunnel to the ocean. Plaintiff filed a civil action against defendant Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission for premises liability. The trial court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment on the grounds that defendant was entitled to public entity tort immunity under Government Code section 831.2, which provides immunity against claims for injuries caused by a natural condition, and section 831.7, which generally provides immunity for injuries arising out of a hazardous recreational activity.
For reasons that we will explain, we determine that plaintiff’s action is barred under the natural condition immunit

Appellant Jacqueline C. Simonelli appeals from a judgment dismissing her action challenging the approval by respondent City of Carmel-by-the-Sea (the City) of respondent Pot D’Oro’s application for a permit to develop a vacant lot adjacent to Simonelli’s real property. The superior court dismissed the action after it sustained the City’s demurrer without leave to amend. The demurrer was sustained on the ground that Simonelli had failed to serve her action within the 90-day period set forth in Government Code section 65009, subdivision (c)(1)(E). We conclude that the demurrer was properly sustained without leave to amend because section 65009, subdivision (c)(1)(E) applies here, and Simonelli failed to timely serve her action on the City.

Appellant Marina Coast Water District (Marina Coast) appeals from an order awarding respondent Ag Land Trust more than $1.2 million in attorney’s fees under Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5 based on the “catalyst theory.” (See Graham v. DaimlerChrysler Corp. (2004) 34 Cal.4th 553, 560-561 (Graham).)
This is the third appeal in this action. Relevant here, in the underlying litigation Ag Land Trust brought a CEQA challenge to Marina Coast’s approval of the Regional Desalination Project, a project that also involved other entities including the California American Water Company (Cal-Am). Ag Land Trust initially prevailed in the CEQA action involving the project, and Marina Coast appealed. The project became defunct after Cal-Am withdrew its support for the project. This court consequently determined that the appeal in the CEQA action involving the project was moot, and that Ag Land Trust’s petition for writ of mandate in the CEQA action should be dismissed as moo

Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula terminated Beverly Avery for poor performance following a disciplinary probation and suspension. Avery sued the hospital for wrongful termination, alleging disability discrimination and related claims, and the hospital prevailed on a motion for summary judgment. Avery argues that the trial court erred by excluding evidence, failing to construe evidence in her favor, and finding no material facts in dispute. She argues that the court misapplied the law related to her claim of failure to accommodate, and incorrectly analyzed her retaliation claim. For the reasons stated here, we will uphold the judgment as to the causes of action for retaliation, age discrimination, and defamation. We will reverse the judgment on the remaining causes of action because we conclude that triable issues exist as to whether Avery’s disability was a substantial factor motivating her termination and whether the hospital failed to accommodate her disability.

Appellant Joseph Florez appeals from the denial of his motion pursuant to People v. Superior Court (Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497 (Romero) to strike two or more of his prior strike convictions (Pen. Code, § 667, subds. (b)-(i)). Following independent review of the record pursuant to People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436 (Wende), we affirm.

Real party in interest Emma K., a minor, filed a lawsuit through her guardian ad litem against petitioner the City of Bakersfield (City), inter alios. She alleged she was traversing a midblock crosswalk on Jewetta Avenue on the evening of January 28, 2014, when she was struck by a vehicle. Emma contended City was liable because the crosswalk was a dangerous condition of public property that caused her injuries. In turn, City claimed design immunity under Government Code section 830.6.
Emma filed a motion for summary adjudication of City’s design immunity defense. The respondent court granted the motion, finding “[t]here is no triable issue of material fact with respect to the existence of a ‘plan or design,’ nor that any ‘plan or design’ was subjected to the approval of . . . City or . . . City’s authorized representative with discretionary authority to approve.” The court also found “City’s evidence does not, and cannot, demonstrate a ‘plan or design’ p

A jury convicted appellant Anthony Allen Perano on four counts of felony vandalism (Pen. Code, § 494, subd. (a); counts 2-5). On February 9, 2017, the court sentenced appellant to an aggregate local term of four years, the middle term of two years on count 2 and consecutive eight-month terms (one-third the middle term of two years) on each of the remaining counts.
On appeal, Perano contends the court committed instructional error. We affirm.

A jury convicted defendant Oscar Saenz, Jr., of first degree murder and found true the allegation he personally used a knife during the commission of the murder. The court sentenced defendant to 25 years to life, plus one year for the personal use enhancement.
On appeal, defendant contends (1) the trial court abused its discretion in excluding certain third party culpability evidence and (2) insufficient evidence supports the jury’s conclusion the murder was willful, deliberate, and premeditated.
We affirm the judgment.

Appellant/defendant Dylan Nicholas McNabb was charged with first degree premeditated murder for killing his grandmother after he fired a single rifle shot into her head. Defendant was 19 years old. Defendant’s grandmother had lived with defendant and his father, and tried to help defendant stop using designer drugs known as “bath salts.”
Defendant was arrested shortly after the homicide and told the police during a lengthy postarrest interview that he used bath salts that day and intentionally killed his grandmother because he heard voices telling him to do so. By the time of trial, defendant changed his story and claimed he lied about everything he said in his postarrest interview. Defendant testified at trial that he had not used bath salts before the homicide, he never heard voices, and he made up that story because he thought his best chance was to appear crazy during his postarrest interview. Defendant testified that what really happened was that he had just been exami

Defendant and appellant L.G. (mother) is the mother of the three children who are the subject of this dependency matter. The juvenile court sustained the dependency petition filed by plaintiff and respondent Riverside County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS), finding true each of five asserted jurisdictional allegations, all pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, subdivision (b)(1).

A jury convicted defendant and appellant Christopher Amos Sornoso, Jr., of two counts of evading a peace officer with wanton disregard (Veh. Code, § 2800.2), and he admitted an “out-on-bail” allegation (Pen. Code, § 12022.1). The trial court sentenced him to four years in state prison. On appeal, defendant contends that the court erred in not amplifying or clarifying the term “evade” as it is used in CALCRIM No. 2181, and that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request such amplification or clarification. We conclude that the jury was correctly instructed to apply the ordinary, everyday meaning of the word. We therefore reject his claims and affirm the judgment.

Since 1979, plaintiff and appellant S. Emanuel Lin has owned a 10-acre property in Perris, California. Lin is insured under a title insurance policy covering the property issued by defendant and respondent Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company (Commonwealth). Since 2014, defendant and respondent WRSP, LLC (WRSP), which is owned and operated by defendant and respondent Matthew Johnson (collectively, the WRSP defendants), has operated a private gun range on an adjacent property leased from defendant and respondent City of Perris (the City).