People v. Meyer CA1/1

Filed 3/14/14 P. v. Meyer CA1/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, A137224 v. RONNIE THEODORE MEYER, JR., (Del Norte County Super. Ct. No. CR-F-12-0009494) Defendant and Appellant.

A jury convicted Ronnie Theodore Meyer, Jr., of illegally possessing a firearm after having been convicted within 10 years of misdemeanor assault, under Penal Code1 section 29805. He contends his conviction violates his Second Amendment right to bear arms. We disagree, and affirm the judgment. I. BACKGROUND Defendant was charged by information with illegally possessing a firearm after having been convicted within 10 years of assault (§ 29805; count 1), grand theft firearm (§ 487, subd. (d); count 2), and misdemeanor impersonating a peace officer (§ 538d, subd. (a); count 3). Before trial, the prosecution dismissed counts 2 and 3. Jury trial began on November 5, 2012. On November 6, 2012, the jury found defendant guilty. On November 29, 2012, the trial court sentenced defendant to a two- year prison term. Defendant timely appealed.

1 All statutory references are to the Penal Code.

A. Facts In or about January 2011, Jonathan Fargo loaned a gun to his cousin Charles David Ray Smith. Smith loaned the gun to defendant in early August 2012, but never got it back. About 12:50 a.m. on August 29, 2012, Del Norte County Sheriff’s Deputy Thomas Rosina saw defendant look at his patrol car, and then walk briskly away, going behind a fence into an apartment parking lot. Rosina drove into the lot. When defendant saw him, he again walked quickly away. Rosina saw something shiny that appeared to be a badge on defendant’s sweatshirt. Rosina told defendant to stop, pulled alongside of him, and asked what he was doing with a peace officer badge. Rosina knew defendant was not a police officer. Defendant said he bought the badge at a garage sale and was just “messing around.” Rosina seized the badge and searched defendant for weapons, but found none. Afterwards, Rosina searched the area where he had seen defendant and found a digital scale, a box of .380 ACP ammunition, a loaded Hi-Point 380 ACP handgun, and two cell phones. Rosina turned on one of the cell phones and found a photo of defendant and text messages addressed to him. Rosina later showed the gun to Fargo, who identified it as the gun he had loaned to Smith. The prosecution introduced documentary evidence to show that on August 31, 2010, defendant was convicted of misdemeanor assault in violation of section 240. II. DISCUSSION Defendant contends the statute under which he was convicted is facially unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. We disagree. We were faced with the identical question in People v. Delacy (2011) 192 Cal.App.4th 1481 (Delacy), which involved the predecessor statute to section 29805, former section 1021, subdivision (c)(1). (Delacy, at p. 1485.) Relying on District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) 554 U.S. 570 (Heller) and People v. Flores (2008) 169 Cal.App.4th 568 (Flores), we held “if the Second Amendment permits the government to prohibit all felons (including nonviolent offenders) from possessing