People v. Blevins

Opinion

CHANNELL, J.

In this case, we analyze what constitutes a closely related offense within the meaning of

People

v.

Geiger

(1984) 35 Cal.3d 510 [199 Cal.Rptr. 45, 674 P.2d 1303, 50 A.L.R.4th 1055], requiring the trial court to instruct the jury on a lesser related offense, We find that for a lesser uncharged offense to be closely related to a greater charged offense, evidence of the lesser offense must be relevant to the issue of whether the defendant is guilty of the greater one. Applying this test, we find that the lesser offenses in this case were not closely related to the greater offense. We therefore reject the claim that the trial court erred by failing to give

Geiger

instructions and affirm the judgment.

I. Facts

On August 8, 1988, appellant Monte W. Blevins, while voluntarily under the influence of drugs, drove a truck belonging to another to Stony Point Road in Santa Rosa. He got out of this truck and approached another truck waiting at an intersection. Blevins pulled a gun on the truck’s driver and fired at the side of the vehicle. The driver sped off. Blevins proceeded to a big rig further down the road and held up that driver. The driver left the rig; Blevins entered it, started it, and began ramming into vehicles on Stony Point Road. Witnesses testified that it looked as though he deliberately aimed at the other vehicles with the truck. Before police stopped him, Blevins hit 13 vehicles, injuring at least 25 people.

A jury convicted Blevins of twenty-six counts of assault with a deadly weapon (ADW) (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(1));

1

two counts of auto theft (Veh. Code, § 10851); and one count each of hit-and-run driving

(id.,

§ 20001), robbery (§ 211), attempted robbery (§§ 211, 664), discharge of a firearm at an occupied vehicle (§ 246), assault with a firearm (§ 245, subd. (a)(2)), and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm (§ 12021). He was sentenced to a total term of 20 years in state prison.