People v. Decious CA2/8

Filed 4/4/25 P. v. Decious CA2/8 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

THE PEOPLE, B337701

Plaintiff and Respondent, Los Angeles County Superior Court No. v. VA159733

BRITTNI MICHELE DECIOUS,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Maria Andrea Davalos, Judge. Affirmed with corrections.

Sarah M. Javaheri, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent. ____________________

In March 2022, Austin Harding’s key would not open the lock to his storage unit in Whittier. When he finally got in, he found items worth more than $50,000 were gone. An information later charged Brittni Michele Decious with second degree burglary. At a bench trial, Harding testified about discovering and reporting the loss and about his missing items. The property manager checked the facility’s computer system and discovered a silent alarm had gone off on January 23, 2022, which meant someone had opened Harding’s unit that evening without the required unique entry code. The manager believed she checked the unit the next day and found the lock intact. The manager later discovered only one other tenant had accessed the facility around the time of the alarm—Decious—and this tenant had rented her unit the day before. The manager and Harding watched surveillance video from the night of the alarm. The video showed Decious handling Harding’s clear plastic storage bins, his safe, and a lock that looked like the one Harding had on his unit. It showed two men with face masks transporting the bins and baggage on a cart to a car. Decious helped load the items into the trunk. Harding identified the containers as his property and described what they contained. Harding also identified one of the men in the videos as his friend Chris Uvalle. Decious was Uvalle’s girlfriend. Harding had known both of them for many years. Harding had taken Uvalle to his storage unit once in 2019 but did not give him—or anyone—his code or key. He had not visited the unit since September 2021.