People v. Medrano CA1/1

Filed 12/29/25 P. v. Medrano CA1/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A169888 v. ALEXANDER MEDRANO, (Contra Costa County Super. Ct. No. 022300429) Defendant and Appellant.

The trial court sentenced Alexander Medrano to the upper term of five years in prison after a jury convicted him of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer. (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (c).)1 Medrano claims the trial court abused its discretion by declining to grant probation and sentencing him to the upper term. We affirm. I. BACKGROUND A. Medrano Drives Over an Officer’s Patrol Car with a Large Truck In March 2023, Medrano was driving a “large box truck” with “18- wheeler size tires.” Officer Joseph DeOrian of the Richmond Police Department saw the truck run a red light and then a stop sign. He followed the truck in his patrol vehicle and activated his lights and siren. Medrano “tr[ied] to accelerate away.” Medrano then “brake check[ed]” the officer,

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

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abruptly slamming his brakes while traveling at speed. The officer had “to slam on [his own] brakes” to avoid a “crash.” Medrano turned onto a dead- end street and abruptly stopped. After Medrano stopped, Officer DeOrian heard over dispatch that the truck had been reported stolen. Using his public address system, he told Medrano “[t]o turn off [his] engine and do it now.” The officer was about 25 feet behind the truck, with one leg outside of the door to his patrol car. Upon the officer’s command, Medrano immediately put the truck in reverse, “accelerated backwards,” and “collided with the front of [the] patrol car[,] pushing [Officer DeOrian] out of the way.” The truck easily “punted” the patrol car, which weighed over 4,000 pounds, moving the officer so he was perpendicular to the middle of the truck. Then, instead of turning left to exit the dead-end street, Medrano turned right and “drove over the front of [DeOrian’s] vehicle,” “high-centering” the truck on the front of the patrol car, which was destroyed. Officer DeOrian “bailed out of” his vehicle as Medrano was “continually revving the engine trying to dislodge the” truck from the patrol car. The officer drew his firearm and commanded Medrano to turn off his engine. Medrano continued revving his engine and then attempted to “flee out the driver’s side” of the truck. When Officer DeOrian “cut him off” on that side, Medrano jumped onto the patrol car from the passenger side of the truck and then to the ground. The officer attempted to tase him, but the taser was ineffective. More officers arrived, and they set up a perimeter and searched for Medrano using drones and a police dog. They found Medrano in some bushes and extracted him; the dog bit him in the process.