People v. Johnson CA3

Filed 1/14/15 P. v. Johnson CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Sacramento) ----

THE PEOPLE, C074184

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 12F05954)

v.

MAURICE JOHNSON,

Defendant and Appellant.

Convicted by a jury of first degree burglary (Pen. Code, § 459)1 and found by the trial court to have incurred one strike and served two prior prison terms (§§ 667, subds. (b)-(i), 667.5, subd. (b)), defendant Maurice Johnson contends the trial court committed structural error and denied him due process by refusing to allow him to testify. We conclude any error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. (Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18 [17 L.Ed.2d 705] (Chapman).) We affirm.

1 Undesignated section references are to the Penal Code.

1

FACTS Shortly after 12:00 noon on August 16, 2012, a security guard at the Carmel Pointe Apartments in Sacramento noticed that apartment number 119, occupied by Rahendra Lal, had a broken kitchen window. Lal had left for work that morning around 6:00. The security guard notified Kira Robinson, the complex’s assistant property manager, who went to apartment number 119 and saw that the window was broken and the door was slightly ajar. After determining that Lal was not home, Robinson entered. No one was there, but the shower was running, there were window blinds in the bathtub, and there was blood on the shower fixture. Robinson left without touching anything and called the police. In addition to the blood on the shower fixture, the responding officers found blood in the kitchen. Around 1:00 p.m., Robinson called Lal to tell him about the burglary. According to Robinson, defendant was not an employee of the apartment complex and had never been a tenant there. A surveillance camera video2 showed that around 11:39 a.m. on August 16, 2012, a person who appeared to be a light-skinned African-American male, standing five feet seven inches to five feet 10 inches tall and weighing 150 to 160 pounds, wearing blue jeans, a hat, and a white T-shirt, entered the apartment complex through the front gate.3 At 12:19 p.m., the man walked out of the complex carrying a backpack and rolling what