People v. Salazar CA4/3

Filed 8/12/14 P. v. Salazar 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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, G048077

v. (Super. Ct. No. 10CF2716)

SAUL JOSE SALAZAR, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Patrick Donahue, Judge. Affirmed. Christine Vento, 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 Parag Agrawal, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. * * *

A jury convicted defendant Saul Jose Salazar of second degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a); all statutory references are to the Penal Code unless noted) and found he used a knife in committing the crime (§ 12022, subd. (b)(l)). Salazar contends the trial court prejudicially erred by failing to modify the imperfect self-defense instruction so it would apply to the use of excessive force, and not just to force that was lethal. For the reasons expressed below, we affirm. I FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND In the 1990’s, Lourdes Salazar (Lourdes) met Antonio Verdugo-Cabrera (Verdugo-Cabrera) when he arrived from Tijuana. Lourdes’s affection for the younger Verdugo-Cabrera grew and she treated him like a son. In August 2010, Verdugo-Cabrera confided in Lourdes he was having marital problems and his wife refused to let him stay in their home. Lourdes offered to help, and in late August 2010 Verdugo-Cabrera began staying at the three-bedroom two-story apartment Lourdes shared with her son, Salazar, and her daughter, Ashley Espinoza. In late September 2010, Lourdes rented out one of the two upstairs bedrooms to Shalina Hurtado and Hurtado’s grandmother, Madelyn Miller. Lourdes occupied the downstairs bedroom with Espinoza. Salazar sometimes stayed in the second upstairs bedroom. On the night of the murder, however, Lourdes’s other daughter, Sarahy Valencia, Valencia’s boyfriend, Miguel Batrace, and their baby occupied the second upstairs bedroom. Verdugo-Cabrera slept in Lourdes’s bedroom. Miller and Hurtado suspected Lourdes and Verdugo-Cabrera were having an affair. According to Miller, Salazar did not approve of the relationship. Miller previously heard Salazar mutter, “Kill that son of a bitch, kill that son of a bitch,” but Miller did not know to whom Salazar referred. Salazar, extremely religious, also made comments like, “Justice is coming. He’s going to kill everybody. We’re all going to go down.”