People v. John CA3

Filed 5/6/15 P. v. John CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, C076655

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 11F02682)

v.

BOBBY D. JOHN,

Defendant and Appellant.

A jury found defendant Bobby D. John guilty of grand theft of a firearm after he stole a closed safe that contained a handgun. On appeal, defendant argues that theft includes a knowledge requirement that was not proven here and on which the trial court failed to instruct the jury. Because we conclude that the offense of theft by larceny requires simply that the defendant intended to steal the property of another and does not require that the defendant know what is being stolen, we find no merit in defendant’s argument. For that reason, we affirm.

1

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND In the summer of 2011, Lucy May Souza was at her home with her husband, Arthur. Lucy was 80 and Arthur was 90, afflicted with dementia and bedridden. One day, at approximately 12:45 p.m., a man wearing a hard hat came to the Souzas’ front door. The man told Lucy he was from FEMA and wanted to check the back of her house for seepage from the nearby river. He convinced Lucy to go to her backyard with him. The man spent approximately 10 to 15 minutes making a show of inspecting the yard, calling his “supervisor” and moving Lucy around the yard -- away from her home -- to mark plants she liked with flags and to look at different parts of the ground. After another telephone call, the man abruptly turned and ran away. Lucy did not see him again that day. Lucy entered her home to check on her husband and saw that a chest of hers had been opened. Knowing that she normally kept this chest closed, Lucy went to inspect and noticed that the chest’s contents had been disturbed. She then went to check on her two safes, where she kept her “important papers and valuables locked up.” Both were gone. Apart from important documents and nice jewelry, Lucy and Arthur kept a gun in one of the safes. All told, approximately $33,000 in property was taken from the Souzas’ home. Shortly thereafter, Lucy noticed an article in the Sacramento Bee that recounted a burglary very similar to the one she experienced, and she thought the suspect pictured, defendant, looked similar to the man who stole her safes. After receiving a call from Lucy’s grandson, Michael Souza, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department Detective Todd Gooler came to Lucy’s house and showed her photographs of six different men. Defendant’s photograph was included. After Detective Gooler instructed Lucy on photographic lineups, she identified defendant as the man who claimed to be from FEMA.