People v. Toral CA6

Filed 7/7/25 P. v. Toral CA6 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE, H051954 (Santa Cruz County Plaintiff and Respondent, Super. Ct. No. 23CR00960)

v.

ALBERTO SOLIS TORAL,

Defendant and Appellant.

This case arises out of a series of residential burglaries in Santa Cruz. A jury convicted Alberto Solis Toral of, among other things, multiple counts of residential burglary and identity theft. Toral now appeals and challenges his residential burglary convictions, asserting error in a jury instruction on other crimes evidence. He also challenges three of his identity theft convictions on the ground that they concern the same act or course of conduct. As explained below, we reject both challenges and affirm the judgment. I. BACKGROUND A. The Burglaries On February 22, 2023, D.D. was playing with her two dogs in her yard. Noticing that sliding glass doors into her house were ajar, D.D. checked her security cameras and

saw that someone had earlier opened one of the doors. After calling the police, D.D. found several things missing, including some jewelry. The following day, A.K. was gardening in her yard and unable to see the front door of her house, which was unlocked. When she went inside, she noticed several things were missing, including her wallet, which contained both a credit card and a debit card. A.K. called her bank, which informed her that in the last hour there had been three charges to her credit card: one at 3:56 p.m. in a clothing store, a second at 4:02 p.m. in a convenience store, and a third at 4:09 p.m. in a liquor store. After A.K. called the police, an officer visited the stores and obtained surveillance footage that showed a man using A.K.’s credit card at the specified times. Two days later, H.A. received fraud alerts from her bank and discovered a voice message from a neighbor saying that earlier someone had entered her property. H.A. searched for, but could not find, her purse, which contained car keys, a wallet, and several credit and debit cards. On February 28, 2023, two days after the last robbery, R.H. saw a man who resembled a photograph in an e-mail about the individual who had been burglarizing nearby residences. R.H. alerted the police, who apprehended the man, identified him as Toral, and in his backpack discovered D.D.’s jewelry, A.K.’s credit cards, and H.A’s keys, purse and credit cards. While police were returning H.A.’s items, a man returned her wallet, which contained a health care card with Toral’s name and photograph. B. The Charges On March 1, 2023, the day after Toral was apprehended and arrested, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney filed a criminal complaint against him. Ultimately, Toral was charged with three counts of first degree residential burglary in violation of Penal Code section 459, five counts of identity theft in violation of Penal Code section 530.5, subdivision (a), as well as several other felonies and misdemeanors.