People v. Welch CA4/1

Filed 12/9/25 P. v. Welch CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

THE PEOPLE, D084301

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. FVI23002853)

JAY EDWARD WELCH II,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of San Bernardino County, John M. Wilkerson and Christopher S. Pallone, Judges. Affirmed. Jan B. Norman, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, Eric A. Swenson and Heather M. Clark, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. Jay Edward Welch II appeals from the judgment following his plea of no contest, contending the magistrate erroneously denied his motion to suppress at the preliminary hearing. Resolving this matter by memorandum

opinion (see generally People v. Garcia (2002) 97 Cal.App.4th 847), we conclude Welch forfeited his claim by failing to either renew his motion or file a Penal Code section 995 motion on the same grounds in the superior court. We therefore affirm. I. We draw the relevant background facts from the preliminary hearing transcript. In December 2022, a San Bernardino County deputy initiated a traffic stop on a car Welch was driving. Welch was arrested due to an outstanding warrant, and the car was towed. At the tow yard, a canine unit alerted to the driver’s door. After obtaining a search warrant, deputies found a loaded handgun that was not registered to Welch or the car’s other passengers. A felony complaint (Case No. FVI23002744) was filed in August 2023. In September 2023, one of the same deputies initiated a traffic stop of a car with tinted windows. Welch, the driver, was uncooperative and, among other things, refused to submit to a pat-down search or exit the car. Welch was arrested for delaying a peace officer during a lawful traffic stop (Veh. Code, § 2800, subd. (a) & Pen. Code, § 148(a)(1)). The deputy conducted an inventory search of the car and found a handgun loaded with a high-capacity magazine that was not registered to Welch or his passenger. A felony complaint (Case No. FVI23002853) was filed days later. The next month, Welch filed an opposed motion in Case No. FVI23002853 to suppress the evidence obtained during the September 2023 inventory search. In December 2023, at a joint preliminary hearing for both cases, a deputy opined as a gang expert that the December 2022 offenses were committed to benefit a gang of which Welch was allegedly a member. He