People v. Root CA3

Filed 7/17/24 P. v. Root CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Shasta) ----

THE PEOPLE, C099740

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 23F1079)

v.

STEPHEN RAY ROOT,

Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Stephen Ray Root threatened his son’s neighbor, T.R., during an altercation between defendant and T.R. Following a jury trial which ended in a mistrial, defendant waived a jury trial and the case was tried to the court, which found him guilty of attempted criminal threats and exhibiting a deadly weapon. The trial court imposed an aggregate term of 16 months in prison. On appeal, defendant argues there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for attempted criminal threats. We disagree and affirm the judgment.

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY An information alleged that defendant made felony criminal threats (Pen. Code,1 § 422) against T.R. and exhibited a deadly weapon, a misdemeanor (§ 417, subd. (a)(1)).

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

1

The information also alleged that defendant was previously convicted of a strike offense (§ 1170.12) and a serious felony (§ 667, subd. (a)(1)) and used a deadly weapon during the commission of the current offenses (§ 12022, subd. (b)(1)). In exchange for agreeing to a court trial, the People dismissed 1) the enhancements alleging a prior serious felony conviction, and 2) the allegation defendant used a deadly weapon during the commission of the offenses. II. FACTUAL HISTORY Early one morning, defendant was visiting his son, who lived across the road from T.R. in a mobile home park. Defendant and T.R. had a history of conflict. At approximately 8:00 a.m. defendant started playing loud music while working on his chainsaw. The noise woke up T.R. and she heard defendant yell at another neighbor and tell that neighbor to get back inside her house. A short time later that morning, T.R. opened her front door and confronted defendant about the loud music. T.R. testified that she stood at her front door and politely asked defendant to turn down the music. Another neighbor, M.B., testified that he heard T.R. yell curse words at defendant while she was complaining about the music. Defendant responded by yelling back at T.R. T.R. said she saw defendant swinging a weapon that she thought was an ice pick while he was quickly walking toward her. He stopped at T.R.’s porch approximately 12 feet away from her. Defendant’s dog followed him to T.R.’s porch and started growling at T.R. Then defendant said, “I’m going to gut you like a fish” and “I’ll fucking kill you. Go die.” T.R. claimed she was afraid for her life and thought defendant would do something to her with the weapon because he was very aggressive and angry and was swinging it when he was walking toward her. During cross-examination, T.R. said she told police that defendant threatened to kill her, however, she did not tell 911 dispatch that he did so. Defense counsel attempted to impeach T.R. by asking her why, at the preliminary hearing, she stated that she never