In re Santos G. CA4/3

Filed 2/14/14 In re Santos G. CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

In re SANTOS G., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

THE PEOPLE, G048088 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. DL039524) v. OPINION SANTOS G.,

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Cheryl L. Leininger, Judge. Affirmed. Richard Power, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland and Marissa Bejarano, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. * * *

Appellant Santos G. appeals from the juvenile court’s findings in this case involving an assault on Juanita A., Santos’s mother. Santos argues the court should have excluded the audio recording of Juanita’s 911 call and her statements to a police officer as testimonial hearsay. We find no abuse of discretion in admitting the evidence and therefore affirm. I FACTS As relevant here, beginning in 2011, a number of Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 petitions were filed with respect to Santos for various offenses. In December 2011, pursuant to a negotiated agreement, he was declared a ward of the court and ordered to comply with probation conditions. On January 29, 2013, a new petition was filed alleging Santos, age 16 at the time, committed assault (Pen. Code, § 240, count one); battery (Pen. Code, § 242, count two); and vandalism (Pen. Code, § 594, subds. (a), (b)(2)(A), count three) based on the following factual allegations. All charges were misdemeanors. A contested jurisdictional hearing was held on this petition in February. Juanita testified that on January 25, 2013, Juanita was called by police officers to pick up Santos, who was in violation of curfew. She picked him up at a gas station. While they were driving home, Juanita took Santos’s cell phone away to discipline him. Juanita described Santos’s reaction as “a little bit angry,” although she said did not recall the specifics. She stated she was taking multiple medications and “everything went blurry” for her. She suffers from bipolar disorder, which cause mood swings and disproportionate anger, and memory loss due to a prior coma. Her medications can cause drowsiness and dizziness, among other side effects. Once they arrived at home, Santos began yelling. Juanita did not recall what he said, but remembered that he began throwing pillows. She went to her bedroom. He asked that she return his phone, and she said no. When she testified at the